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'''Aesop''', or '''Æsop''' (from the Greek ''Aisopos''), known only for his fables, was by tradition a slave who lived from about [[620 BC|620]] to [[560 BC]] in [[Ancient Greece]]. [[Aesop's Fables]] are still taught as moral lessons and used as subjects for various entertainments, especially children's plays and cartoons.

Nothing was known about Aesop from credible records. The tradition was that he was at one point freed from slavery and that he eventually died at the hands of [[Delphi]]ans. In fact, the obscurity shrouding his life has led some scholars to deny his existence altogether.

==Life==

The place of Aesop's birth is uncertain – [[Thrace]], Phrygia, Ethiopia, [[Samos]], [[Athens]] and Sardis all claim the honour. Some scholars believe that he could have been African. His given name, Aesop, is the Ancient Greek word for "Ethiop", the archaic word for a dark-skinned person of African origin.

According to the sparse information gathered about him from references to him in several Greek works (he was mentioned by [[Aristophanes]], [[Plato]], [[Xenophon]] and [[Aristotle]]), Aesop was a slave of a Greek named Iadmon, who resided on the island of [[Samos]]. Aesop must have been freed, for he conducted the public defence of a certain Samian demagogue (Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 20). He subsequently lived at the court of [[Croesus]], where he met [[Solon]], and dined in the company of the [[Seven Sages of Greece]] with [[Periander]] at [[Corinth]]. During the reign of [[Peisistratus]] he was said to have visited [[Athens]], where he told the fable of ''The Frogs Who Desired a King'' to dissuade the citizens from attempting to depose Peisistratus for another ruler. A contrary story, however, said that Aesop spoke up for the common people against tyranny through his fables, which incensed Peisistratus, who was against free speech.

According to the historian [[Herodotus]], Aesop met with a violent death in the hands of the inhabitants of [[Delphi]], though the cause was not stated. Various suggestions were made by later writers, such as his insulting sarcasms, the embezzlement of money entrusted to him by [[Croesus]] for distribution at Delphi, and his alleged sacrilege of a silver cup. A pestilence that ensued was blamed on his execution, and the Delphians declared their willingness to make compensation, which, in default of a nearer connection, was claimed by Iadmon, grandson of Aesop's former master.

Popular stories surrounding, Aesop were assembled in a ''vita'' prefixed to a collection of fables under his name, compiled by Maximus Planudes, a [[14th century]] monk. He was described as extremely ugly and deformed, which is how he was also represented in a marble figure in the Villa Albani in Rome. This biography had in fact been in existence a century before Planudes. It appeared in a [[13th century]] manuscript found in Florence. However, according to another Greek historian [[Plutarch]]'s account of the symposium of the Seven Sages, at which Aesop was a guest, there were many jests on his former servile status, but nothing derogatory was said about his personal appearance. Aesop's deformity was further disputed by the Athenians, who erected in his honour a noble statue by the sculptor [[Lysippus]].

==Aesop's Fables==

[[Aesop's Fables]] refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop. Aesop's Fables has also become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, usually involving personified animals.

The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as ''[[The Fox and the Grapes]]'' (from which the idiom "sour grapes" was derived), ''[[The Tortoise and the Hare]]'' and ''The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf'' (also known as ''[[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]]''), are well-known throughout the world.

== Sources ==

*Caxton, John, 1484. ''The history and fables of Aesop'', Westminster. Modern reprint edited by Robert T. Lenaghan (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1967).
**[http://www.bartleby.com/39/7.html Caxton's famous Epilogue]
*Bentley, Richard, 1697. ''Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris... and the Fables of Æsop''. London.
*Jacobs, Joseph, 1889. ''The Fables of Aesop: Selected, Told Anew, and Their History Traced'', as first printed by William Caxton, 1484, from his French translation
**[http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/a/aesop/a3j/a3j_hist.html i. ''A short history of the Aesopic fable'']
**ii. ''The Fables of Aesop''
*Handford, S. A., 1954. ''Fables of Aesop''. New York: Penguin.
*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.
*Temple, Olivia and Robert (translators), 1998. ''Aesop, The Complete Fables,'' New York: Penguin Classics. (ISBN 0-14-044649-4)
**[http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1998/98.5.16.html Bryn Mawr Classical Review, with Aesop bibliography]

==External links==

*{{gutenberg author|id=Aesop|name=Aesop}}
* [http://www.aesopfables.com AesopFables.com - Large collection of fables alongwith drawings, readings, and history]
* [http://www.elook.org/literature/aesop/fables/ Aesop's Fables - Collection of over 500 fables]
* [http://www.greek-literature-online.com/aesop/ Aesop's Fables] from Greek Literature Online

[[Category:620 BC births]]
[[Category:560 BC deaths]]
[[Category:Ancient Greeks]]

@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
-*{{gutenberg author|id=Aesop|name=Aesop}}
 * [http://www.aesopfables.com AesopFables.com - Large collection of fables alongwith drawings, readings, and history]
 * [http://www.elook.org/literature/aesop/fables/ Aesop's Fables - Collection of over 500 fables]

Aesop - Revision history

Irlandos: /* External links */

Irlandos at 11:17, November 18, 2005