Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
HERMES, THE SCULPTOR AND HIS DREAM
A sculptor was selling a white marble statue of Hermes which two men wanted
to buy: one of them, whose son had just died, wanted it for the tombstone, while
the other was a craftsman who wanted to consecrate the statue to the god himself.
It was getting late, and the sculptor had not yet sold the statue. He agreed
that he would show the statue again to the men when they came back the next
morning. In his sleep, the sculptor saw Hermes himself standing at the Gate
of Dreams. The god spoke to him and said, 'Well, my fate hangs in the balance:
it is up to you whether I will become a dead man or a god!' |
 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 307: Gibbs (Oxford) 563 [English]
Perry 307: Babrius 30 [Greek]
Perry 307: Avianus 23 [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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