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Perry's Index to the Aesopica

Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:

THE KID, THE WOLF AND THE FLUTE

A kid had wandered off from the flock and was being chased by a wolf. Unable to get away, the kid fell into the wolf's clutches so she turned to him and said, 'I know for a fact that I am about to become your dinner, but I would like to die with dignity: please play the flute for me so that I can do a little dance.' The wolf played the flute and the kid danced to the music. The sound alerted the shepherd's dogs who attacked the wolf and chased him away. As the wolf ran off he said to himself, 'It serves me right for trying to be a musician instead of a butcher!'
The story shows that being bested in a contest of words can induce bewilderment even in persons who are wicked by nature.

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 97: Gibbs (Oxford) 356 [English]
Perry 97: L'Estrange 174 [English]
Perry 97: Townsend 194 [English]
Perry 97: Chambry 107 [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.