Fables of Aesop

This collection is about as close to the "original" Aesop as we'll ever get. Some of these fables may be genuine Aesops - assuming Aesop actually existed, while others may be stories later attributed to him, or imports from Egypt and even as far as India.

Like a lot of older works, the trick lies in understanding the context. These aren't supposed to be morality tales - that angle was added by the Victorians. Instead they are rhetorical devices, witty little tales to be used during debates to illustrate a point or to embarrass an opponent.

This little part of the introduction, explaining the "brutality" of many of the tales, didn't sit well with me:

...we probably tend to underestimate the ethical transformation of Western culture which

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came about as a result of Christianity. In the West today there is also much brutality, violence and corruption, but among all of that there is also a widespread public consensus that it is a good thing to be kind to children, to care about the unfortunate, to help one's neighbour, to assist the elderly across busy streets and to come to the assistance of someone in distress who may be drowning or being murdered in the street. But these attitudes seem to have been absent in ancient Greece except in the case of occasional individuals. The underlying ethos of the world of Aesop is 'You're on your own, and if you meet people who are unfortunate, kick them when they are down'.

I'm not sure we can extend the fact that the characters of the fables act in amoral ways, that the ancient Greeks condoned that sort of behaviour. As the editors themselves explained, many of these stories are supposed to be funny, and what's more funny than people acting in ridiculous ways?

Take the more modern humourous show, the Simpsons, in which the humour of Homer strangling Bart doesn't stem from a social acceptance of extreme child abuse - it's because the action is so absurd and out of place in the context of a "loving family". In fact, I'd argue the decreasing acceptance of this as humourous since it was first aired is due to our greater recognition of child abuse as a problem in our society - meaning is gag is now "too real" to be funny.

There's also some fables in here that don't make the cut for modern anthologies. There's one rather racist fable about Arabs being dishonest, about which the editors remark in a footnote "Arabs will find this fable offensive, and should avert their eyes". It's clearly not a serious content warning, since it comes after the fable and at the very end of the note, so I have to wonder if this was supposed to be funny, or if the editors just thought they had to acknowledge the obvious racism somehow. They remain silent on the homophobic fable a few pages later, so I don't know.

You're probably getting the idea that I don't like the editors much. It's true. I found them rather snarky, and self-important. My four stars is for the fables themselves, which are fun, and not the editorial content. I suppose I do appreciate the clarifications of which animals are meant by the original stories, giving us a window into the world where before house cats were common, we had house ferrets.

Now that I've read these, I'd love to compare to other historic fable collections, but Sophocles is calling me next, and my Greek journey continues. show less

These short stories of talking animals, plants, and men, attributed to a Grecian slave some 500-600 years before Christ, are a truly mixed bag of the conventional “street smarts” of the day. Some of stories strike a deep chord of wisdom, while others state fairly obvious truths. Still others offer sarcastic objections to life as it is. And, of course, many of the fables betray the skewed worldview of the ancient Grecian who saw the world as being ordered (or disordered, as the case may be) by a company of gods of questionable morals. There are a couple of things worthy of note, one being that Aesop sees nature as being immutable, although he also allows that it is often broader than what we might see at first glance. The foxes are show more always foxy, the sheep always sheepish, the snakes always snaky. Everything is what it is, and it cannot change beyond the bounds of its nature. However, it may be that the reader can expand his understanding of what a fox’s nature is, or a lion’s, etc. Aesop wants us to deal with life as it is with no misconceptions that it might change, but he wants us to know that life is much broader than we may think. Also of note is Aesop’s interaction with the Judeo-Christian faith, as both worldviews developed their concepts of wisdom in the same neighborhood, so to speak. In some cases, it is obvious that the Bible picks up lines or concepts from Aesop, such as “Physician, heal thyself,” or “If a man isn’t willing to work, let him not eat.” In other cases, it is obvious that Aesop picks up lines or concepts from the Bible, such as “Pride comes before a fall,” or the lion who would attack one bull alone but not three banded together. It is interesting to remember that our biblical writers were aware of the schools of thought of their neighbors, just as their neighbors were aware of them. And, on the topic of moral one-liners, it is also interesting to note just how many of Aesop’s lines are still in use today. “Honesty is the best policy,” “Necessity is the mother of invention,” “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” “Look before you leap,” “Slow and steady wins the race,” “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” “Revenge is a double-edged sword,” and “One good turn deserves another” are just a few. Of course, the reader might recognize some of Aesop’s ill-advised morals as well, such as, “Heaven helps those who help themselves,” “Might makes right,” or “Every man for himself.” Again, the wisdom of Aesop is not absolutely to be trusted, but he does make a valuable and interesting contribution to the study of wisdom. show less

Brilliant stuff, but some of the morals seem to contradict others. For example, The Ant And The Grasshopper teaches one to always prepare for the future, whereas The Frogs Desiring A King has the moral "Let well enough alone!" I think most adults can see the nuances differentiating those two stories, but a child might not be able to. And while some stories speak of the importance of teamwork, some exalt individual toughness and refusal to play along with others. So why do I still give this 4 stars? Because of life's pesky gray areas, of course.

