Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE SAILORS AND THE STONES
While making a trip by sea, a certain well-to-do gentleman grew frustrated with
the bad weather. As the sailors were rowing less strenuously on account of the
weather, the man said to them, 'Hey you, if you don't make this ship go any
faster, I will pelt you with stones!' One of the sailors then said to the man,
'I just wish we were somewhere where you could find stones to throw!'
That is how life is: we must put up with less serious losses in order to
avoid worse ones. |
 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 391: Gibbs (Oxford) 227 [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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