Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE OLD MAN AND HIS SONS
Among the folk of days gone by, there was a very elderly gentleman who had many
sons. When he was about to reach the end of his life, the old man asked his
sons to bring to him a bundle of slender rods, if there happened to be some
lying about. One of his sons came and brought the bundle to his father. 'Now
try, with all your might, my sons, to break these rods that have been bound
together.' They were not able to do so. The father then said, 'Now try to break
them one by one.' Each rod was easily broken. 'O my sons,' he said, 'if you
are all of the same mind, then no one can do you any harm, no matter how great
his power. But if your intentions differ from one another, then what happened
to the single rods is what will happen to each of you!' |
 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 53: Gibbs (Oxford) 493 [English]
Perry 53: Jacobs 72 [English]
Perry 53: L'Estrange 62 [English]
Perry 53: Townsend 6 [English]
Perry 53: Babrius 47 [Greek]
Perry 53: Chambry 86 [Greek]
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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