Everyone knows Aesop's most famous fables: the fox and the sour grapes, the hen that laid golden eggs, the dog who saw his reflection in the water, the race between the tortoise and the hare, the boy who cried wolf, etc. What becomes quickly evident reading this text -- a translation of all 358 extant works collected under the Aesop 'brand' -- is that our cultural relationship with Aesop is fairly selective.

Taken as a whole, at face value, Aesop's fables are much more about how to avoid being eaten in a vicious, dog-eat-dog world, than they are about teaching quaint moral lessons. It becomes quickly apparent that our understanding of Aesop has been very westernized, Victorianized, and sanitized. Aesop's stories -- the ones we do not show more illustrate for children's books -- are rather violent, morbid, and feature moment-of-death punchlines as a favourite literary device.

For us, Aesop's fables are not simply storied thought experiments, but they provide a glimpse into a broader worldview and add another hue to our understanding of ancient Greek culture. Reading Aesop alongside the remnants of other texts from the 6th and 5th century BCE yields many rich insights, and provides an important interpretive lens for thinking about the fables in their original context -- not ours. show less

There are some books I’ve been aware of since childhood; this is one of them. Recently, I asked myself if I could recall ever having read it from start to finish. So I gave it a try. These are charming tales, some of which suffer from overexposure. I was interested to see the fox featured in many of them, the relatively powerless creature who has to live by his wits. An appropriate stand-in for the fabulist and his listeners.
There are also many tales warning against the danger of trying to pass yourself off as something you’re not. I guess the big bluff is not only a modern plague.
The translation offered here is agreeably colloquial and appropriate for passing on these common-sense bits of folk wisdom.

This seems to be a pretty comprehensive collection of fables. They come from many collections, some directly attributable to Aesop (who seems to have bee a fairly erudite slave) .....some seem to originate in the bible (or maybe even predate the bible). And some seem to have been invented for added by various european writers. After a while, there gets to be a certain sameness about the babies though they all seem to have their own wrinkles. One impression that I've been left with is that there is not a lot of fun out there. They have cruel outcomes with the moral being "Don't be too trustful' or "that's what you get for hanging around in bad company" , etc. Even where there is a nice message as with the lion and the mouse (where the show more mouse is allowed to escape by the lion but later repays him)......it seems that there will be five other similar stories where the lion pounces on the mouse. Yes, found it quite fascinating ..though a little boring after a while. Sometimes, the message or moral of the story is clearly spelled out. At other times, the moral might be pretty hard to discern...or just be absent. Maybe, the real target audience is scholars who are studying fables as a communication tool etc.
Here are a few extracts that caught my attention and some samples of the fables:
Introduction
What might be called the endomythium, the moral inside the story (Greek endo-mythos, ‘inside-story’), was sometimes omitted entirely, as can already be seen in the first extant collection of fables, the poems of the Roman freedman Phaedrus.
The animal characters of Aesop’s fables bear a sometimes uncanny resemblance to those in the ancient folktales of India collected both in the Hindu storybook called the Panchatantra
and also in the tales of the Buddha’s former births, called jatakas.
It is only in medieval Europe that a more elaborate narrative form begins to emerge with the medieval ‘beast epic’ stories of Reynard the fox, inveterate rival of Ysengrimus, the wolf.
It is but a slight jump from this tradition to the horse named Boxer in Orwell’s Animal Farm,
the famous pigs named Wilbur or Babe or Porky, not to mention Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, and innumerable other cartoon animals,
It is generally agreed that the first collection was the work of Demetrius of Phalerum (d. 280 BCE), There are approximately 120 verse fables of Phaedrus that have survived...One of the most curious features of Phaedrus’ fables is his attempt to supply fables about exploitation and injustice with a more pious conclusion
We know even less about Babrius.....Babrius wrote his fables in an unusual style of Greek verse (choliambics) and there are slightly more than 140 fables extant,
Aphthonius was a scholar and teacher of the fourth century CE.....The fables of Aphthonius are forty in number.......As a rule, his fables are quite brief and, with few exceptions, he includes both a promythium and an epimythium for every fable. Given this abundance of editorial moralizing, it is not surprising that in the majority of Aphthonius’ fables there is no endomythium, those witty last words spoken by one of the characters inside the fable itself.
There are just over forty fables ascribed to Avianus in the early fifth century CE.....Accounts of Aesopic fables can be found in the historical writings of the Greek historians Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Plutarch and also in the Roman historian Livy. These historians recount specific fables that were reportedly used in speeches by historical figures, but it was in the Latin West that the fables truly thrived, thanks largely to the prose paraphrases of the Roman poet Phaedrus.
Ademar of Chabannes was a monk and scholar.....he also produced a collection of sixty-seven Aesopic fables,
There are several modern editions of Aesopic fables.....Most important is the monumental work published by Ben Perry in 1952, which is entitled Aesopica.....The French scholar Émile Chambry, who first published his results in a two-volume edition for the Belles Lettres series in 1925–6........Chambry lists ninety-four manuscripts held in public libraries.
Note on the Text and Translation
I have followed the lead of Odo of Cheriton and grouped the fables according to their contents, making it possible to follow the patterns of theme and variation that characterize the Aesopic tradition.
Every Greek and Latin noun, including the names of animals, has a fixed linguistic gender which is either masculine or feminine. The Greek raven, korax, is always masculine, as is the Latin corvus, while the Greek weasel, gale, is always feminine.

