Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE BEES AND THE BEEKEEPER
A thief got into a beekeeper's property when its owner was away and stole the
honeycombs. When the owner came back and saw that the beehives were empty, he
stood there puzzling over what had happened. The bees then came back from their
pastures and when they found the beekeeper there, they attacked him fiercely
with their stings. The beekeeper said to the bees, 'You wretched creatures!
You let the man who stole your honeycombs get away with impunity while you direct
your rage at me, the very person who takes care of you!'
So too there are people who foolishly leave themselves unprotected against
their enemies and push their friends away as if those friends were plotting
against them. |
 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 72: Gibbs (Oxford) 79 [English]
Perry 72: L'Estrange 166 [English]
Perry 72: Chambry 235 [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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