Aesop is the storyteller of ancient Greece to whom hundreds of fables are attributed, from The Hare and the Tortoise to The Fox and the Grapes. Little is known for certain about his life, but his short animal tales with a moral have been retold for more than two thousand five hundred years.
Genres
fairy tales and fables
A life between history and legend
According to the historian Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC, Aesop was a slave who lived on the island of Samos in the sixth century BC and was later freed. He was said to have died at Delphi, put to death by the citizens.
A later romance, the Life of Aesop, describes him as ugly and unable to speak at first, then as a witty slave who outsmarts his master, the philosopher Xanthus. Most of these stories are legend.
The fables
Aesop's fables were passed on orally and used by orators and philosophers; Socrates is said to have put some into verse in prison. The first known written collection was made by Demetrius of Phalerum around 300 BC, now lost.
Later collections in Greek by Babrius and in Latin by Phaedrus preserved them, and many fables from other sources were added to 'Aesop' over the centuries.
Aesop in the world
The fables were printed in English by William Caxton in 1484 and have been retold by La Fontaine in French, by Ivan Krylov in Russian, and by countless others. They have long been used to teach reading and moral lessons to children.
George Fyler Townsend's English translation of 1867 became one of the most widely reproduced collections.
Anecdotes
Fables in prison
In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates says that in his last days in prison he turned some of Aesop's fables into verse, obeying a dream that told him to make music.
Riddles for kings
One of the legends in the Life of Aesop tells how, as adviser to a king of Babylon, he answered the riddles sent by the pharaoh of Egypt and won a contest of wits for his master.
Frequently asked questions
Was Aesop a real person?
Ancient writers believed so, and Herodotus mentions him, but nothing certain is known of his life, and many fables attributed to him are older or later.
How many fables are attributed to Aesop?
Several hundred: the modern scholarly catalogue, the Perry Index, numbers more than seven hundred fables in the Aesopic tradition.
Which are the most famous fables?
The Hare and the Tortoise, The Fox and the Grapes, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Ant and the Grasshopper and The Lion and the Mouse.