Aesop - Classic Literature Aesop
Aesop, master of the fable, is a person of mystery. He was likely born a slave around the year 620 B.C. Where he was born is unclear. Thrace, Phrygia, Aethiepia, Samos, Athens, and Sardis all lay claim to being his place of birth. At the least, he was born in Greece.
It is very probable that Aesop did not commit his tales to writing himself. Rather, they were passed orally and ultimately written by others.
Aesop, today, is assumed to be a teller of fables who teaches morals to children. This Aesop is a more modern invention that reflects literally thousands of years of development. Many of the fables ascribed to him today have very disparate origins.
In Aesop’s time, fables were not disguised as moral tales for children. Some are version well-known today like the "The Tortoise and the Hare", "The Ant and the Grasshopper" but early fables were more frequently designed to explain causes of natural phenomena. They were characterized by a more hard-nosed realism.
Aesop tried to explain via fable, for example, why weeds seem to grow better than seeds that are planted. He said that weeds are the natural offspring of Mother Earth. She nurtures them more favorably, just as mothers favor their own children above all others.
Aesop was said to originally be the mute slave of the philosopher Xanthus. Because he did a favor for one of the attendants of the goddess Isis, he was given the ability to speak and to create fables.
Aesop then became the slave of Jadmon, in Samos. He must have been freed by Jadmon, probably for his learning and wit. As a freedman, he was able thus to take an active interest in public affairs, and take part in public speaking.
Aesop appeared to have had a strong desire to teach and to learn. He traveled through many of the city-states of the time. Eventually he came to Sardis. H was part of the court of the king of Lydia, Croesus, who was a great patron of learning and learned men. He met at the court with many of the great sages of the day and pleased the king with his abilities.
Aesop became employed by Croesus and was asked to deal with many difficult and delicate affairs of state. He traveled to Corinth and to Athens where, through his wise fables, he tried to reconcile the inhabitants to the administration of their respective rulers.
Aesop related the "Fable of the Frog asking for a King" on behalf of Peisistratus, the ruler of Athens. The people of Athens wanted to exchange him for another ruler. After hearing the fable and contemplating the wisdom contained within the fable, the people of Athens dropped their demands and Peisistratus remained in charge.
Aesop’s death was supposedly caused by one of these missions. Croesus sent him to Delphi with a large sum of gold for distribution among the citizens. On his arrival, he became outraged at their covetousness, and sent the gold back. This enraged the Delphians who accused him of impiety and, despite being an ambassador, had him killed.
Aesop had his revenge post-humously. A series of calamitous events were visited on the Delphians until then made a public reparation for their crime. The term "The blood of Aesop" came to mean that wrongs would not go unpunished.
Socrates added to the longevity of the fables of Aesop, While he was awaiting his own death in prison, Socrates began to write some of the fables of Aesop that he knew in verse form.
Socrates was likely attracted by the earth wisdom found in Aesop’s fables. However, the most significant ancient thinkers who were attracted to the fables seemed much more interested in using them as rhetorical devices which could be used to persuade a public audience to take a particular point of view. In this sense, the most important collector of Aesop’s fables was Demetrius of Phalerum, who studied with Aristotle, became ruler of Athens and of the Great Alexandrian Library.
