Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE HORSE AND THE GOATS
Sometimes lesser folk are accustomed to speak disparagingly
to one another about their superiors; listen to a fable on this
topic.
There were three goats who saw a terrified horse running away from a lion. The
goats made fun of the horse, and the horse replied, 'O you hopeless fools, if
only you knew who was chasing me! Then you would be just as terrified as I am.'
People with excellent qualities are often insulted by their inferiors. |
 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.
| In Perry 217, a bull is running
away from a lion and takes refuge in a cave; the goat (or goats)
in the cave make fun of the bull, and the bull rebukes them for
not understanding the truth of the matter. In Perry
578, some goats make fun of a horse who is running away from
a lion, and the horse rebukes the goats for their foolish lack of
understanding. Caxton bizarrely tells the story of "thre lytyll
hedgehogges / whiche mocked a grete hedgehogge / whiche fled byfore
a wulf."
|
Perry 578: Caxton 4.14 [English]
Perry 578: Gibbs (Oxford) 234 [English]
Perry 578: Steinhowel 4.14 [Latin, illustrated] Mannheim
University Library
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.
|
