Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE FARMER AND THE
GODDESS FORTUNE
A farmer had started turning the earth with his plow when he saw a treasure
suddenly spring into view from the depths of the furrow. His spirit soared as
he abandoned the lowly plow and drove his oxen off to better pastures. He immediately
built an altar to the earth goddess Tellus, worshipping her for having happily
bestowed on him the wealth that had been buried inside her. While the farmer
was rejoicing in his new circumstances, the goddess Fortuna was indignant that
he had not considered her equally worthy of incense and offerings. She thus
appeared to the man and gave him this warning about the future: 'Instead of
making an offering of your new-found wealth in my temple, you are sharing it
with all the other gods. Yet when your gold is stolen and you are stricken with
grief, then you will turn to me first of all in your despair and deprivation!' |
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 61: Gibbs (Oxford) 469 [English]
Perry 61: Chambry 84 [Greek]
Perry 61: Avianus 12 [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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