Aesop's Fables
Encyclopedia
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Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
s credited to Aesop
Aesop
Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...
, a slave
Slavery in Ancient Greece
Slavery was common practice and an integral component of ancient Greece throughout its rich history, as it was in other societies of the time including ancient Israel and early Christian societies. It is estimated that in Athens, the majority of citizens owned at least one slave...
and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
education of children today. Many of the stories, such as The Fox and the Grapes
The Fox and the Grapes
"The Fox and the Grapes" is one of the traditional Aesop's fables and can be held to illustrate the concept of cognitive dissonance. In this view, the premise of the fox that covets inaccessible grapes is taken to stand for a person who attempts to hold incompatible ideas simultaneously...
(from which the idiom
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
"sour grapes" derives), The Tortoise and the Hare
The Tortoise and the Hare
The Tortoise and the Hare is a fable attributed to Aesop and is number 226 in the Perry Index. The story concerns a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise and is challenged by him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, decides to take a nap midway through...
, The North Wind and the Sun
The North Wind and the Sun
The North Wind and the Sun is one of Aesop's Fables . It is type 298 in the Aarne-Thompson folktale classification.-The story and its application:...
, The Boy Who Cried Wolf
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
The Boy Who Cried Wolf, is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 210 in the Perry Index. From it is derived the English idiom 'to cry wolf', meaning to give a false alarm.-The fable and its history:...
and The Ant and the Grasshopper
The Ant and the Grasshopper
The Ant and the Grasshopper, also known as The Grasshopper and the Ant , is one of Aesop's Fables, providing an ambivalent moral lesson about hard work and foresight. In the Perry Index it is number 373...
are well-known throughout the world.
Apollonius
Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Asia Minor. Little is certainly known about him...
of Tyana
Tyana
Tyana or Tyanna was an ancient city in the Anatolian region of Cappadocia, in modern south-central Turkey. It was the capital of a Luwian-speaking Neo-Hittite kingdom in the 1st millennium BC.-History:...
, a 1st century CE philosopher
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, is recorded as having said about Aesop:
... like those who dine well off the plainest dishes, he made use of humble incidents to teach great truths, and after serving up a story he adds to it the advice to do a thing or not to do it. Then, too, he was really more attached to truth than the poets are; for the latter do violence to their own stories in order to make them probable; but he by announcing a story which everyone knows not to be true, told the truth by the very fact that he did not claim to be relating real events. (PhilostratusPhilostratusPhilostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus , , called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probably around 172, and is said by the Suda to have been living in the reign of emperor Philip the Arab . His death...
, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Book V:14)
Origins
According to the GreekGreece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
, the fables were written by a slave named Aesop
Aesop
Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...
, who lived in Ancient Greece during the 5th century BCE. Aesop is also mentioned in several other Ancient Greek works – Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
, in his comedy The Wasps
The Wasps
The Wasps is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes, the master of an ancient genre of drama called 'Old Comedy'. It was produced at the Lenaia festival in 422 BC, a time when Athens was enjoying a brief respite from The Peloponnesian War following a one...
, represented the protagonist Philocleon as having learnt the "absurdities" of Aesop from conversation at banquets; Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
wrote in Phaedo
Phaedo
Plato's Phaedo is one of the great dialogues of his middle period, along with the Republic and the Symposium. The Phaedo, which depicts the death of Socrates, is also Plato's seventh and last dialogue to detail the philosopher's final days .In the dialogue, Socrates...
that Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
whiled away his jail time turning some of Aesop's fables "which he knew" into verses.
Nonetheless, for two main reasons - because numerous morals within Aesop's attributed fables contradict each other, and because ancient accounts of Aesop's life contradict each other - the modern view is that Aesop probably did not solely compose all those fables attributed to him, if he even existed at all. Modern scholarship reveals fables and proverbs of "Aesopic" form existing in both ancient Sumer
Sumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
and Akkad
Akkad
The Akkadian Empire was an empire centered in the city of Akkad and its surrounding region in Mesopotamia....
, as early as the third millennium BCE.
Aesop and Indian Traditions
Aesop's fables and the Indian tradition as represented by the Buddhist JatakaJataka
The Jātakas refer to a voluminous body of literature native to India concerning the previous births of the Buddha....
Tales and the Hindu Panchatantra
Panchatantra
The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables in verse and prose, in a frame story format. The original Sanskrit work, which some scholars believe was composed in the 3rd century BCE, is attributed to Vishnu Sharma...
share about a dozen tales in common although often widely differing in detail. There is therefore some debate over whether the Greeks learned these fables from Indian storytellers or the other way, or if the influences were mutual. Loeb editor Ben E. Perry took the extreme position in his book Babrius and Phaedrus that
- "In the entire Greek tradition there is not, so far as I can see, a single fable that can be said to come either directly or indirectly from an Indian source; but many fables or fable-motifs that first appear in Greek or Near Eastern literature are found later in the PanchatantraPanchatantraThe Panchatantra is an ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables in verse and prose, in a frame story format. The original Sanskrit work, which some scholars believe was composed in the 3rd century BCE, is attributed to Vishnu Sharma...
and other Indian story-books, including the Buddhist Jatakas".
Although Aesop and the Buddha were near contemporaries, the stories of neither were recorded in writing until some centuries after their death and few disinterested scholars would now be prepared to make so absolute a stand about their origin in view of the conflicting and still emerging evidence.
Greek versions
When and how the fables arrived in and travelled from ancient Greece remains a mystery. Some cannot be dated any earlier than BabriusBabrius
Babrius was the author of a collection of fables written in Greek. He collected many of the fables that are known to us today simply as Aesop's fables .Practically nothing is known of him...
and Phaedrus, several centuries after Aesop, and yet others even later. The earliest mentioned collection was by Demetrius of Phalerum, an Athenian orator and statesman of the 4th century BCE, who compiled the fables into a set of ten books for the use of orators. A follower of Aristotle, he simply catalogued all the fables that earlier Greek writers had used in isolation as exempla, putting them into prose. At least it was evidence of what was attributed to Aesop by others; but this may have included any ascription to him from the oral tradition in the way of animal fables, fictitious anecdotes, aetiological or satirical myths, possibly even any proverb or joke, that these writers transmitted. It is more a proof of the power of Aesop's name to attract such stories to it than evidence of his actual authorship. In any case, although the work of Demetrius was mentioned frequently for the next twelve centuries, and was considered the official Aesop, no copy now survives.
Present day collections evolved from the later Greek version of Babrius
Babrius
Babrius was the author of a collection of fables written in Greek. He collected many of the fables that are known to us today simply as Aesop's fables .Practically nothing is known of him...
, of which we have an incomplete manuscript of some 160 fables in choliamb
Choliamb
Choliambic verse is a form of meter in poetry. It is found in both Greek and Latin poetry in the classical period. Choliambic verse is sometimes called scazon, or "lame iambic", because it brings the reader down on the wrong "foot" by reversing the stresses of the last few beats...
ic verse. Current opinion is that he lived in the 1st century CE. In the 11th-century appear the fables of 'Syntipas', now thought to be the work of the Greek scholar Michael Andreopulos. These are translations of a Syriac version, itself translated from a much earlier Greek collection and contain some fables unrecorded before. The version of fifty-five fables in choliambic tetrameter
Tetrameter
Tetrameter: [ti'tramitə]; te·tram·e·ter; a verse of four measuresOrigin: early 17th century : from late Latin tetrametrus, originally neuter from Greek tetrametros 'having four measures,' from tetra- 'four' + metron 'measure'....
s by the 9th century Ignatius the Deacon is also worth mentioning for its early inclusion of stories from Oriental sources.
Some light is thrown on the entry of stories from Oriental sources into the Aesopic canon by their appearance in Jewish commentaries on the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
and in Midrash
Midrash
The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
ic literature from the 1st century CE. Some thirty fables appear there, of which twelve resemble those that are common to both Greek and Indian sources, six are parallel to those only in Indian sources, and six others in Greek only. Where similar fables exist in Greece, India, and in the Talmud, the Talmudic form approaches more nearly the Indian. Thus, the fable of The Wolf and the Crane
The Wolf and the Crane
The Wolf and the Crane is a fable attributed to Aesop that has several eastern analogues. Similar stories have a lion instead of a wolf, and a stork, heron or partridge takes the place of the crane.-The fable and its alternative versions:...
is told in India of a lion and another bird. When Joshua ben Hananiah
Joshua ben Hananiah
Joshua ben Hananiah was a leading tanna of the first half-century following the destruction of the Temple. He was of Levitical descent , and served in the sanctuary as a member of the class of singers . His mother intended him for a life of study, and, as an older contemporary, Dosa b. Harkinas,...
told that fable to the Jews, to prevent their rebelling against Rome and once more putting their heads into the lion's jaws (Gen. R. lxiv.), he shows familiarity with some form derived from India.
