Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE SHEEP, THE SHEPHERD AND HIS CLOAK
A shepherd had driven his sheep into a stand of oaks. He then spread his cloak
under an oak tree and climbed up into the tree in order to shake the acorns
down. As the sheep ate the acorns, they also ate the shepherd's cloak, unbeknownst
to the shepherd. The shepherd then climbed down from the tree and when he saw
what had happened, he said, 'Oh you wicked creatures! You give wool to other
people so that they can make clothes but you take my clothes and ruin them,
even though I am the one who feeds you!'
The fable shows that people frequently do favours for someone who has nothing
to do with them, while treating their own family members unkindly. |
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 208: Gibbs (Oxford) 78 [English]
Perry 208: L'Estrange 199 [English]
Perry 208: Townsend 263 [English]
Perry 208: Chambry 316 [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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