Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE CAT AND THE BIRDS
The cat pretended that it was his birthday and invited the birds to a party.
When the birds had come in, the cat seized the opportunity: he shut the doors
of his house and proceeded to devour the birds one after another.
This fable can be applied to people who set off with high hopes of something
pleasant but who actually experience the exact opposite. |
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 389, a cat invites
the birds to his birthday party and eats all the guests. In Perry
577, the same story is told about a predatory bird (a crow in
Romulus, a hawk in Caxton).
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Perry 389: Gibbs (Oxford) 95 [English]
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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