Latin versions
The first extensive translation of Aesop into LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
iambic trimeter
Iambic trimeter
iambic trimeter is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic units per line.In ancient Greek poetry, iambic trimeter is a quantitative meter, in which a line consisted of three iambic metra and each metron consisted of two iambi...
s was done by Phaedrus, a freedman
Freedman
A freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves became freedmen either by manumission or emancipation ....
of Caesar Augustus in the 1st century CE, although at least one fable had already been translated by the poet Ennius
Ennius
Quintus Ennius was a writer during the period of the Roman Republic, and is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was of Calabrian descent...
two centuries before and others are referred to in the work of Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
. The rhetorician Aphthonius of Antioch
Aphthonius of Antioch
Aphthonius of Antioch , Greek sophist and rhetorician, flourished in the second half of the 4th century, or even later. Nothing is known of his life, except that he was a friend of Libanius and of a certain Eutropius, perhaps the author of the epitome of Roman history...
, wrote a treatise on, and converted into Latin prose, some forty of these fables in 315. This translation is notable as illustrating contemporary usage, both in these and in later times. The rhetoricians and philosophers were accustomed to give the Fables of Aesop as an exercise to their scholars, not only inviting them to discuss the moral of the tale, but also to practice and to perfect themselves thereby in style and rules of grammar by making new versions of their own. A little later the poet Ausonius
Ausonius
Decimius Magnus Ausonius was a Latin poet and rhetorician, born at Burdigala .-Biography:Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born in Bordeaux in ca. 310. His father was a noted physician of Greek ancestry and his mother was descended on both sides from long-established aristocratic Gallo-Roman families...
handed down some of these fables in verse, which Julianus Titianus, a contemporary writer of no great name, translated into prose, and in the early 5th century Avianus
Avianus
Avianus, a Latin writer of fables, generally placed in the 5th century, and identified as a pagan.The 42 fables which bear his name are dedicated to a certain Theodosius, whose learning is spoken of in most flattering terms. He may possibly be Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, the author of...
put 42 of these fables into Latin elegiacs.
The largest, oldest known and most influential of the prose versions of Phaedrus is that which bears the name of an otherwise unknown fabulist named Romulus
Romulus (fabulist)
Romulus is the author, now considered a legendary figure, of versions of Aesop's Fables in Latin. These were passed down in Western Europe, and became important school texts, for early education. Romulus is supposed to have lived in the 5th century....
. It contains eighty-three fables, is as old as the 10th century and seems to have been based on a still earlier prose version which, under the name of "Aesop," and addressed to one Rufus, may have been made in the Carolingian period or even earlier. The collection became the source from which, during the second half of the Middle Ages, almost all the collections of Latin fables in prose and verse were wholly or partially drawn. A version of the first three books of Romulus in elegiac verse, possibly made in around the 12th century, was one of the most highly influential texts in medieval Europe. Referred to variously (among other titles) as the verse Romulus or elegaic Romulus, it was a common teaching text for Latin and enjoyed a wide popularity well into the Renaissance. Another version of Romulus in Latin elegiacs was made by Alexander Neckam
Alexander Neckam
Alexander Neckam was an English scholar and teacher.-Biography:Born at St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, Neckam's mother, Hodierna, nursed the prince with her own son, who thus became Richard's foster-brother...
, born at St Albans in 1157.
Interpretive "translations" of the elegaic Romulus were very common in Europe in the Middle Ages. Among the earliest was one in the 11th century by Ademar of Chabannes, which includes some new material. This was followed by a prose collection of parables by the Cistercian preacher Odo of Cheriton
Odo of Cheriton
Odo of Cheriton was a Roman Catholic preacher and fabulist.He visited Paris, and it was probably there that he gained the degree of Master...
round about 1200 where the fables (many of which are not Aesopic) are given a strong medieval and clerical tinge. This interpretive tendency, and the inclusion of yet more non-Aesopic material, was to grow as versions in the various European vernaculars began to appear in the following centuries.
With the revival of literary Latin during the Renaissance, authors began compiling collections of fables in which those traditionally by Aesop and those from alternative sources appeared side by side. One of the earliest was by Lorenzo Bevilaqua, also known as Laurentius Abstemius
Laurentius Abstemius
Laurentius Abstemius was an Italian writer, professor of Belles Lettres at Urbino, and librarian to Duke Guido Ubaldo under Pope Alexander VI. Born at Macerata in Ancona, he distinguished himself, at the time of the revival of letters, as a writer of considerable talents...
, who wrote 197 fables, the first hundred of which were published as Hecatomythium in 1495. Little by Aesop was included. At the most, some traditional fables are adapted and reinterpreted: The Lion and the Mouse
The Lion and the Mouse
The lion and the mouse is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 146 in the Perry Index. In the Renaissance the fable was provided with a sequel condemning social ambition.-The fable in literature:...
is continued and given a new ending (fable 52); The Oak and the Reed
The Oak and the Reed
The Oak and the Reed is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 70 in the Perry Index. It appears in many versions: in some it is with many reeds that the oak converses and in a late rewritten version it disputes with a willow.-The story and its interpretation:...
becomes "The Elm and the Willow" (53); The Ant and the Grasshopper
The Ant and the Grasshopper
The Ant and the Grasshopper, also known as The Grasshopper and the Ant , is one of Aesop's Fables, providing an ambivalent moral lesson about hard work and foresight. In the Perry Index it is number 373...
is adapted as "The Gnat and the Bee" (94) with the difference that the gnat offers to teach music to the bee's children. There are also Mediaeval tales such as The Mice in Council (195) and stories created to support popular proverbs such as 'Still Waters Run Deep
Still Waters Run Deep (fable)
Still waters run deep is a proverb of Latin origin now commonly taken to mean that a placid exterior hides a passionate or subtle nature. Formerly it also carried the warning that silent people are dangerous, as in Caesar's summing up of Cassius in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar...
' (5) and 'A woman, an ass and a walnut tree' (65), where the latter refers back to Aesop's fable of The Walnut Tree. Most of the fables in Hecatomythium were later translated in the second half of Roger L'Estrange
Roger L'Estrange
Sir Roger L'Estrange was an English pamphleteer and author, and staunch defender of royalist claims. L'Estrange was involved in political controversy throughout his life...
's Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists (1692); some also appeared among the 102 in H.Clarke's Latin reader, Select fables of Aesop: with an English translation (1787), of which there were both English and American editions.
There were later three notable collections of fables in verse, among which the most influential was Gabriele Faerno
Gabriele Faerno
Gabriele Faerno, also known by his Latin name of Faernus Cremonensis, was born in Cremona about 1510 and died in Rome on November 17, 1561. He was a scrupulous scholar and an elegant Latin poet who is best known now for his collection of Aesop's Fables in Latin verse.-Life:Gabriele Faerno was born...
's Centum Fabulae (1564). The majority of the hundred fables there are Aesop's but there are also humorous tales such as The drowned woman and her husband
The drowned woman and her husband
The drowned woman and her husband is an anti-feminist story found in Mediaeval jest-books that entered the fable tradition in the 16th century. It was occasionally included in collections of Aesop's Fables but never became established as such and has no number in the Perry Index.-The story:One of...
(41) and The miller, his son and the donkey
The miller, his son and the donkey
The miller, his son and the donkey is a widely dispersed fable, number 721 in the Perry Index. Though it may have ancient analogues, the earliest extant version is in the work of the 13th century Arab writer Ibn Said. There are many eastern versions of the tale and in Europe it was included in a...
(100). In the same year that Faerno was published in Italy, Hieronymus Osius
Hieronymus Osius
Hieronymus Osius was a German Neo-Latin poet and academic about whom there are few biographical details. He was born about 1530 in Schlotheim and murdered in 1575 in Graz. After studying first at the university of Erfurt, he gained his Masters degree from Wittenberg university in 1552 and later...
brought out a collection of 294 fables titled Fabulae Aesopi carmine elegiaco redditae in Germany. This too contained some from elsewhere, such as The Dog in the Manger
The Dog in the Manger
The story and metaphor of The Dog in the Manger derives from an old Greek fable which has been transmitted in several different versions. Interpreted variously over the centuries, it is used now of those who spitefully prevent others from having something that they themselves have no use for...
(67). Then in 1604 the Austrian Pantaleon Weiss, known as Pantaleon Candidus, published Centum et Quinquaginta Fabulae. The 152 poems there were grouped by subject, with sometimes more than one devoted to the same fable, although presenting alternative versions of it, as in the case of The Hawk and the Nightingale
The Hawk and the Nightingale
The fable of The Hawk and the Nightingale is one of the earliest recorded in Greek and there have been many variations on the story since Classical times. The original version is numbered 4 in the Perry Index and the later Aesop version, sometimes going under the title "The Hawk, the Nightingale...
(133-5). It also includes the earliest instance of The Lion, the Bear and the Fox
The Lion, the Bear and the Fox
The Lion, the Bear and the Fox is one of Aesop's Fables that is numbered 147 in the Perry Index. There are similar story types of both eastern and western origin in which two disputants lose the object of their dispute to a third....
(60) in a language other than Greek.
Aesop's Fables in other languages
- YsopetYsopetYsopet refers to a medieval collection of fables in French literature, specifically to versions of Aesop's Fables. Alternatively the term Isopet-Avionnet indicates that the fables are drawn from both Aesop and Avianus....
