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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.

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.