Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE NORTH WIND AND THE SUN
The Sun and the North Wind were quarrelling with each other as to which of the
two of them would be able to make a man disrobe. The North Wind went first,
blowing fiercely against the man. Yet as the man grew colder and colder, he
only wrapped himself up more snugly in his cloak, clutching at it tightly so
as to keep a firm grip no matter how hard the wind might be blowing. Thus the
North Wind did the man no harm at all and failed to make him strip off his clothes.
Next, the Sun began to shine upon the man so brightly that the very air of the
day grew hotter and hotter. The man immediately took off his cloak and bundled
it up on his shoulders.
The fable shows that to take a humble approach is always more effective
and practical than making empty boasts. |
 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 46: Gibbs (Oxford) 183 [English]
Perry 46: Jacobs 60 [English]
Perry 46: Townsend 232 [English]
Perry 46: Babrius 18 [Greek]
Perry 46: Chambry 73 [Greek]
Perry 46: Syntipas 55 [Greek]
Perry 46: Avianus 4 [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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