, an adaptation of some of the fables into Old FrenchOld FrenchOld French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
octosyllabic couplets, was written by Marie de FranceMarie de FranceMarie de France was a medieval poet who was probably born in France and lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an undisclosed court, but was almost certainly at least known about at the royal court of King Henry II of England...
in the 12th century. The morals with which she closes each fable reflect the feudal situation of her time. - In the 13th century the Jewish author Berechiah ha-NakdanBerechiah ha-NakdanBerechiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan, , commonly known as Berachya, was a Jewish exegete, ethical writer, grammarian, translator, poet, and philosopher...
wrote Mishlei Shualim, a collection of 103 'Fox Fables' in Hebrew rhymed prose. This included many animal tales passing under the name of Aesop, as well as several more derived from Marie de France and others. Berechiah's work adds a layer of Biblical quotations and allusions to the tales, adapting them as a way to teach Jewish ethics. The first printed edition appeared in Mantua in 1557; an English translation by Moses Hadas, titled Fables of a Jewish Aesop, first appeared in 1967. - Äsop, an adaptation into Middle GermanMiddle GermanIn linguistics, Middle German can refer to a few variants of the German language:* Middle Low German , the northern dialects in the 11th-15th centuries...
verse of 125 Romulus fables, was written by Gerhard von Minden around 1370. - Chwedlau Odo ("Odo's Tales") is a 14th century Welsh version of the animal fables in Odo of CheritonOdo of CheritonOdo of Cheriton was a Roman Catholic preacher and fabulist.He visited Paris, and it was probably there that he gained the degree of Master...
’s Parabolae. Many of these show sympathy for the poor and oppressed, with often sharp criticisms of high-ranking church officials. - Isopes Fabules was written in Middle EnglishMiddle EnglishMiddle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
rhyme royalRhyme royalRhyme royal is a rhyming stanza form that was introduced into English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer.-Form:The rhyme royal stanza consists of seven lines, usually in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-b-c-c. In practice, the stanza can be constructed either as a terza rima and two couplets...
stanzas by the monk John LydgateJohn LydgateJohn Lydgate of Bury was a monk and poet, born in Lidgate, Suffolk, England.Lydgate is at once a greater and a lesser poet than John Gower. He is a greater poet because of his greater range and force; he has a much more powerful machine at his command. The sheer bulk of Lydgate's poetic output is...
towards the start of the 15th century. Seven tales are included and heavy emphasis is laid on the moral lessons to be learned from them. - The Morall Fabillis of Esope the PhrygianThe Morall Fabillis of Esope the PhrygianThe Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian is a cycle of connected poems by the Scottish makar Robert Henryson. In the accepted text it consists of thirteen versions of fables, seven modelled on stories from "Aesop" expanded from the Latin elegaic Romulus manuscripts, one of the standard fable texts...
was written in Middle ScotsMiddle ScotsMiddle Scots was the Anglic language of Lowland Scotland in the period from 1450 to 1700. By the end of the 13th century its phonology, orthography, accidence, syntax and vocabulary had diverged markedly from Early Scots, which was virtually indistinguishable from early Northumbrian Middle English...
iambic pentameterIambic pentameterIambic pentameter is a commonly used metrical line in traditional verse and verse drama. The term describes the particular rhythm that the words establish in that line. That rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables; these small groups of syllables are called "feet"...
s by Robert HenrysonRobert HenrysonRobert Henryson was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots makars, he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renaissance at a time when the culture was on a cusp between medieval and renaissance sensibilities...
(c.1430-1500). In the accepted text it consists of thirteen versions of fables, seven modelled on stories from "Aesop" expanded from the Latin RomulusRomulus (fabulist)Romulus is the author, now considered a legendary figure, of versions of Aesop's Fables in Latin. These were passed down in Western Europe, and became important school texts, for early education. Romulus is supposed to have lived in the 5th century....
manuscripts. Among the rest, five of the remaining six feature the European trickster figure of the fox.
- The main impetus behind the translation of large collections of fables attributed to Aesop and translated into European languages came from an early printed publication in Germany. There had been many small selections in various languages during the Middle Ages but the first attempt at an exhaustive edition was made by Heinrich SteinhőwelHeinrich SteinhowelHeinrich Steinhöwel was a Swabian author, humanist, and translator who was much inspired by the Italian Renaissance...
in his Esopus, published c.1476. This contained both Latin versions and German translations and also included a translation of Rinuccio da Castiglione (or d’Arezzo)'s version from the Greek of a life of Aesop (1448). Some 156 fables appear, collected from Romulus, Avianus and other sources, accompanied by a commentarial preface and moralising conclusion, and 205 woodcuts. Translations or versions based on Steinhöwel's book followed shortly in Italy (1479), France (1480) and England (the Caxton edition of 1484) and were many times reprinted before the turn of the century. The Spanish version of 1489, La vida del Ysopet con sus fabulas hystoriadas was equally successful and often reprinted in both the Old and New World through three centuries. - Portuguese missionaries arriving in JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
at the end of the 16th century introduced Japan to the fables when a LatinLatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
edition was translated into romanizedRomanization of JapaneseThe romanization of Japanese is the application of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is known as , less strictly romaji, literally "Roman letters", sometimes incorrectly transliterated as romanji or rōmanji. There are several different romanization systems...
JapaneseJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
. The title was Esopo no Fabulas and dates to 1593. This was soon followed by a fuller translation into a three-volume kanazōshiKanazoshidescribes a type of printed Japanese book that was produced primarily in Kyoto between 1600 and 1680. The term literally means “books written in kana”...
entitled . This was the sole Western work to survive in later publication after the expulsion of Westerners from Japan, since by that time the figure of Aesop had been acculturated and presented as if he were Japanese. Coloured woodblock editions of individual fables were made by Kawanabe KyosaiKawanabe Kyosaiwas a Japanese artist, in the words of a critic, "an individualist and an independent, perhaps the last virtuoso in traditional Japanese painting"....
in the 19th century. - The first translations of Aesop's Fables into Chinese were made at the start of the 17th century, the first substantial collection being of 38 conveyed orally by a Jesuit missionary named Nicolas Trigault and written down by a Chinese academic named Zhang Geng (Chinese: 張賡; pinyin: Zhāng Gēng) in 1625. This was followed two centuries later by Yishi Yuyan《意拾喻言》(Aesop’s Fables: written in Chinese by the Learned Mun Mooy Seen-Shang, and compiled in their present form (with a free and a literal translation) in about 1840, with versions apparently based on those of Roger L'EstrangeRoger L'EstrangeSir Roger L'Estrange was an English pamphleteer and author, and staunch defender of royalist claims. L'Estrange was involved in political controversy throughout his life...
. The work was initially very popular until someone realised the fables were anti-authoritiarian and the book was banned for a while. A little later, however, in the foreign concession in Shanghai, A.B. Cabaniss brought out a transliterated translation in Shanghai dialect, Yisuopu yu yan (伊娑菩喻言, 1856). There have also been 20th century translations by Zhou ZuorenZhou ZuorenZhou Zuoren was a Chinese writer, primarily known as an essayist and a translator. He was the younger brother of Lu Xun , the second of three brothers.-Early life:...
and others. - The FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
Fables Choisies (1668) of Jean de la FontaineJean de La FontaineJean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional...
were inspired by the brevity and simplicity of Aesop's Fables. Although the first six books are heavily dependent on traditional Aesopic material, fables in the next six are more diffuse and of diverse origin. - At the start of the 19th century, some of the fables were adapted into RussianRussian languageRussian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, and often reinterpreted, by the fabulist Ivan KrylovIvan KrylovIvan Andreyevich Krylov is Russia's best known fabulist. While many of his earlier fables were loosely based on Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine, later fables were original work, often satirizing the incompetent bureaucracy that was stifling social progress in his time.-Life:Ivan Krylov was born in...
.
Versions in regional languages
The 18th to 19th centuries saw a vast amount of fables in verse being written in all European languages. Regional languages and dialects in the Romance area made use of versions adapted from La Fontaine or the equally popular Jean-Pierre Claris de FlorianJean-Pierre Claris de Florian
Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian was a French poet and romance writer.-Life:...
. One of the earliest publications was the anonymous Fables Causides en Bers Gascouns (Selected fables in the Gascon language
Gascon language
Gascon is usually considered as a dialect of Occitan, even though some specialists regularly consider it a separate language. Gascon is mostly spoken in Gascony and Béarn in southwestern France and in the Aran Valley of Spain...
, Bayonne
Bayonne
Bayonne is a city and commune in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of which it is a sub-prefecture...
, 1776), which contains 106. J. Foucaud's Quelques fables choisies de La Fontaine en patois limousin in the Occitan Limousin dialect followed in 1809.
Versions in Breton
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
were written by Pierre Désiré de Goësbriand (1784–1853) in 1836 and Yves Louis Marie Combeau (1799–1870) between 1836-38. Two translations into Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
followed mid-century: 50 in J-B. Archu's Choix de Fables de La Fontaine, traduites en vers basques (1848) and 150 in Fableac edo aleguiac Lafontenetaric berechiz hartuac (Bayonne, 1852) by Abbé Martin Goyhetche (1791–1859). The turn of Provençal came in 1859 with Li Boutoun de guèto, poésies patoises by Antoine Bigot (1825–97), followed by several other collections of fables in the Nîmes dialect between 1881-91. Alsatian (German) versions of La Fontaine appeared in 1879 after the region was ceded following the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
. At the end of the following century, Brother Denis-Joseph Sibler (1920–2002), published a collection of adaptations into this dialect that has gone through several impressions since 1995.
