Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE CICADA AND THE FOX
A cicada was singing on top of a tall tree. The fox wanted to eat the cicada,
so she came up with a trick. She stood in front of the tree and marvelled at
the cicada's beautiful song. The fox then asked the cicada to come down and
show himself, since the fox wanted to see how such a tiny creature could be
endowed with such a sonorous voice. But the cicada saw through the fox's trick.
He tore a leaf from the tree and let it fall to the ground. Thinking it was
the cicada, the fox pounced and the cicada then said, 'Hey, you must be crazy
to think I would come down from here! I've been on my guard against foxes ever
since I saw the wings of a cicada in the spoor of a fox.'
The fable shows that a discerning person is made wise by the misfortunes
of his neighbours. |
 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 241: Gibbs (Oxford) 107 [English]
Perry 241: Chambry 335 [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.
|
