Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
HERMES AND THE EARTH
When Zeus had fashioned man and woman, he ordered Hermes to take them to Gaia,
the Earth, and to show them how to obtain food by digging in the ground. At
first, the Earth refused to cooperate in Hermes' mission. Hermes then compelled
her, saying that Zeus had ordered her to do so. Earth replied, 'Then let them
dig as much as they like, but they will pay for it with groans and tears!'
This fable is suitable for those people who casually take out loans but
who then find it difficult to pay them back. |
 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 102: Gibbs (Oxford) 522 [English]
Perry 102: Chambry 109 [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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