Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE TRAVELLER AND HERMES
A traveller who needed to make a long journey vowed that if he found anything,
he would give half of it to Hermes. When he came across a bag full of dates
and almonds he grabbed the bag and ate the almonds and dates. He then placed
the pits of the dates and the shells of the almonds upon an altar and said 'You
have what was promised you, O Hermes: I have saved the outsides and the insides
for you!'
The fable can be used for a money-grubbing man who is so greedy that he
even tries to trick the gods. |
 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 178: Gibbs (Oxford) 476 [English]
Perry 178: L'Estrange 96 [English]
Perry 178: Chambry 260 [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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