Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE BEAR AND THE
CRABS
Whenever the bear cannot find food in the woods, he runs down to the rocky shore
and, grabbing hold of a rock, he gradually lowers his hairy legs into the water.
As soon as some crabs have caught hold of his fur, he leaps up onto dry land
and shakes off these spoils from the sea. The bear then feasts on the food he
has cleverly collected all over his legs.
This shows how hunger can sharpen even the most dull-witted creatures. |
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 550: Gibbs (Oxford) 450 [English]
Perry 550: Phaedrus 6.22 [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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