There were many adaptations of La Fontaine into the dialects of the west of France (Poitevin-Saintongeais
Poitevin-Saintongeais
Poitevin-Saintongese , or parlanjhe , is the name of a oïl language originating between the Loire and the Gironde rivers, and includes the Poitevin and Saintongese dialects...
). Foremost among these was Recueil de fables et contes en patois saintongeais (1849) by lawyer and linguist Jean-Henri Burgaud des Marets (1806–73). Other adaptors writing about the same time include Pierre-Jacques Luzeau (b.1808), Edouard Lacuve (1828–99) and Marc Marchadier (1830–1898). In the 20th century there have been Marcel Rault (whose pen name is Diocrate), Eugène Charrier, Fr Arsène Garnier, Marcel Douillard and Pierre Brisard. Further to the north, the journalist and historian Géry Herbert (1926–1985) adapted some fables to the Cambrai dialect of Picard, known locally as Ch'ti. More recent translators of fables into this dialect have included Jo Tanghe (2005) and Guillaume de Louvencourt (2009).
During the 19th century renaissance of literature in Walloon
Walloon language
Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...
dialect, several authors adapted versions of the fables to the racy speech (and subject matter) of Liège. They included Charles Duvivier (in 1842); Joseph Lamaye (1845); and the team of Jean-Joseph Dehin (1847, 1851-2) and François Bailleux (1851–67), who between them covered books I-VI. Adaptations into other dialects were made by Charles Letellier (Mons, 1842) and Charles Wérotte (Namur, 1844); much later, Léon Bernus published some hundred imitations of La Fontaine in the dialect of Charleroi (1872); he was followed during the 1880s by Joseph Dufrane, writing in the Borinage dialect under the pen-name Bosquètia. In the 20th century there has been a selection of fifty fables in the Condroz dialect by Joseph Houziaux (1946), to mention only the most prolific in an ongoing surge of adaptation. The motive behind all this activity in both France and Belgium was to assert regional specificity against growing centralism and the encroachment of the language of the capital on what had until then been predominantly monoglot areas.
In the 20th century there have also been translations into regional dialects of English. These include the examples in Addison Hibbard's Aesop in Negro Dialect (USA, 1926) and the twenty six in Robert Stephen's Fables of Aesop in Scots Verse (Peterhead, Scotland, 1987). The latter were in Aberdeenshire dialect (also known as Doric). Glasgow University has also been responsible for R.W.Smith's modernised dialect translation of Robert Henryson's The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian (1999, see above). The University of Illinois likewise included dialect translations by Norman Shapiro in its Creole echoes: the francophone poetry of nineteenth-century Louisiana (2004, see below).
Creole
Caribbean creoleFrench-based creole languages
A French Creole, or French-based Creole language, is a creole language based on the French language, more specifically on a 17th century koiné French extant in Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the nascent French colonies...
also saw a flowering of such adaptations from the middle of the 19th century onwards - initially as part of the colonialist project but later as an assertion of love for and pride in the dialect. A version of La Fontaine's fables in the dialect of Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
was made by François-Achille Marbot (1817–66) in Les Bambous, Fables de la Fontaine travesties en patois (1846). In neighbouring Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
original fables were being written by Paul Baudot (1801–70) between 1850-60 but these were not collected until posthumously. Some examples of rhymed fables appeared in a grammar of Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
ian French creole written by John Jacob Thomas
Froudacity
Froudacity: West Indian Fables by James Anthony Froude is a 1889 polemic written by John Jacob Thomas as a rebuttal to James Anthony Froude's 1888 book The English in the West Indies...
(1840–89) that was published in 1869. The start of the new century saw the publication of Georges Sylvain
Georges Sylvain
Georges Sylvain was a Haitian poet, lawyer and diplomat. Born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, Sylvain studied in his native city before attending school in Paris and receiving a law degree. After returning to Haiti, he founded a law school and two periodicals, La Patrie and, in 1922, l'Union...
’s Cric? Crac! Fables de la Fontaine racontées par un montagnard haïtien et transcrites en vers créoles (La Fontaine’s fables told by a Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
highlander and written in creole verse, 1901).
On the South American mainland, Alfred de Saint-Quentin published a selection of fables freely adapted from La Fontaine into Guyanese
French Guiana Creole
French Guiana Creole is a French-lexified creole language spoken in French Guiana, and to a lesser degree, in Suriname and Guyana. It resembles Antillean Creole, but there are some lexical and grammatical differences between them...
creole in 1872. This was among a collection of poems and stories (with facing translations) in a book that also included a short history of the territory and an essay on creole grammar. On the other side of the Caribbean, Jules Choppin (1830–1914) was adapting La Fontaine to the Louisiana slave creole
Louisiana Creole French
Louisiana Creole is a French Creole language spoken by the Louisiana Creole people of the state of Louisiana. The language consists of elements of French, Spanish, African, and Native American roots.-Geography:...
at the end of the 19th century. Three of these versions appear in the anthology Creole echoes: the francophone poetry of nineteenth-century Louisiana (University of Illinois, 2004) with dialect translations by Norman Shapiro. All of Choppin's poetry has been published by the Centenary College of Louisiana (Fables et Rêveries, 2004). The New Orleans author Edgar Grima (1847-1939) also adapted La Fontaine into both standard French and into dialect.
Versions in the French creole of the islands in the Indian Ocean began somewhat earlier than in the Caribbean. Louis Héry (1801–56) emigrated from Brittany to Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
in 1820. Having become a schoolmaster, he adapted some of La Fontaine's fables into the local dialect in Fables créoles dédiées aux dames de l’île Bourbon (Creole fables for island women). This was published in 1829 and went through three editions. In addition 49 fables of La Fontaine were adapted to the Seychelles
Seychellois Creole
Seychellois Creole, also known as Kreol or Seselwa, is the French-based creole language of the Seychelles. It shares official language status with English and French ....
dialect around 1900 by Rodolphine Young (1860–1932) but these remained unpublished until 1983. Jean-Louis Robert's recent translation of Babrius into Réunion creole
Réunion Creole
Réunion Creole or Reunionese Creole , or Créole Réunionnais in French is a creole language spoken on Réunion...
(2007) adds a further motive for such adaptation. Fables began as an expression of the slave culture and their background is in the simplicity of agrarian life. Creole transmits this experience with greater purity than the urbane language of the slave-owner.
Slang
Fables belong essentially to the oral tradition; they survive by being remembered and then retold in one's own words. When they are written down, particularly in the dominant language of instruction, they lose something of their essence. A strategy for reclaiming them is therefore to exploit the gap between the written and the spoken language. One of those who did this in English was Sir Roger L'EstrangeRoger L'Estrange
Sir Roger L'Estrange was an English pamphleteer and author, and staunch defender of royalist claims. L'Estrange was involved in political controversy throughout his life...
, who translated the fables into the racy urban slang of his day and further underlined their purpose by including in his collection many of the subversive Latin fables of Laurentius Abstemius
Laurentius Abstemius
Laurentius Abstemius was an Italian writer, professor of Belles Lettres at Urbino, and librarian to Duke Guido Ubaldo under Pope Alexander VI. Born at Macerata in Ancona, he distinguished himself, at the time of the revival of letters, as a writer of considerable talents...
. In France the fable tradition had already been renewed in the 17th century by La Fontaine's influential reinterpretations of Aesop and others. In the centuries that followed there were further reinterpretations through the medium of regional languages, which to those at the centre were regarded as little better than slang. Eventually, however, the demotic tongue of the cities themselves began to be appreciated as a literary medium.
One of the earliest examples of these urban slang translations was the series of individual fables contained in a single folded sheet, appearing under the title of Les Fables de Gibbs in 1929. Others written during the period were eventually anthologised as Fables de La Fontaine en argot (Etoile sur Rhône 1989). This followed the genre's growth in popularity after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Two short selections of fables by Bernard Gelval about 1945 were succeeded by two selections of 15 fables each by 'Marcus' (Paris 1947, reprinted in 1958 and 2006), Api Condret's Recueil des fables en argot (Paris, 1951) and Géo Sandry (1897–1975) and Jean Kolb's Fables en argot (Paris 1950/60). The majority of such printings were privately produced leaflets and pamphlets, often sold by entertainers at their performances, and are difficult to date. Some of these poems then entered the repertoire of noted performers such as Boby Forest and Yves Deniaud
Yves Deniaud (actor)
Yves Deniaud was a French comic actor.-Filmography:* 1936 : Le Crime de Monsieur Lange de Jean Renoir* 1937 : Drôle de drame de Marcel Carné – Policeman...
, of which recordings were made. In the south of France, Georges Goudon published numerous folded sheets of fables in the post-war period. Described as monologues, they use Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
slang and the Mediterranean Lingua Franca
Mediterranean Lingua Franca
The Mediterranean Lingua Franca or Sabir was a pidgin language used as a lingua franca in the Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th century.-History:...
known as Sabir.
Slang versions by others continue to be produced in various parts of France, both in printed and recorded form.
Aesop for children
The first printed version of Aesop's Fables in EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
was published on March 26, 1484 by William Caxton
William Caxton
William Caxton was an English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer. As far as is known, he was the first English person to work as a printer and the first to introduce a printing press into England...
