Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE HUNTING DOG AND THE WATCH DOG
There was a man who had two dogs. He taught one to hunt and the other to be
a watchdog. Whenever the hunting dog caught something, the watchdog would also
share in the spoils. This made the hunting dog angry at the watchdog, since
he had to work for everything he had while the watchdog lived off the fruits
of his labour without doing anything. The watchdog retorted, 'Don't blame me!
It's our master's fault. Since he didn't teach me how to work, I only know how
to eat the food that others earn.'
This fable shows that the same is true of children: it is not their fault
if they don't know how to do anything, since this is how their parents have
raised them. |
 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 92: Gibbs (Oxford) 68 [English]
Perry 92: L'Estrange 173 [English]
Perry 92: Townsend 96 [English]
Perry 92: Chambry 175 [Greek]
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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