Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE RACE HORSE IN THE MILL
There was once a race-horse who had grown old and was sold to grind in the mill.
Harnessed to the mill-stone, he ground grain all day long and into in the evening.
As he was working, the old horse groaned aloud and said, 'Once I ran in the
races, but now I must run in circles around this millers' course!'
Do not boast too much at the height of your powers; people often spend their
old age worn out with toil and trouble. |
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 318, a race horse
grows old and is sent to work turning the millstone. In Perry
549, the same story is recounted. Why Perry marked these out
as separate stories is not at all clear.
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Perry 318: Gibbs (Oxford) 416 [English]
Perry 318: Babrius 29 [Greek]
Perry 318: Chambry 138 [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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