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Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)

571. AESOP AND THE BITCH
Perry 423 (Aristophanes, Wasps 1401 ff.)

It was evening, and Aesop was on his way home from a dinner when a drunken bitch made so bold as to start barking at him. Aesop then said to her, 'Bitch, bitch, if you had any intelligence at all, you would trade in that wicked tongue of yours and buy some wheat instead!'

Note: As van Dijk notes (17F2), this fable depends on the negative reputation of bread-sellers in Greek culture, who were something like the proverbial fishwife in English.


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.