Aesop, the Popular Favourite
Having told this much of the story, Demosthenes then turned his back on the audience and began to walk away. The Athenians shouted at him to stop and begged him to finish the story. ‘Indeed!’ said Demosthenes. ‘You want to hear all about the donkey’s shadow, but you refuse to pay attention when someone talks to you about serious matters!’
I. The Fables
Greed and Jealousy......Thus, he voluntarily requested that a punishment be inflicted on his body: by asking to be blinded in one eye, he thus condemned the other man to a life of total darkness, with two blind eyes.
Sun: The Sun and the North Wind were quarrelling with each other as to which of the two of them would be able to make a man disrobe. The North Wind went first, blowing fiercely against the man. Yet as the man grew colder and colder, he only wrapped himself up more snugly in his cloak, clutching at it tightly so as to keep a firm grip no matter how hard the wind might be blowing. Thus the North Wind did the man no harm at all and failed to make him strip off his clothes. Next, the Sun began to shine upon the man so brightly that the very air of the day grew hotter and hotter. The man immediately took off his cloak and bundled it up on his shoulders. The fable shows that to take a humble approach is always more effective and practical than making empty boasts. NOTE: This fable is also found in Plutarch, Advice on Marriage 12.
Fable 193 (Babrius 65 = Perry 294) The Crane and the Peacock The peacock kept waving his golden feathers back and forth while he argued with the grey-winged crane. The crane finally exclaimed, ‘You may make fun of the colour of my wings, but I can rise on them up to the stars and high into the sky. You, on the other hand, can only flap those gilded feathers of yours down there on the ground, just like a rooster. You are never seen soaring up high in the sky!’ I would prefer to be admired while dressed in my well-worn clothes than to live without honour, no matter how fine my clothes might be.
Fable 200 (Babrius 64 = Perry 304) The Fir Tree and the Bramble Bush The fir tree and the bramble bush were quarrelling with one another. The fir tree sang her own praises at length. ‘I am beautiful and attractively tall. I grow straight up, a neighbour to the clouds. I supply the hall’s roof and the ship’s keel. How can you compare yourself, you mere thorn, to such a tree as myself?’ The bramble bush then said to the tree, ‘Just remember the axes which are always chopping away at you! Then even you can understand that it is better to be a bramble bush.’ A famous man has more glory than lesser people, but he is also exposed to greater dangers.
Fable 202 (Aphthonius 36 = Perry 70) The Oak Tree and the Reed A story about a reed and an oak, urging us not to rely on strength. A reed got into an argument with an oak tree. The oak tree marvelled at her own strength, boasting that she could stand her own in a battle against the winds. Meanwhile, she condemned the reed for being weak, since he was naturally inclined to yield to every breeze. The wind then began to blow very fiercely. The oak tree was torn up by her roots and toppled over, while the reed was left bent but unharmed. Those who adapt to the times will emerge unscathed.
Fable 240 (Babrius 4 = Perry 282) The Fisherman and the Fish A fisherman was pulling in the net which he had just cast and, as luck would have it, the net was filled with all kinds of sea creatures. The little fish escaped to the bottom of the net and slipped out through its many holes, but the big fish was caught and lay stretched out flat aboard the boat. To be small is a way to stay safe and avoid problems, whereas you rarely see a man with a big reputation who is able to keep out of danger.
The fable warns us that weak and poor people should not try to rebel against the high and mighty......The same is true of people. Often we are in awe of someone whom we have never even seen, but when we get to know him, we realize that he is really not important at all.

The Lion, the Hare, and the Deer........This is how some people behave: not satisfied with their moderate profits, they instead chase after the chance of something better and as a result they unwittingly lose what they previously had in their possession.
The Man and the New Donkey.....The story shows that a person is considered similar to the people whose companionship he enjoys.
II. Aetiologies, Paradoxes, Insults, and Jokes
Hermes and the Arabs:...... Hermes filled a cart with lies and dishonesty and all sorts of wicked tricks, and he journeyed in this cart throughout the land,The Arabs seized the contents of the cart as if it were a merchant’s valuable cargo.......As a result, Arabs are liars and charlatans, as I myself have learned from experience. There is not a word of truth that springs from their lips.
Truth in the Wilderness: A man was journeying in the wilderness and he found Truth standing there all alone.
An epimythium added to the fable reads: ‘If you want to hear my opinion: the way people live these days is scandalous!
Overall, I liked the book...though it became a bit tedious and somewhat repetitious with , more or less, the same formula for the fables. Probably best taken in short pithy doses as they were always designed to be. Five stars from me. show less

A cute collection of morality stories/fables collected into this volume. I have read it so many times--as an adult, as a kid, as a teen--and each time I take something different away from it. I love it.

In fact, I took a tattoo idea from the Tortise and the Hare fable, and added to it my desire to travel, and voila! Two different ways to travel, but in my case, there isn't necessarily a correct one.