Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE SATYR AND HIS GUEST
As winter grew rough with heavy frost and every field stiffened as the ice grew
hard, a traveller was brought to a halt by thickening fog. He could no longer
see the trail in front of him, making it impossible to go on. A satyr, one of
the guardians of the woods, is said to have taken pity on the man and offered
him shelter in his cave. This child of the fields was then amazed by the man
and terrified by his prodigious powers. First, in order to restore his frozen
limbs to life's activities, the man thawed his hands by blowing hot air on them
from his mouth. Then, when the man had begun to get warm and was eager to enjoy
his host's extravagant hospitality (for the satyr wanted to show the man how
country folk lived, offering him the forest's finest products), he brought out
a full bowl of warm wine whose heat could spread throughout the man's body and
dispel the winter's chill. But the man hesitated to touch the steaming cup with
his lips and this time his mouth emitted a cooling breath. The man's host shook
with terror, dumbfounded at this double portent. The satyr drove his guest out
into the woods and ordered him to be on his way. 'Do not let any man ever come
near my cave again,' said the satyr, 'if he can breathe in two different ways
from the very same mouth!' |
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 35: Caxton Avyan 22 [English]
Perry 35: Gibbs (Oxford) 368 [English]
Perry 35: Jacobs 56 [English]
Perry 35: Townsend 254 [English]
Perry 35: Steinhowel Avyan 22 [Latin, illustrated] Mannheim
University Library
Perry 35: Chambry 60 [Greek]
Perry 35: Avianus 29 [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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