Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
HERMES AND THE DOSE OF INTELLIGENCE
After Zeus had fashioned the human race, he ordered Hermes to give them intelligence.
Hermes divided intelligence into equal portions and then applied it to each
person. The result was that short people became wise, since they were more completely
suffused with the standard dose of intelligence, while the tall people turned
out stupid, since the potion that was poured into their bodies did not even
reach as high as their knees.
This fable is suitable for a man who is physically large but whose mind
is lacking in reason. |
 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 108: Gibbs (Oxford) 520 [English]
Perry 108: Chambry 120 [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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