{weekend words}

Αἴσωπος οὖν τὸν μῦθον εἶπε δηλώσας 

ἐλεεινὸς <ὅσ>τις εἰς γυναῖκας ἐμπίπτει·

ὥσπερ θάλασσα <προσ>γελῶσ' ἀποπνιγει.

Aesop told this fable in order to show how pitiable a man is who falls into the hands of women. Women are like the sea; which smiles and lures men on to its sparkling surface, then snuffs them out.

Babrius (unknown date, ?not later than AD 200), fable 22, lines 13-15. The lines are considered spurious by most editors -- a later epimythium added to give a 'moral' to the fable. Translation by B. E. Perry in Babrius and Phaedrus (Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press: 1965), p.35. For other versions of the fable it accompanies -- The Middle-Aged Man With Two Mistresses -- see here.