Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE TRAVELLERS AND THE CROW
The crow was jealous of the raven's power to reveal signs to mankind by means
of omens, since the raven was always being consulted to find out what was going
to happen. When the crow saw some travellers passing by, she flew up into a
tree and perched there, squawking loudly. The men turned towards the sound in
alarm, but then one of them said, 'Hey, let's go! It's just a crow, whose squawking
doesn't mean a thing.'
The story shows that people do the same thing: when someone tries to imitate
his superiors, he will both fail in his attempt and become the butt of jokes. |
 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 125: Gibbs (Oxford) 319 [English]
Perry 125: L'Estrange 179 [English]
Perry 125: Townsend 165 [English]
Perry 125: Chambry 170 [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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