. Many others, in prose and verse, followed over the centuries. In the 20th century Ben E. Perry edited the Aesopic fables of Babrius and Phaedrus for the Loeb Classical Library
Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each...
and compiled a numbered index
Perry Index
The Perry Index is a widely-used index of "Aesop's Fables" or "Aesopica", the fables credited to Aesop, the story-teller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC...
by type in 1952. Olivia and Robert Temple
Robert Temple
Robert Temple is the name of:* Robert K. G. Temple , American author* Anthony Robert Temple, known as Bob Temple , Canadian Member of Parliament from 1963 to 1965* Robbie Temple, squash player...
's Penguin edition is titled The Complete Fables by Aesop (1998) but in fact many from Babrius, Phaedrus and other major ancient sources have been omitted. More recently, in 2002 a translation by Laura Gibbs titled Aesop's Fables was published by Oxford World's Classics. This book includes 359 and has selections from all the major Greek and Latin sources.
Until the 18th century the fables were largely put to adult use by teachers, preachers, speech-makers and moralists. It was the philosopher John Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
who first seems to have advocated targeting children as a special audience in Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693). Aesop's fables, in his opinion are
- apt to delight and entertain a child. . . yet afford useful reflection to a grown man. And if his memory retain them all his life after, he will not repent to find them there, amongst his manly thoughts and serious business. If his Aesop has pictures in it, it will entertain him much better, and encourage him to read when it carries the increase of knowledge with it For such visible objects children hear talked of in vain, and without any satisfaction, whilst they have no ideas of them; those ideas being not to be had from sounds, but from the things themselves, or their pictures.
That young people are a special target for the fables was not a particularly new idea and a number of ingenious schemes for catering to that audience had already been put into practice in Europe. The Centum Fabulae of Gabriele Faerno
Gabriele Faerno
Gabriele Faerno, also known by his Latin name of Faernus Cremonensis, was born in Cremona about 1510 and died in Rome on November 17, 1561. He was a scrupulous scholar and an elegant Latin poet who is best known now for his collection of Aesop's Fables in Latin verse.-Life:Gabriele Faerno was born...
was commissioned by Pope Pius IV
Pope Pius IV
Pope Pius IV , born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was Pope from 1559 to 1565. He is notable for presiding over the culmination of the Council of Trent.-Biography:...
in the 17th century 'so that children might learn, at the same time and from the same book, both moral and linguistic purity'. When King Louis XIV of France wanted to instruct his six-year old son, he incorporated the series of hydraulic statues representing 38 chosen fables in the labyrinth of Versailles
The labyrinth of Versailles
The labyrinth of Versailles was a maze in the Gardens of Versailles with groups of fountains and sculptures depicting Aesop's fables. André Le Nôtre initially planned a maze of unadorned paths in 1665, but in 1669, Charles Perrault, advised Louis XIV to include thirty-nine fountains each...
in the 1670s. In this he had been advised by Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...
, who was later to translate Faerno's widely published Latin poems into French verse and so bring them to a wider audience. Then in the 1730s appeared the eight volumes of Nouvelles Poésies Spirituelles et Morales sur les plus beaux airs, the first six of which incorporated a section of fables specifically aimed at children. In this the fables of La Fontaine were rewritten to fit popular airs of the day and arranged for simple performance. The preface to this work comments that 'we consider ourselves happy if, in giving them an attraction to useful lessons which are suited to their age, we have given them an aversion to the profane songs which are often put into their mouths and which only serve to corrupt their innocence.' The work was popular and reprinted into the following century.
In the UK various authors began to develop this new market in the 18th century, giving a brief outline of the story and what was usually a longer commentary on its moral and practical meaning. The first of such works is Reverend Samuel Croxall
Samuel Croxall
Samuel Croxall was an Anglican churchman, writer and translator, particularly noted for his edition of Aesop's Fables.-Early career:...
's Fables of Aesop and Others, newly done into English with an Application to each Fable. First published in 1722, with engravings by Elisha Kirkall for each fable, it was continuously reprinted into the second half of the 19th century. Another popular collection was John Newbery
John Newbery
John Newbery was an English publisher of books who first made children's literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market. He also supported and published the works of Christopher Smart, Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Johnson...
's Fables in Verse for the Improvement of the Young and the Old, facetiously attributed to Abraham Aesop Esquire, which was to see ten editions after its first publication in 1757. Robert Dodsley
Robert Dodsley
Robert Dodsley was an English bookseller and miscellaneous writer.-Life:He was born near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where his father was master of the free school....
's three-volume Select Fables of Esop and other Fabulists is distinguished for several reasons. First that it was printed in Birmingham by John Baskerville
John Baskerville
John Baskerville was an English businessman, in areas including japanning and papier-mâché, but he is best remembered as a printer and typographer.-Life:...
in 1761; second that it appealed to children by having the animals speak in character, the Lion in regal style, the Owl with 'pomp of phrase'; thirdly because it gathers into three sections fables from ancient sources, those that are more recent (including some borrowed from Jean de la Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional...
), and new stories of his own invention.
Thomas Bewick
Thomas Bewick
Thomas Bewick was an English wood engraver and ornithologist.- Early life and apprenticeship :Bewick was born at Cherryburn House in the village of Mickley, in the parish of Ovingham, Northumberland, England, near Newcastle upon Tyne on 12 August 1753...
's editions from Newcastle on Tyne are equally distinguished for the quality of his woodcuts. The first of those under his name was the Select Fables in Three Parts published in 1784. This was followed in 1818 by The Fables of Aesop and Others. The work is divided into three sections: the first has some of Dodsley's fables prefaced by a short prose moral; the second has 'Fables with Reflections', in which each story is followed by a prose and a verse moral and then a lengthy prose reflection; the third, 'Fables in Verse', includes fables from other sources in poems by several unnamed authors; in these the moral is incorporated into the body of the poem.
In the early 19th century authors turned to writing verse specifically for children and included fables in their output. One of the most popular was the writer of nonsense verse, Richard Scrafton Sharpe (d.1852), whose Old Friends in a New Dress: familiar fables in verse first appeared in 1807 and went through five steadily augmented editions until 1837. Jefferys Taylor's Aesop in Rhyme, with some originals, first published in 1820, was as popular and also went through several editions. The versions are lively but Taylor takes considerable liberties with the story line. Both authors were alive to the over serious nature of the 18th century collections and tried to remedy this. Sharpe in particular discussed the dilemma they presented and recommended a way round it, tilting at the same time at the format in Croxall's fable collection:
- It has been the accustomed method in printing fables to divide the moral from the subject; and children, whose minds are alive to the entertainment of an amusing story, too often turn from one fable to another, rather than peruse the less interesting lines that come under the term “Application”. It is with this conviction that the author of the present selection has endeavoured to interweave the moral with the subject, that the story shall not be obtained without the benefit arising from it; and that amusement and instruction may go hand in hand.
Sharpe was also the originator of the limerick, but his versions of Aesop are in popular song measures and it was not until 1887 that the limerick form was ingeniously applied to the fables. This was in a magnificently hand-produced Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
edition, The Baby's Own Aesop: being the fables condensed in rhyme with portable morals pictorially pointed by Walter Crane
Walter Crane
Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most prolific and influential children’s book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of...
.
Some later prose editions were particularly notable for their illustrations. Among these was Aesop's fables: a new version, chiefly from original sources (1848) by Thomas James, 'with more than one hunded illustrations designed by John Tenniel
John Tenniel
Sir John Tenniel was a British illustrator, graphic humorist and political cartoonist whose work was prominent during the second half of England’s 19th century. Tenniel is considered important to the study of that period’s social, literary, and art histories...
'. Tenniel himself did not think highly of his work there and took the opportunity to redraw some in the revised edition of 1884, which also used pictures by Ernest Henry Griset and Harrison Weir
Harrison Weir
Harrison William Weir , known as "The Father of the Cat Fancy", was an English gentleman and artist.He organized the first cat show in England, at The Crystal Palace, London, in July 1871. He and his brother, John Jenner Weir, both served as judges in the show...
. Once the technology was in place for coloured reproductions, illustrations became ever more attractive. Notable early 20th century editions include V.S.Vernon Jones' new translation of the fables accompanied by the pictures of Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator.-Biography:Rackham was born in London as one of 12 children. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.In 1892 he left his job and started working for The...
(London, 1912) and in the USA Aesop for Children (Chicago, 1919), illustrated by Milo Winter
Milo Winter
Milo Winter was a well known book illustrator, who produced works for editions of Aesop's Fables, Arabian Nights, Alice in Wonderland, Gulliver's Travels, Tanglewood Tales and others.- Background :...
.
The illustrations from Croxall's editions were an early inspiration for other artefacts aimed at children. In the 18th century they appear on tableware from the Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
, Wedgwood
Wedgwood
Wedgwood, strictly speaking Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, is a pottery firm owned by KPS Capital Partners, a private equity company based in New York City, USA. Wedgwood was founded on May 1, 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood and in 1987 merged with Waterford Crystal to create Waterford Wedgwood, an...
and Fenton
Fenton
- England :* Fenton, Cumbria* Fenton, South Kesteven, Lincolnshire* Fenton, West Lindsey, Lincolnshire* Fenton, Northumberland* Fenton, Nottinghamshire* Fenton, Staffordshire - United States :* Fenton, Iowa* Fenton, Louisiana...
potteries, for example. 19th century examples with a definitely educational aim include the fable series used on the alphabet plates issued in great numbers from the Brownhills Pottery in Staffordshire. Fables were used equally early in the design of tiles to surround the nursery fireplace. The latter were even more popular in the 19th century when there were specially designed series from Mintons, Minton-Hollins and Maw & Co. In France too, well-known illustrations of La Fontaine's fables were often used on china.
