What are Aesop’s Fables?

Aesop’s Fables is a collection of fables written by ancient enslaved Greek and storyteller Aesop in the 5th century BCE. Aesop and his fables are known to us due to their mentioning by ancient Greek philosophers and historians, such as Herodotus. In addition, tales credited to Aesop have been gathered across the centuries in various languages, such as Greek and Latin.

An observer of animals and people, Aesop’s Fables include talking animals and plants with human characteristics. Aesop’s Fables have a solid moral message at the core. His stories have been taught to children to teach them ethical and moral behavior.

Who was Aesop?

Aesop was an Ancient Greek fabulist and storyteller famous for writing a collection of fables known as Aesop’s Fables.

It isn’t easy to gather information about Aesop’s biography and facts about him. His life is a bit of an enigma, and there isn’t enough concrete evidence to suggest he was even a natural person! Some believe another writer may have just used his name. Despite this mystery, there is mention of Aesop throughout Greece’s history, which has allowed historians to build a somewhat fragmented biography.

It’s believed Aesop lived between 620 and 560 BC, but there are disputing records about where he came from.

Facts about Aesop

While we don’t have a complete picture of Aesop’s life, historians have managed to discover some facts about him:

1. Aesop’s Fables may not be Aesop’s Fables! That’s right, while most historians accept there was most probably a man named Aesop who wrote most of the fables, some scholars argue that he didn’t write a lot of the fables attributed to Aesop. Sumerian proverbs tended to follow the same structure and story of Aesop’s Fables, so much so that it may be the case he didn’t write the sayings.
2. He was an enslaved person who was supposedly let go by his second master because he was so intelligent and witty!
3. It’s theorized that he featured talking animals in his fables because he had difficulty speaking but could speak freely through his anthropomorphized animals.

What are fables?

Fables feature animals, plants, legendary creatures, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized (given human qualities). Fables always have an underlying moral lesson learned through reading the story. The importance of fables is not the story itself but the moral learned.

Fables are told to children all around the world. Their simple themes make them easy to understand and help teach valuable life lessons.

Here is a list of Aesop’s Fables:

• The Bear and the Bees
• The Boy Who Cried, Wolf
• The Boys and the Frogs
• The Cat and the Rooster
• The Cat, the Rooster, and the Young Mouse
• The City Mouse and the Country Mouse
• A Council of Mice
• The Dog and His Reflection
• The Nonessential and His Master
• The Fox and the Lion
• The Fox and the Crow
• The Fox and the Mask
• The Frog and the Ox
• The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg
• The Lion and the Mouse
• The Lion’s Share
• The Man and His Two Wives
• The Peacock’s Complaint
• The Rooster and the Fox
• The Rooster and the Jewel
• Sour Grapes
• The Tiger and the Crane
• The Tortoise and the Hare
• Two Men and the Bear
• The Wind and the Sun
• The Wolf and the Crane
• The Wolf and the Goat

Many of Aesop’s Fables have sparked famous sayings that are used today. Some of these include:

• ‘Beauty is only skin deep.’
• ‘Choose the lesser of two evils.’
• ‘Every man for himself.’
• ‘Slow but steady wins the race.’
• ‘Think before you act.’
• ‘You cannot escape your fate.’

Aesop’s Fables – Morals

Every single one of Aesop’s Fables has a moral from which we can learn something. Here, we’ll review some of the most famous fables and their morals.