Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE GOAT AND THE DONKEY
There was a man who kept a goat and a donkey. The goat was jealous of the donkey
because he was given more to eat, so she made a deceptive proposal to the donkey,
under the guise of giving him advice. 'Look,' said the goat, 'you are always
being punished, constantly having to turn the millstone or carry burdens on
your back. Why don't you pretend to have a seizure and throw yourself into a
ditch?' The donkey trusted the goat and did what she told him to do. As a result
of the fall, the donkey was badly scraped and bruised. The donkey's owner summoned
a doctor to recommend a remedy. The doctor said that the donkey could be cured
by a potion made from the lungs of a goat. So they slaughtered the unfortunate
goat, who was thus trapped in her own snare while the donkey was saved.
People who lay traps for others bring about their own destruction. |
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 279: Gibbs (Oxford) 147 [English]
Perry 279: Townsend 215 [English]
Perry 279: Chambry 16 [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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