Dramatised fables
The success of La Fontaine's fables in France started a European fashion for creating plays around them. The originator was Edmé BoursaultEdmé Boursault
Edmé Boursault was a French dramatist and miscellaneous writer, born at Mussy l'Evéque, now Mussy-sur-Seine ....
, with his five-act verse drama Les Fables d'Esope (1690), later retitled Esope à la ville (Aesop in town). Such was its popularity that a rival theatre produced Eustache Le Noble's Arlaquin-Esope in the following year. Boursault then wrote a sequel, Esope à la cour (Aesop at court), a heroic comedy that was held up by the censors and not produced until after his death in 1701. Some forty years later Charles Stephen Pesselier wrote two one-act pieces, Esope au Parnasse and Esope du temps.
Esope à la ville was written in alexandrine
Alexandrine
An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter comprising 12 syllables. Alexandrines are common in the German literature of the Baroque period and in French poetry of the early modern and modern periods. Drama in English often used alexandrines before Marlowe and Shakespeare, by whom it was supplanted...
couplet
Couplet
A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic...
s and depicted a physically ugly Aesop acting as adviser to Learchus, governor of Cyzicus
Cyzicus
Cyzicus was an ancient town of Mysia in Anatolia in the current Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It was located on the shoreward side of the present Kapıdağ Peninsula , a tombolo which is said to have originally been an island in the Sea of Marmara only to be connected to the mainland in historic...
under King Croesus, and using his fables to solve romantic problems and quiet political unrest. One of the problems is personal to Aesop, since he is betrothed to the governor's daughter, who detests him and has a young admirer with whom she is in love. There is very little action, the play serving as a platform for the recitation of free verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
fables at frequent intervals. These include The Fox and the Heifer, The Fox and the Mask, The Nightingale, The Belly and the Other Members
The Belly and the Other Members
The Belly and the Members is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 130 in the Perry Index. It has been various interpreted in different political contexts over the centuries.-The Fable and its applications:...
, the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
"The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" is one of Aesop's Fables. It is number 352 in the Perry Index and type 112 in Aarne-Thompson's folk tale index. Like several other elements in Aesop's fables, 'town mouse and country mouse' has become an English idiom....
, the Lark and the Butterfly, the Fox and the Crow
The Fox and the Crow
The Fox and the Crow are a pair of anthropomorphic cartoon characters created by Frank Tashlin for the Screen Gems studio. The characters, the refined but gullible Fauntleroy Fox and the streetwise Crawford Crow, appeared in a series of animated short subjects released by Screen Gems through its...
, the crab and her daughter, the Frog and the Ox
The Frog and the Ox
The Frog and the Ox appears among Aesop's Fables. The story concerns a frog that tries to inflate itself to the size of an ox, but bursts in the attempt. In some Classical sources the fable concludes with the moral: 'Not all creatures can become as great as they think.' There are various versions...
, the Cook and the Swan, the Doves and the Vulture, the Wolf and the Lamb
The Wolf and the Lamb
The Wolf and the Lamb is a well known fable of Aesop and is numbered 155 in the Perry Index. There are several variant stories of tyrannical injustice in which a victim is falsely accused and killed despite a reasonable defence.-The fable and its variants:...
, the Mountain in Labour
The Mountain in Labour
The Mountain in Labour is one of Aesop's Fables and appears as number 520 in the Perry Index. It was often cited in Classical times and applied to a variety of situations. It refers to speech acts which promise much but deliver little....
, and the Man between 2 Ages and 2 Mistresses.
Esope à la cour is more of a moral satire, most scenes being set pieces for the application of fables to moral problems, but to supply romantic interest Aesop's mistress Rhodope is introduced. Among the sixteen fables included, some four derive from La Fontaine - the Heron, the Lion and the Mouse
The Lion and the Mouse
The lion and the mouse is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 146 in the Perry Index. In the Renaissance the fable was provided with a sequel condemning social ambition.-The fable in literature:...
, the Dove and the Ant, the Sick Lion, - a fifth borrows a moral from another of his but alters the details, and a sixth has as apologue
Apologue
An apologue or apolog is a brief fable or allegorical story with pointed or exaggerated details, meant to serve as a pleasant vehicle for a moral doctrine or to convey a useful lesson without stating it explicitly. Unlike a fable, the moral is more important than the narrative details...
a maxim of Antoine de La Rochefoucauld
Antoine de La Rochefoucauld
Count Antoine de La Rochefoucauld was an artist, patron and art collector as well as a proponent of Rosicrucianism in France at the end of the 19th century.-Life:...
. After a modest few performances, the piece later grew in popularity and remained in the repertory until 1817. Boursault's play was also influential in Italy and twice translated. It appeared from Bologna in 1719 under the title L’Esopo in Corte, translated by Antonio Zaniboni, and as Le Favole di Esopa alla Corte from Venice in 1747, translated by Gasparo Gozzi. The same translator was responsible for a version of Esope à la ville (Esopo in città, Venice, 1748); then in 1798 there was an anonymous Venetian three-act adaptation, Le Favole di Esopa, ossia Esopo in città. In England the play was adapted under the title Aesop by John Vanbrugh
John Vanbrugh
Sir John Vanbrugh – 26 March 1726) was an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse and The Provoked Wife , which have become enduring stage favourites...
and first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
in London in 1697, remaining popular for the next twenty years.
In the 20th century individual fables by Aesop began to be adapted to animated cartoon
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
s, most notably in France and the United States. Cartoonist Paul Terry
Terrytoons
Terrytoons was an animation studio founded by Paul Terry. The studio, located in suburban New Rochelle, New York, operated from 1929 to 1968. Its most popular characters included Mighty Mouse, Gandy Goose, Sourpuss, Dinky Duck, Deputy Dawg, Luno and Heckle and Jeckle; these cartoons and all of its...
began his own series, called Aesop's Film Fables
Aesop's Film Fables
Aesop's Film Fables was a series of animated short subjects, created by American cartoonist Paul Terry. Terry came upon the inspiration for the series by young actor-turned-writer Howard Estabrook, who suggested making a series of cartoons based on Aesop's Fables. Although Terry later claimed he...
, in 1921 but by the time this was taken over by Van Beuren Studios
Van Beuren Studios
Van Beuren Studios was an American animation studio that produced theatrical cartoons from 1928 to 1936.Producer Amedee J. van Beuren first became involved in the animation industry in 1920, when he formed a partnership with Paul Terry and formed the "Aesop's Fables Studio" for the production of...
in 1928 the story lines had little connection with any fable of Aesop's. In the early 1960s, animator Jay Ward
Jay Ward
J Troplong "Jay" Ward was an American creator and producer of animated television cartoons. He produced animated series based on such characters as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Peabody and Sherman, Hoppity Hooper, George of the Jungle, Tom Slick, and Super Chicken...
created a television series of short cartoons called Aesop and Son which were first aired as part of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show
The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959 to June 28, 1964 on the ABC and NBC television networks...
. Actual fables were spoofed to result in a pun based on the original moral. Two fables are also featured in the 1971 TV movie Aesop’s Fables in the U.S.A. Here Aesop is a black story teller who relates two turtle fables, The Tortoise and the Eagle and the Tortoise and the Hare
The Tortoise and the Hare
The Tortoise and the Hare is a fable attributed to Aesop and is number 226 in the Perry Index. The story concerns a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise and is challenged by him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, decides to take a nap midway through...
to a couple of children who wander into an enchanted grove. The fables themselves are shown as cartoons.
Between 1989-91, fifty Aesop-based fables were reinterpreted on French television as Les Fables géométriques and later issued on DVD. These featured a cartoon in which the characters appeared as an assembly of animated geometric shapes, accompanied by Pierre Perret
Pierre Perret
Pierre Perret , is a French singer and composer. Pierre Perret resides in the city of Nangis.- Biography :...
's slang versions of La Fontaine's original poem. In 1983 there was an extended manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
version of the fables made in Japan, Isoppu monogatari, and there has also been a Chinese television series for children based on the stories.
There have been several dramatised productions of fables for children, of which a fair example is the musical Aesop's Fables by British playwright Peter Terson
Peter Terson
Peter Terson is a British playwright whose plays have been produced for stage, television and radio. His early work in the 1960s focused on growing up in the dead-end working-class culture of industrial England. He was born as Peter Patterson. He was a schoolteacher for 10 years before writing...
, first produced in 1983. What lifted this work into another class was Mark Dornford-May
Mark Dornford-May
Mark Dornford-May is a British-born South African theatre and film director.-Early life:Mark Dornford-May was born on his Grandfathers farm near Eastoft in Yorkshire. His paternal Grandfather was a miner on the Yorkshire coalfields...
