Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE HUNTER AND THE HORSEMAN
There was a hunter who had caught a hare and was carrying it home. As he went
along his way, he met a man on horseback who asked him for the hare, pretending
that he wanted to buy it. As soon as he got the hare from the hunter, the horseman
immediately took off at a gallop. The hunter began to pursue the horseman thinking
that he might catch up with him. When the horseman finally disappeared into
the distance, the hunter reluctantly said, 'Go ahead then! That hare is my gift
to you.'
This fable shows that people who involuntarily have their property taken
from them often pretend that they made a gift of it voluntarily. |
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 402: Gibbs (Oxford) 257 [English]
Perry 402: Townsend 278 [English]
Perry 402: Syntipas 49 [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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