Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
OPPORTUNITY
Running swiftly, balancing on the razor's edge, bald but with a lock of hair
on his forehead, he wears no clothes; if you grasp him from the front, you might
be able to hold him, but once he has moved on not even Jupiter himself can pull
him back: this is a symbol of Opportunity, the brief moment in which things
are possible.
Men of old invented this particular image of Time so that our efforts would
not be undermined by laziness or hesitation. |
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 530: Gibbs (Oxford) 536 [English]
Perry 530: Phaedrus 5.8 [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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