Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE OLD LION AND THE DONKEY
When someone no longer commands the same respect he once
did, his abject condition exposes him to the ridicule of even
the most contemptible riffraff.
A lion, enfeebled by old age and having lost his former strength, was stretched
out on the ground, about to take his last breath. A boar then approached him,
foaming with rage. With his flashing tusks, the boar stabbed and wounded the
lion, avenging a previous injury. Next came a bull, who likewise gored the lion's
hated body with his deadly horns. When a donkey saw that the savage beast could
be attacked with impunity, he struck the lion in the head with his hooves. Gasping
his last breath, the lion exclaimed, 'I was loathe to suffer the attacks of those
brave creatures but when I am compelled to suffer you as well -- you disgrace
to the natural world! -- I seem to die a second death.' |
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 481: Caxton 1.16 [English]
Perry 481: Gibbs (Oxford) 422 [English]
Perry 481: Jacobs 9 [English]
Perry 481: L'Estrange 15 [English]
Perry 481: Townsend 119 [English]
Perry 481: Steinhowel 1.16 [Latin, illustrated] Mannheim
University Library
Perry 481: Ademar 16 [Latin]
Perry 481: Phaedrus 1.21 [Latin]
Perry 481: Rom. Nil. (rhythmica) 1.15
[Latin]
Perry 481: Walter of England 16 [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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