984. Avarus et Poma Marcescentia. Vir avarus plurima pulcherrimaque poma collegerat, qualia in hortis Alcinoi et Hesperidum fuisse poetae fabulantur. Quae ita parce edebat ut, nisi corrumpi inciperent, non esse auderet. Huius filius, oppido liberalis, sodales suos ad pomaria saepe ducebat, dicens, “Accipite ex his quae vultis omnia, praeter marcescentia; illa enim pater meus in secunda mensa semper sibi iubet adferri.” Huic praecepto illi libenter obtemperabant.
Fabula indicat homine avaro nihil esse miserius, quia aliis custodit quae ei Deus fruenda concessit.
M0984 (not in Perry). Source: Abstemius 179. This fable is not in Perry’s catalog; Perry omitted most of Abstemius’s fables. The gardens of King Alcinous were immortalized in Homer’s Odyssey. The Hesperides were the daughters of Atlas, and they tended a tree with golden apples in a garden at the western edge of the world.
