Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE TRAVELLERS AND THE PLANE TREE
Around noon on a summer's day, some travellers who were exhausted by the heat
caught sight of a plane tree. They went and lay down in the shade of the tree
in order to rest. Looking up at the tree, they remarked to one another that
the plane tree produced no fruit and was therefore useless to mankind. The plane
tree interrupted them and said, 'What ungrateful people you are! You denounce
my uselessness and lack of fruit at the very moment in which you are enjoying
my kindness!'
Likewise, even when a person treats his neighbours well, his goodness can
unfortunately be called into question. |
 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 175: Gibbs (Oxford) 82 [English]
Perry 175: Townsend 293 [English]
Perry 175: Chambry 257 [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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