's adaptation for the Isango Portobello
Isango Portobello
Isango is a Cape Town based theatre company led by director Mark Dornford-May and music directors Pauline Malefane and Mandisi Dyantyis. Most of the company members are drawn from the townships around Cape Town...
company at the Fugard Theatre
Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English, best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy-Award winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood...
in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2010. The play tells the story of the black slave Aesop, who learns that freedom is earned and kept through being responsible. His teachers are the animal characters he meets on his journeys. The fables they suggest include The Tortoise and the Hare
The Tortoise and the Hare
The Tortoise and the Hare is a fable attributed to Aesop and is number 226 in the Perry Index. The story concerns a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise and is challenged by him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, decides to take a nap midway through...
, the Lion and the Goat, the Wolf and the Crane
The Wolf and the Crane
The Wolf and the Crane is a fable attributed to Aesop that has several eastern analogues. Similar stories have a lion instead of a wolf, and a stork, heron or partridge takes the place of the crane.-The fable and its alternative versions:...
, the Frogs Who Desired a King
The Frogs Who Desired a King
The Frogs Who Desired a King is one of Aesop's Fables and numbered 44 in the Perry Index. Throughout its history, the story has been given a political application.-The Fable and its political applications:...
and three others, brought to life through a musical score featuring mostly marimbas, vocals and percussion. Another colourful treatment was Brian Seward's Aesop’s Fabulous Fables (2009) in Singapore, which mixes a typical musical with Chinese dramatic techniques.
List of some fables by Aesop
The following fables all have individual articles devoted to them:- The Ant and the GrasshopperThe Ant and the GrasshopperThe Ant and the Grasshopper, also known as The Grasshopper and the Ant , is one of Aesop's Fables, providing an ambivalent moral lesson about hard work and foresight. In the Perry Index it is number 373...
- The Ass and the PigThe Ass and the PigThe Ass and the Pig is one of Aesop's Fables that was never adopted in the West but has Eastern variants that remain popular. Their general teaching is that the easy life and seeming good fortune of others conceal a threat to their welfare....
- The Ass in the Lion's SkinThe Ass in the Lion's SkinThe Ass in the Lion's Skin is one of Aesop's Fables . There are also several Eastern variants and the story's interpretation varies accordingly.-The Fable:...
- The Bear and the TravelersThe Bear and the TravelersThe Bear and the Travelers is a fable attributed to Aesop and is number 65 in the Perry Index. This was expanded and given a new meaning in Mediaeval times.-The Classical Fable:...
- The Belly and the Other MembersThe Belly and the Other MembersThe Belly and the Members is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 130 in the Perry Index. It has been various interpreted in different political contexts over the centuries.-The Fable and its applications:...
- The Bird in Borrowed FeathersThe Bird in Borrowed FeathersThe Bird in Borrowed Feathers is a fable of Classical Greek origin usually ascribed to Aesop. It has existed in numerous different versions between that time and the Middle Ages, going by various titles and generally involving members of the corvid family. The lesson to be learned from it has also...
- The Boy Who Cried WolfThe Boy Who Cried WolfThe Boy Who Cried Wolf, is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 210 in the Perry Index. From it is derived the English idiom 'to cry wolf', meaning to give a false alarm.-The fable and its history:...
- The Cat and the MiceThe Cat and the MiceThe Cat and the Mice is a fable attributed to Aesop of which there are several variants. Sometimes a weasel is the predator; the prey can also be rats and chickens.-The Fables:...
- The Cock and the JewelThe Cock and the JewelThe Cock and the Jewel is a fable attributed to Aesop. It is one of a number that feature only a single animal. As a trope in literature, the fable is reminiscent of stories used in zen such as the kōan...
- The Cock, the Dog and the FoxThe Cock, the Dog and the FoxThe Cock, the Dog and the Fox is one of Aesop's Fables and appears as number 252 in the Perry Index. Although it has similarities with other fables where a predator flatters a bird, such as The Fox and the Crow and Chanticleer and the Fox, in this one the cock is the victor rather than victim...
- The Crow and the PitcherThe Crow and the PitcherThe Crow and the Pitcher is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 390 in the Perry Index. It is found in the 2nd century CE Greek fable collection by pseudo-Dositheus, and later appears in the 4th–5th century Latin verse collection by Avianus. The history of this fable in antiquity and the Middle...
- The Deer without a HeartThe Deer without a HeartThe Deer without a Heart is an ancient fable, attributed to Aesop, about a deer who was persuaded by a wily jackal to visit the ailing lion and thus to ingratiate himself with the sick king of the animals. The lion killed the deer. The jackal stole and ate the deer's heart...
- The Dog and its Reflection
- The Farmer and the StorkThe Farmer and the StorkThe Farmer and the Stork is one of Aesop's fables and is numbered 194 in the Perry Index. It appears in Greek in the collections of both Babrius and Aphthonius and has differed little in the telling over the centuries. The story relates how a farmer plants traps in his field to catch the cranes and...
- The Farmer and the ViperThe Farmer and the ViperThe Farmer and the Viper is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 176 in the Perry Index. It has the moral that kindness to the evil will be met by betrayal and is the source of the idiom 'to nourish a viper in one's bosom'.-The story:...
- The Fir and the BrambleThe Fir and the BrambleThe Fir and the Bramble is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 304 in the Perry Index. It is one of a group in which trees and plants debate together, which also includes The Trees and the Bramble and The Oak and the Reed...
- The fisherman and the little fishThe fisherman and the little fishThe fisherman and the little fish is one of Aesop's fables and is numbered 18 in the Perry Index. Babrius records it in Greek and Avianus in Latin. The story concerns a small fry caught by a fisherman that begs for its life on account of its size and suggests that waiting until it is larger would...
- The Fox and the CrowThe Fox and the Crow (Aesop)"The Fox and the Crow" is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 124 in the Perry Index. There are early Latin and Greek versions and the fable may even have been portrayed on an ancient Greek vase. The story is used as a warning against listening to flattery....
- The Fox and the GrapesThe Fox and the Grapes"The Fox and the Grapes" is one of the traditional Aesop's fables and can be held to illustrate the concept of cognitive dissonance. In this view, the premise of the fox that covets inaccessible grapes is taken to stand for a person who attempts to hold incompatible ideas simultaneously...
- The Fox and the Sick LionThe Fox and the Sick LionThe fable of The Fox and the Sick Lion, attributed to Aesop, has been well known from Classical times.-The Fable and its Moral:A lion that had grown too old and weak to hunt pretended to be sick as a ruse to make the other animals come and pay their respects. When they did so, he ate them one by...
- The Fox and the Stork
- The Frog and the OxThe Frog and the OxThe Frog and the Ox appears among Aesop's Fables. The story concerns a frog that tries to inflate itself to the size of an ox, but bursts in the attempt. In some Classical sources the fable concludes with the moral: 'Not all creatures can become as great as they think.' There are various versions...
- The Frogs Who Desired a KingThe Frogs Who Desired a KingThe Frogs Who Desired a King is one of Aesop's Fables and numbered 44 in the Perry Index. Throughout its history, the story has been given a political application.-The Fable and its political applications:...
- The Goose that Laid the Golden EggsThe Goose That Laid the Golden EggsKilling The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs is among the best known of Aesop's Fables and use of the phrase has become idiomatic of an unprofitable action motivated by greed.-The story and its moral:...
- The Honest Woodcutter
- The Lion and the FoxThe Lion and the FoxThe Lion and the Fox is one of Aesop's Fables and represents a comedy of manners. It is number 10 in the Perry Index.-The fable:The fable is only found in Classical Greek sources and was briefly told. 'A fox had never seen a lion before, so when she happened to met the lion for the first time she...
- The Lion and the MouseThe Lion and the MouseThe lion and the mouse is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 146 in the Perry Index. In the Renaissance the fable was provided with a sequel condemning social ambition.-The fable in literature:...
- The Lion's ShareLion's ShareThe lion's share is an idiomatic expression which develops from a number of fables ascribed to Aesop and is now used as their generic title, although they exist in several different versions...
- The Lion, the Bear and the FoxThe Lion, the Bear and the FoxThe Lion, the Bear and the Fox is one of Aesop's Fables that is numbered 147 in the Perry Index. There are similar story types of both eastern and western origin in which two disputants lose the object of their dispute to a third....
- The Mischievous DogThe Mischievous DogThe Mischievous Dog is one of Aesop's Fables, of which there is a Greek version by Babrius and a Latin version by Avianus. It is numbered 332 in the Perry Index. The story concerns a dog that bites the legs of others. Its master therefore ties a bell around its neck to warn people...
- The Mountain in LabourThe Mountain in LabourThe Mountain in Labour is one of Aesop's Fables and appears as number 520 in the Perry Index. It was often cited in Classical times and applied to a variety of situations. It refers to speech acts which promise much but deliver little....
- The North Wind and the SunThe North Wind and the SunThe North Wind and the Sun is one of Aesop's Fables . It is type 298 in the Aarne-Thompson folktale classification.-The story and its application:...
- The Oak and the ReedThe Oak and the ReedThe Oak and the Reed is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 70 in the Perry Index. It appears in many versions: in some it is with many reeds that the oak converses and in a late rewritten version it disputes with a willow.-The story and its interpretation:...
- The Satyr and the TravellerThe Satyr and the TravellerThe Satyr and the Traveller is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 35 in the Perry Index. The popular idiom 'to blow hot and cold' is associated with it.-The Fable:...
