Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE JACKDAW AND THE STRING
A man caught a jackdaw and tied the bird's foot with a piece of string so that
he could give the bird to his children as a present. The jackdaw, however, could
not stand to live in human society, so when they let him loose for just a moment,
he ran away. But when he got back to his nest, the string became entangled in
the branches, so that the jackdaw was unable to fly. As he was dying, the bird
said to himself, 'How stupid of me! Since I could not stand being a slave in
human society, I have brought about my own death.'
This story is appropriate for people who want to rescue themselves from
some moderate difficulties and, without realizing it, find themselves in even
more serious trouble. |
 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 131: Gibbs (Oxford) 8 [English]
Perry 131: L'Estrange 183 [English]
Perry 131: Chambry 164 [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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