Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE DOCTOR AT THE FUNERAL
As a doctor was following the funeral cortege of one of his
relatives, he remarked to the mourners in the procession that
the man would not have died if he had stopped drinking wine and
used an enema. Someone in the crowd then said to the doctor,
'Hey! This is hardly the time to offer such advice, when it can't
do him any good. You should have given him the advice when he
still could have used it!'
The fable shows that friends should offer their help when there is need
of it, and not play the wise man after the fact. |
 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 114: Gibbs (Oxford) 586 [English]
Perry 114: Chambry 134 [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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