Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE FOX AND THE GOAT IN THE WELL
As soon as someone clever gets into trouble, he tries to
find a way out at someone else's expense.
A fox had unwittingly fallen down a well and found herself trapped inside its
high walls. Meanwhile, a thirsty goat had made his way to that same place and
asked the fox whether the water was fresh and plentiful. The fox set about laying
her trap. 'Come down, my friend,' said the fox. 'The water is so good that I
cannot get enough of it myself!' The bearded billy-goat lowered himself into
the well, whereupon that little vixen leaped up on his lofty horns and emerged
from the hole, leaving the goat stuck inside the watery prison. |
 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 408, the story is about
a fox making fun of a hare who gets stuck in a well. In Perry
9, the story is more complex: the fox is trapped in the well,
gets out with the help of a foolish goat, and the fox then makes fun
of the goat trapped in the well. |
Perry 9: Caxton 6.3 [English]
Perry 9: Gibbs (Oxford) 113 [English]
Perry 9: Jacobs 82 [English]
Perry 9: L'Estrange 83 [English]
Perry 9: Townsend 32 [English]
Perry 9: Steinhowel 6.3 [Latin, illustrated]
Mannheim
University Library
Perry 9: Chambry 40 [Greek]
Perry 9: Phaedrus 4.9 [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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