Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE HORSE AND THE MILLER
A story about a horse, exhorting us to consider the human
condition.
A horse was suffering from old age, so instead of serving in battle he was sent
to the mill to turn the stones. Condemned to this daily grind and denied the
glory of battle, the horse wept over his present way of life, remembering his
past career. 'Woe is me!' the horse exclaimed. 'Listen, miller: when I was destined
for the battlefield, I was decorated all over with armour and I had a man to
serve me as my groom. As things are now, I don't know how it happened that I
now have this mill to handle instead of a battle.' The miller said to the horse,
'Can't you keep quiet? I've had quite enough of your raving about the past: Luck
can change people's lives for better or for worse!' |
 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.
| In Perry 318, a race horse
grows old and is sent to work turning the millstone. In Perry
549, the same story is recounted. Why Perry marked these out
as separate stories is not at all clear.
|
Perry 549: Gibbs (Oxford) 417 [English]
Perry 549: Townsend 67 [English]
Perry 549: Aphthonius 13 [Greek]
Perry 549: Phaedrus 6.21 [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.
|