- The Tortoise and the Birds
- The Tortoise and the HareThe Tortoise and the HareThe Tortoise and the Hare is a fable attributed to Aesop and is number 226 in the Perry Index. The story concerns a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise and is challenged by him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, decides to take a nap midway through...
- The Town Mouse and the Country MouseThe Town Mouse and the Country Mouse"The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" is one of Aesop's Fables. It is number 352 in the Perry Index and type 112 in Aarne-Thompson's folk tale index. Like several other elements in Aesop's fables, 'town mouse and country mouse' has become an English idiom....
- The Trees and the BrambleThe Trees and the BrambleThe Trees and the Bramble is a composite title which covers a number of fables of similar tendency, ultimately deriving from a Western Asian literary tradition of debate poems between two contenders...
- The Two PotsThe Two PotsThe Two Pots is one of Aesop's Fables and numbered 378 in the Perry Index. The fable may stem from proverbial sources.-The Fable:There is a short Greek version of the fable and a longer, more circumstantial late Latin poem by Avianus. It concerns two pots, one of earthenware and the other of metal,...
- Venus and the CatThe Mouse Turned into a MaidThe mouse turned into a maid is an ancient fable of Indian origin that travelled westwards to Europe during the Middle Ages and also exists in the Far East. Its Classical analogue is the Aesop's Fable of "Venus and the Cat" in which a man appeals to the goddess Venus to change his cat into a woman...
- The Walnut Tree
- Washing the Ethiopian whiteWashing the Ethiopian whiteWashing the Ethiopian White is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 393 in the Perry Index. The fable is only found in Greek sources and the impossibility of such an attempt became proverbial at an early date. It was given greater currency in Europe during the Renaissance by being included in...
- The Wolf and the LambThe Wolf and the LambThe Wolf and the Lamb is a well known fable of Aesop and is numbered 155 in the Perry Index. There are several variant stories of tyrannical injustice in which a victim is falsely accused and killed despite a reasonable defence.-The fable and its variants:...
- The Wolf and the CraneThe Wolf and the CraneThe Wolf and the Crane is a fable attributed to Aesop that has several eastern analogues. Similar stories have a lion instead of a wolf, and a stork, heron or partridge takes the place of the crane.-The fable and its alternative versions:...
- The Young Man and the SwallowThe Young Man and the SwallowThe young man and the swallow is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 169 in the Perry Index...
Fables wrongly attributed to Aesop
- The Bear and the GardenerThe Bear and the GardenerThe Bear and the Gardener is a fable of eastern origin that warns against making foolish friendships. There are several variant versions, both literary and oral, across the world and its folk elements are classed as Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 1586...
- Belling the catBelling the catBelling the Cat is a fable also known under the titles The Bell and the Cat and The Mice in Council. Although often attributed to Aesop, it was not recorded before the Middle Ages and has been confused with the quite different fable of Classical origin titled The Cat and the Mice. In the...
(also known as The Mice in Council) - The Boy and the FilbertsThe Boy and the FilbertsThe Boy and the Filberts is a fable related to greed and appears as Aarne-Thompson type 68A. The story is credited to Aesop but there is no evidence to support this...
- Chanticleer and the FoxChanticleer and the FoxThe Nun's Priest's Tale is one of The Canterbury Tales by the Middle English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Composed in the 1390s, the 626-line narrative poem is a beast fable and mock epic based on an incident in the Reynard cycle...
- The Dog in the MangerThe Dog in the MangerThe story and metaphor of The Dog in the Manger derives from an old Greek fable which has been transmitted in several different versions. Interpreted variously over the centuries, it is used now of those who spitefully prevent others from having something that they themselves have no use for...
- The drowned woman and her husbandThe drowned woman and her husbandThe drowned woman and her husband is an anti-feminist story found in Mediaeval jest-books that entered the fable tradition in the 16th century. It was occasionally included in collections of Aesop's Fables but never became established as such and has no number in the Perry Index.-The story:One of...
- The Fox and the CatThe Fox and the Cat (fable)The Fox and the Cat is an ancient fable, with both Eastern and Western analogues involving different animals, that addresses the difference between resourceful expediency and a master strategem. Included in collections of Aesop's fables since the start of printing in Europe, it is number 605 in the...
- The Gourd and the Palm-treeThe Gourd and the Palm-treeThe Gourd and the Palm-tree is a rare fable, first recorded in Europe in the Middle Ages, that was occasionally counted as one of Aesop's Fables. In the Renaissance a variant appeared in which a pine takes the palm-tree's place.-The fable and its history:...
- The Hawk and the NightingaleThe Hawk and the NightingaleThe fable of The Hawk and the Nightingale is one of the earliest recorded in Greek and there have been many variations on the story since Classical times. The original version is numbered 4 in the Perry Index and the later Aesop version, sometimes going under the title "The Hawk, the Nightingale...
- Jumping from the frying pan into the fireJumping from the frying pan into the fireJumping from the frying pan into the fire is an idiom with the general meaning of escaping a bad situation for a worse. It was made the subject of a 15th century fable that eventually entered the Aesopic canon.-The story and its use:...
- The milkmaid and her pailThe Milkmaid and Her PailThe Milkmaid and Her Pail is a folktale of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 1430 about interrupted daydreams of wealth and fame. Ancient tales of this type exist in the East but Western variants are not found before the Middle Ages...
- The miller, his son and the donkeyThe miller, his son and the donkeyThe miller, his son and the donkey is a widely dispersed fable, number 721 in the Perry Index. Though it may have ancient analogues, the earliest extant version is in the work of the 13th century Arab writer Ibn Said. There are many eastern versions of the tale and in Europe it was included in a...
- The Monkey and the CatThe Monkey and the CatThe Monkey and the Cat is best known as a fable adapted by Jean de La Fontaine that appeared in the second edition of his Fables Choisies in 1679...
- The Scorpion and the FrogThe Scorpion and the FrogThe Scorpion and the Frog is a fable about a scorpion asking a frog to carry him across a river. The frog is afraid of being stung during the trip, but the scorpion argues that if it stung the frog, the frog would sink and the scorpion would drown. The frog agrees and begins carrying the...
- The Shepherd and the Lion
- Still waters run deepStill Waters Run Deep (fable)Still waters run deep is a proverb of Latin origin now commonly taken to mean that a placid exterior hides a passionate or subtle nature. Formerly it also carried the warning that silent people are dangerous, as in Caesar's summing up of Cassius in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar...
- The Wolf in Sheep's ClothingThe Wolf in Sheep's ClothingA Wolf in Sheep's Clothing is an idiom of Biblical origin. It is used of those playing a role contrary to their real character, with whom contact is dangerous. As a fable it has been falsely credited to Aesop and the theme is now numbered 451 in the Perry Index...
Sources
- Anthony, Mayvis, 2006. "The Legendary Life and Fables of Aesop". Toronto: Mayant Press.
- Temple, Olivia; Temple, RobertRobert K. G. TempleRobert K. G. Temple is an American author best known for his controversial book, The Sirius Mystery which presents the idea that the Dogon people preserve the tradition of contact with intelligent extraterrestrial beings from the Sirius star-system...
(translators), 1998. Aesop, The Complete Fables, New York: Penguin Classics. (ISBN 0-14-044649-4) - Perry, Ben E. (editor), 1965. Babrius and Phaedrus, (Loeb Classical Library) Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965. English translations of 143 Greek verse fables by Babrius, 126 Latin verse fables by Phaedrus, 328 Greek fables not extant in Babrius, and 128 Latin fables not extant in Phaedrus (including some medieval materials) for a total of 725 fables.
- Handford, S. A., 1954. Fables of Aesop. New York: Penguin.
- Rev. Thomas JamesThomas JamesThomas James was an English librarian, first librarian of the Bodleian Library, Oxford.James became a fellow of New College, Oxford in 1593...
M.A., (Ill. John TennielJohn TennielSir John Tenniel was a British illustrator, graphic humorist and political cartoonist whose work was prominent during the second half of England’s 19th century. Tenniel is considered important to the study of that period’s social, literary, and art histories...
), Aesop's Fables: A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources, 1848. John Murray. (includes many pictures) - Bentley, Richard, 1697. Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris... and the Fables of Æsop. London.
- Caxton, William, 1484. The history and fables of Aesop, Westminster. Modern reprint edited by Robert T. Lenaghan (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1967).
Further reading
- Temple, RobertRobert K. G. TempleRobert K. G. Temple is an American author best known for his controversial book, The Sirius Mystery which presents the idea that the Dogon people preserve the tradition of contact with intelligent extraterrestrial beings from the Sirius star-system...
, "Fables, Riddles, and Mysteries of Delphi", Proceedings of 4th Philosophical Meeting on Contemporary Problems, No 4, 1999 (Athens, Greece) In Greek and English.
External links
- Aesopica: Over 600 English fables, plus Caxton's Aesop, Latin and Greek texts, Content Index, and Site Search.
- Children's Library, a site with many reproductions of illustrated English editions of Aesop
- Free audiobook of Aesop's Fables from LibriVox
- Images of Aesopus moralitus - Vita, Fabulae
- Caxton's famous Epilogue to the Fables, dated March 26, 1484