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Perry's Index to the Aesopica

Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:

THE EAGLE AND THE KITE

An eagle was sitting sadly in her tree when she was joined by a kite. The kite said to the eagle, 'Why do I see you looking so sad?' The eagle replied, 'I cannot help but be sad at heart, since I need a mate who is my equal but I cannot find one anywhere.' The kite then said to the eagle, 'You should marry me! I am even stronger than you are, which makes me the ideal bird for you.' The eagle asked him, 'Just what kinds of prey are you able to catch?' The kite said, 'Well, on several occasions I have managed to capture an ostrich in my talons and eat it.' When she heard this, the eagle accepted the kite's proposal and married him. After the wedding ceremony and festivities were finished, the eagle said to the kite, 'Go and get us some of that prey which you promised.' The high-flying kite was only able to offer the eagle a nasty little mouse whose flesh was all putrid and rotten. The eagle said, 'Is this what you promised?' The kite replied, 'In order to make this most eminent match with you, I had no choice but to agree to anything you asked, even if it meant promising something impossible.'
For women who want to marry men who are richer than they are and who find out afterwards that their husbands are worthless.

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 574: Gibbs (Oxford) 57 [English]
Perry 574: Townsend 308 [English]
Perry 574: Ademar 67 [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.