Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE MAN AND THE GOLDEN EGGS
A man had a hen that laid a golden egg for him each and every day. The man was
not satisfied with this daily profit, and instead he foolishly grasped for more.
Expecting to find a treasure inside, the man slaughtered the hen. When he found
that the hen did not have a treasure inside her after all, he remarked to himself,
'While chasing after hopes of a treasure, I lost the profit I held in my hands!'
The fable shows that people often grasp for more than they need and thus
lose the little they have. |
 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 87: Caxton Avyan 24 [English]
Perry 87: Gibbs (Oxford) 434 [English]
Perry 87: Jacobs 57 [English]
Perry 87: Townsend 163 [English]
Perry 87: Steinhowel Avyan 24 [Latin, illustrated] Mannheim
University Library
Perry 87: Babrius 123 [Greek]
Perry 87: Chambry 287 [Greek]
Perry 87: Syntipas 27 [Greek]
Perry 87: Avianus 33 [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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