Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE BALD MAN AND THE FLY
A bald man was bitten on the head by a fly and when he tried to swat the fly
he gave himself a serious slap on the head. Then the fly laughed at the man
and said, 'You wanted to avenge the sting of a tiny little insect by committing
murder: what are you going to do to yourself now that you have added insult
to your injury?' The man replied, 'I can easily forgive myself since I know
that I did not try to hurt myself on purpose. As for you, you worthless creature,
spawn of a loathsome race of insects who delight in drinking human blood, I
would be glad to get rid of you even if it required an even greater inconvenience
to myself!'
This shows that a person who commits an accidental crime should be pardoned,
while the person who injures someone else on purpose should, in my opinion,
be punished as fully as possible. |
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 525: Caxton 2.12 [English]
Perry 525: Gibbs (Oxford) 582 [English]
Perry 525: Jacobs 18 [English]
Perry 525: Townsend 306 [English]
Perry 525: Steinhowel 2.12 [Latin, illustrated] Mannheim
University Library
Perry 525: Ademar 66 [Latin]
Perry 525: Phaedrus 5.3 [Latin]
Perry 525: Rom. Anglicus 92 [Latin]
Perry 525: Walter of England 32 [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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