Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE BALD MEN AND THE COMB
A bald man happened to find a comb lying in the street. Another man who also
had no hair on his head accosted him and said, 'Hey, you must share whatever
you've found!' The first man showed him the loot and said, 'The will of the
gods is on our side, but fate must have a grudge against us: as the saying goes,
we've found lumps of coal, not gold!'
This complaint suits a man whose high hopes have played him false. |
 Source:
Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura
Gibbs.
Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New
cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.
Perry 528: Gibbs (Oxford) 581 [English]
Perry 528: Phaedrus 5.6 [Latin]
You can find a compilation of Perry's index to the Aesopica in the gigantic appendix to his
edition of Babrius and Phaedrus for the Loeb Classical Library
(Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1965). This book is an absolute must for anyone interested
in the Aesopic fable tradition. Invaluable.
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