Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE FARMER'S BOY AND THE SNAILS
A farmer's boy was roasting snails. When he heard them sizzling in the fire,
he said, 'You wretched creatures! Your homes are on fire and all you can do
is sing!'
This story shows that anything which is done at the wrong time is liable
to be ridiculed. |
 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 54: Gibbs (Oxford) 291 [English]
Perry 54: L'Estrange 165 [English]
Perry 54: Chambry 172 [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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