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Perry's Index to the Aesopica

Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:

THE WOLF AND THE CRANE

If you think a scoundrel will reward you for a job well done, you are making two mistakes: first, you are helping someone who doesn't deserve it, and second, you will be lucky to escape unharmed.
A wolf swallowed a bone which got stuck in his throat. The pain was excruciating, so the wolf started looking for someone who could be induced to remove the accursed thing in exchange for a reward. The wolf asked each of the animals if they would help him and finally the crane was convinced by the wolf's solemn promises. Trusting her long beak to the wolf's gaping maw, the crane carried out the dangerous cure. Yet when the crane demanded the promised reward, the wolf simply said, 'You ungrateful creature! You extracted your head unharmed from my mouth and still you ask for a reward?'

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.


Some versions are about a crane (e.g., Phaedrus) and others are about a heron (e.g., Babrius). Odo features a stork. The Buddhist Javasakuna - jataka is about a lion and a crane.

Perry 156: Caxton 1.8 [English]
Perry 156: Gibbs (Oxford) 46 [English]
Perry 156: Jacobs 5 [English]
Perry 156: L'Estrange 8 [English]
Perry 156: Townsend 10 [English]
Perry 156: Steinhowel 1.8 [Latin, illustrated] Mannheim University Library
Perry 156: Aphthonius 25 [Greek]
Perry 156: Babrius 94 [Greek]
Perry 156: Chambry 224 [Greek]
Perry 156: Ademar 64 [Latin]
Perry 156: Odo 6 [Latin]
Perry 156: Phaedrus 1.8 [Latin]
Perry 156: Rom. Anglicus 9 [Latin]
Perry 156: Rom. Nil. (metrica) 7 [Latin]
Perry 156: Rom. Nil. (rhythmica) 1.9 [Latin]
Perry 156: Walter of England 8 [Latin]


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.