Perry's Index to theAesopicaFables exist in many versions; here is one version in English: THE FARMER AND THE SEA A farmer saw a ship and her crew about to sink into the sea as the ship's prow disappeared beneath the curl of a wave. The farmer said, 'O sea, it would have been better if no one had ever set sail on you! You are a pitiless element of nature and an enemy to mankind.' When she heard this, the sea took on the shape of a woman and said in reply, 'Do not spread such evil stories about me! I am not the cause of any of these things that happen to you; the winds to which I am exposed are the cause of them all. If you look at me when the winds are gone, and sail upon me then, you will admit that I am even more gentle than that dry land of yours.' |
 Source:Aesop's Fables.A new translation by Laura Gibbs.Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: Newcover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.
Perry 168:Gibbs (Oxford) 276 [English]
Perry 168:Townsend 298 [English]
Perry 168:Babrius 71 [Greek]
Perry 168:Chambry 245 [Greek]
 You can find a compilation of Perry's index to theAesopica in the gigantic appendix to his edition ofBabrius 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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