Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE BULL AND THE GOATS
A bull who was running away from a lion sought refuge in a cave. He found that
there were already some wild goats in the cave, and the goats actually started
to butt at the bull with their horns. The bull said to them, 'I am not afraid
of you! It is the one outside the cave who scares me.'
The fable shows that when you are besieged by powerful people, you are subject
to vicious attacks by anyone and everyone. |
 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.
| In Perry 217, a bull is running
away from a lion and takes refuge in a cave; the goat (or goats)
in the cave make fun of the bull, and the bull rebukes them for
not understanding the truth of the matter. In Perry
578, some goats make fun of a horse who is running away from
a lion, and the horse rebukes the goats for their foolish lack of
understanding. Caxton bizarrely tells the story of "thre lytyll
hedgehogges / whiche mocked a grete hedgehogge / whiche fled byfore
a wulf."
|
Perry 217: Caxton Avyan 10 [English]
Perry 217: Gibbs (Oxford) 233 [English]
Perry 217: Townsend 150 [English]
Perry 217: Steinhowel Avyan 10 [Latin, illustrated] Mannheim
University Library
Perry 217: Babrius 91 [Greek]
Perry 217: Chambry 332 [Greek]
Perry 217: Syntipas 40 [Greek]
Perry 217: Avianus 13 [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.
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