We explain who Aesop was, what his most famous fables are and what legends are told about his life.
Aesop was an ancient Greek fabulist, whose works have survived the centuries.
Who was Aesop?
Aesop was a writer of fables, jokes and aphorisms from Ancient Greece in the 6th century BC. C., whose works were first compiled during the Classical era, and translated and preserved in later eras. His life is surrounded by a certain mystery, since many of his biographies written in ancient times contain legends.
There are, in fact, scholars for whom Aesop is really a mythological figure, who never existed.This is helped by the fact that the oldest available representation of him is a chilice from 470 BC, which shows him conversing with a fox.
Aesop’s fables, written in prose, consist of short, allegorical stories, equipped with a moral and starring different animals and people. These stories have served as inspiration to numerous authors and fabulists for 2,500 years.like the Roman Babrius (2nd-3rd century AD), or the French Mary of France (12th-13th centuries) and Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695).
The mysterious origins of Aesop
Aesop is thought to have been born in Mesembria, an ancient Greek city on the Black Sea coast in present-day Bulgaria, between the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Some authors attribute to him different origins, such as the Villa of Amoria in Phrygia, and some even claim that he was of Ethiopian origin.
It is difficult to find an official version of Aesop’s life, as there are no direct sources to refer to.Over time it has been claimed that he was an extremely clever young man, or that he was a Greek slave very skilled in storytelling. None of this can be proven with certainty and it is most likely that these are later literary elaborations..
In fact, the first mentions of him in ancient Greek literature come from later authors, such as Herodotus (484-425 BC), Plato (c. 427-347 BC) and Aristotle (384-347 BC). 322 BC). According to Plato, his teacher Socrates (470-399 BC) knew Aesop’s work and quoted it by heart.
The first biography written about the fabulist is even later: it dates back to the 1st century AD., is by an anonymous author and is a fictionalized biography. On the other hand, in the great Byzantine encyclopedia, the Sweats, written in the 10th century, it is stated that he lived between the 40th and 54th Olympiad, that is, between 620 BC. C. and 564 BC. C. This same document maintains that different Greek cities could be Aesop’s homeland: Sardis, Samos, Mesembria and Cotiea.
Another of the best-known biographies of Aesop in medieval times comes from Constantinople and is the Life of Aesop by the Greek monk Máximo Planudes (1260-1330), who collected in it many of the legends woven around this character.
In addition to his alleged slavery, Aesop is also said to have been an advisor to King Croesus of Lydia (c. 595-560 BC), from whom he would have received abundant wealth.or the riddle solver of the Spartan king Lycurgus.
Aesop’s fables
Aesop’s fables have been translated and adapted over the centuries.
Since ancient times, Aesop has been credited with a vast collection of fables that, over time, have been used for moral reflection and even for teaching. It is possible that these stories were not entirely his own, but that Aesop collected, organized and reformulated different pieces of the oral tradition of the time..
A fable is a narrative of a fantastic nature, starring archetypal characters (generally animals) and whose anecdote triggers a moral, that is, a moral teaching.
The first compilation of Aesopian fables took place in the 4th century BC and was the work of the Athenian politician and philosopher Demetrius of Phalerum (350-c.282 BC). No copies of this first compilation survive, but it was very popular and inspired numerous later versions, the most important of which is called Agustana and consists of 500 different fables.
In subsequent centuries, Aesop’s fables were translated and often versioned by different authors. The first of these was the Roman fabulist Phaedrus (c. 15 BC-AD 50), who not only translated the text into Latin, but rearranged it into iambic verses. This first compendium appeared around the 1st century AD and was extremely influential on later versions..
The Romans Babrius (2nd-3rd century AD) and Flavius Alviano (4th century AD), the poet Marie de France (12th century), the Persian mystic Yalal ad-Din Rumi (1207-1273), the Italian Francesco del Tuppo (1444-1501), translator and editor of the Aesopus moralisatusthe French bookseller and writer Gilles Corrozet (1510-1568) and the fabulist Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695), among many others. Each one adapted Aesop’s fables to a certain extent to his culture and literary considerations..
Today, Aesop’s fables continue to be read and edited, often in illustrated or simplified format for children. In that sense, his teachings are considered universal and timeless, since they have to do with situations and attitudes typical of human beings, even though they are attributed to animals.
Some of Aesop’s best-known fables are:
- “The Ant and the Grasshopper”
- “The tortoise and the hare”
- “The fox and the grapes”
- “The Lying Shepherd”
- “The Wolf and the Lamb”
- “The Wolf and the Heron”
- “The wolf and the dog”
- “The Crow and the Fox”
- “The country rat and the city rat”
The Death of Aesop
According to tradition, Aesop died in the city of Delphi, around the age of forty.Some versions claim that he arrived in that city with the riches given to him by King Croesus, and that he intended to give his possessions as a sacrifice to the god Apollo, but the greedy locals chose to kill him and keep his possessions.
According to other versions, Aesop would have been unjustly accused of theft and blasphemy by the citizens of Delphi, after someone planted a gold cup from the temple of Apollo among his things. In both versions, Aesop was thrown off a rock as punishment.. And the god Apollo, in revenge, devastated the city with the plague.
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References
- Aesop. (2016). “Fables”. Aesop’s Fables. Life of Aesop. Babrio’s Fables. Trans.
- Flavius Aviano. (1607). The life and fables of Aesop. In the Plantinian office.
- The Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2023). Aesop (Legendary Greek fabulist). https://www.britannica.com/
- University of Illinois. (2012). Wise Animals: Aesop and his followers. http://cooper.library.illinois.edu/