Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE SALT-WATER FISH
AND THE FRESH-WATER FISH
Carried from his fresh-water pond by a rushing stream, a fresh-water fish rushed
headlong into the waters of the sea. The shameless creature scorned the scaly
schools in the sea and boasted endlessly of his own illustrious origins. A salt-water
fish could not suffer this refugee in his own ancestral waters and he spoke
these pungent words, naturally salted with wit: 'Enough of your empty lies and
pretentious talk; you yourself are the best evidence of their absurdity. If
the two of us are captured and hauled in by the same dripping net, I will be
able to prove to you just who is more highly regarded by the crowd of onlookers:
you will see that I am bought by the connoisseur at a very high price indeed,
while you will be sold to an undiscriminating commoner for a mere penny or two!' |
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 584: Gibbs (Oxford) 190 [English]
Perry 584: Avianus 38 [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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