Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE VEGETABLES AND THE WEEDS
Somebody saw a gardener irrigating his vegetables and said to him, 'How is it
that wild plants, without having been planted and without having been cultivated,
spring up each season, while the plants that you yourself plant in the garden
frequently wither from lack of water?' The gardener replied, 'The wild plants
are cared for by divine providence, which is sufficient in and of itself, while
our own plants must depend for their care on human hands.'
This story shows that a mother's nurturing is stronger than a stepmother's
attentions. |
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 119: Gibbs (Oxford) 501 [English]
Perry 119: Chambry 154 [Greek]
Perry 119: Syntipas 32 [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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