Aesop's Fables, Volume 10 (Fables 226-250)

Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica: is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with his name have descended to modern times through a number of sources and continue to be reinterpreted in different verbal registers and in popular as well as artistic media.
The fables originally belonged to the oral tradition and were not collected for some three centuries after Aesop's death. By that time a variety of other stories, jokes and proverbs were being ascribed to him, although some of that material was from sources earlier than him or came from beyond the Greek cultural sphere. The process of inclusion has continued until the present, with some of the fables unrecorded before the later Middle Ages and others arriving from outside Europe. The process is continuous and new stories are still being added to the Aesop corpus, even when they are demonstrably more recent work and sometimes from known authors.

This is Volume 10 of 12.

The Weasel and the Man


The Ploughman, The Ass, And The Ox


Demades and His Fable


The Monkey and The Dolphin


The Crow and the Snake


The Dogs and the Fox


The Nightingale and the Hawk


The Rose and the Amaranth


The Man, the Horse, the Ox, and the Dog


The Wolves, the Sheep, and the Ram


The Swan


The Snake and Jupiter


The Wolf and His Shadow


The Ploughman and the Wolf


Mercury and the Man Bitten by an Ant


The Wily Lion


The Parrot and the Cat


The Stag and the Lion


The Imposter


The Dogs and the Hides


The Lion, the Fox, and the Ass


The Fowler, the Partridge, and the Cock


The Gnat and the Lion


The Farmer and His Dogs


The Eagle and the Fox



Manuscripts in Latin and Greek were important avenues of transmission, although poetical treatments in European vernaculars eventually formed another. On the arrival of printing, collections of Aesop's fables were among the earliest books in a variety of languages. Through the means of later collections, and translations or adaptations of them, Aesop's reputation as a fabulist was transmitted throughout the world.

Initially the fables were addressed to adults and covered religious, social and political themes. They were also put to use as ethical guides and from the Renaissance onwards were particularly used for the education of children. Their ethical dimension was reinforced in the adult world through depiction in sculpture, painting and other illustrative means, as well as adaptation to drama and song. In addition, there have been reinterpretations of the meaning of fables and changes in emphasis over time.

Aesop:

Aesop (c. 620 – 564 BCE): was a Greek fabulist and story teller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. Many of the tales are characterized by animals and inanimate objects that speak, solve problems, and generally have human characteristics.

Scattered details of Aesop's life can be found in ancient sources, including Aristotle, Herodotus, and Plutarch. An ancient literary work called The Aesop Romance tells an episodic, probably highly fictional version of his life, including the traditional description of him as a strikingly ugly slave , who by his cleverness acquires freedom and becomes an adviser to kings and city-states. Older spellings of his name have included Esop(e) and Isope. Depictions of Aesop in popular culture over the last 2500 years have included many works of art and his appearance as a character in numerous books, films, plays, and television programs.

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