Observing the life and characteristics of animals, the fabulist makes a comparison between them and the moral characteristics of men. Trickery is not only exclusive to the fox, calmness — not only for pigeons, deceit — not only for the snake, cowardice — not just for rabbits. All these properties can be encountered in the conduct of people. Seeing these similarities, people began to call one another fox, snake, rabbit in their domestic relations.
But the images of animals and plants also have a parabolic meaning: the donkey began to express the characteristics of a hard and stupid man, the sheep — of the gentle and harmless, the snake — of the evil and vindictive, and the wolf reveals the nature of an evil and cruel man.
In that sense Aesop summarizes the essential morals of his time, giving them a satirical evaluation. To hide the sharpness of his critics, but also to provoke the resourcefulness of people, Aesop often likens people with animals and plants. This particular sense of expression has been associated with Aesop throughout the centuries, starting from ancient Greece, going into Rome and Byzantium, reaching the Renaissance and surviving until today.
Since the time of Aesop the fable was a powerful tool to expose and ridicule our ills and vices as people and as a society. It is up to us to discover ourselves what is hidden behind the images presented by the author.
Often, the hare takes a nap or takes too many breaks. The persistent tortoise, despite being slower, wins because it persevered. It is thought by modern writers that he may have been of African origin, it is said that his name is likely derived from "Aethiopian", a word used by the Greeks to refer mostly to dark skinned people of the African interior and that the stories are full of animals present in Africa, many of the creatures being quite foreign to Greece and Europe.
Aesop was also briefly mentioned in the classic Egyptian myth, "The Girl and the Rose-Red Slippers", considered by many to be history's first Cinderella story. In the myth, the freed slave Rhodopis mentions that a slave named Aesop told her many entrancing stories and fables while they were slaves on the island of Samos.
According to the historian Herodotus , Aesop met with a violent death at the hands of the inhabitants of Delphi , though the cause was not stated. Aesop's Fables or Aesopica 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.
Aesop facts for kids Kids Encyclopedia Facts. Some may say that Aesop is infamous for the life he led over years ago and mostly for the hundreds of fables that have been attributed to his name since. Not every fable, however, that has been linked to Aesop is his own original material. The legend tells it that Aesop lived during the sixth century BC, scholars have narrowed down his birthplace to a few different places but no one knows for sure.
He was born a slave, and in his lifetime two different masters owned him before being granted his freedom. The slave masters were named, Xanthus and Iadmon, the latter gave him his freedom as a reward for his wit and intelligence.
King Croesus of Lydia was so impressed with Aesop that he offered him residency and a job at his court. While on a mission for King Croesus to distribute a certain amount of gold to the people of Delphi in Greece, there was a misunderstanding about how much gold each person was supposed to receive. Aesop became discouraged because the Delphians did not seem appreciative enough of the gift from the King so Aesop decided to take it all back to King Croesus.
On his journey back the people of Delhi, who thought he was actively cheating them and giving them a bad reputation, tracked him down.
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