The Fables of Aesop - Essay Example

Aesop It is to this day that the birth place of Aesop is disputed. Different communities like Thrace, Phrygia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Athens, Samos, Amorium and Sardis all have a claim or two as far as his birth place is concerned. Modern writers claim that he was from the continent of Africa. Even the life of Aesop is filled with anonymity as a matter of fact. He lived as a slave in Samos in 550 B.C. His life is accounted for in The Book of Xanthus the Philosopher and His Slave Aesop. He was time and again mentioned by Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle and Xenophon. He served as a slave for Xanthus who used to reside within Samos which was an island. Aesop is thought to have been freed as a slave; the reason being that he conducted the public defense of someone who hailed from the Samian demagogue. After this he started to reside in the Court of Croesus. He had a chance to meet Solon and used to dine with the Seven Sages of Greece with Periander at Corinth. It was during the reign of the Peisistratus that he was known to have made a visit to Athens, Greece. At this point, he narrated the fable of The Frogs Who Desired a King and this essentially deterred away the citizens from making an endeavor to overthrow Peisistratus so that they could find another ruler for their own selves. However, there is a flip side to the same story as well. There was the basis of Aesop being a common man’s voice and he spoke for the tyranny that was meted out against them time and again. These were accounted for through his different fables and stories which angered Peisistratus endlessly. The reason for the same was that Peisistratus was against the norm of having free speech under his rule and within his very people. The historian Herodotus suggested that Aesop met a horrendous death at the hands of the residents of Delphi. However the reason for the death was never stated and to this day, it is known as a mystery more than anything else. With the passage of time, the writers came up with their own versions which suggested more or less similar stories regarding his death; however a few had totally different tales to tell. He was coined with the problem of insulting people through his sarcastic remarks as well as to the extent that some writers wrote that he used to embezzle money and thus this made the eventual move for his death at the hands of the residents of Delphi. This money was entrusted upon Aesop by Croesus so that he could distribute the same to the Delphi residents. Then there is another story regarding his death where some writers suggest that it was related with the alleged sacrilege of a silver cup. The popular stories which were related with Aesop were documented in a vita that was fixed with his collection of different fables and those which were published under his very name. The same were compiled by Maximus Planudes who was a 14th century priest. This monk was extremely ugly and deformed in his personality which eventually is the solitary basis for making a grotesque figure in the ancient Rome. The same was related with the “portrait of Aesop”. This biography occurred 100 years before Planudes as it was apparent in the 13th century manuscripts which were found in Florence. Plutarch’s account suggested that in this symposium, Aesop was a mere guest and there were a number of jests on his former servile status. However there was nothing crude or disparaging as far as his personal experience was concerned and absolutely nothing was said in this regard. Athenians disputed the deformity related with Aesop and they erected a noble statue in his respect and honor which was designed by the sculptor Lysippus. There are a number of Muslims who are of the belief that the Holy Quran, the book of the Muslims has a sura or chapter by the name of Aesop, titled Luqman which indeed is a reference to Aesop himself. He used to be a renowned personality in the time of Hazrat Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him), the last Prophet of Allah (God) in the Arab. The mention of Aesop is made in the Egyptian myth The Girl and the Rose-Red Slippers, which is considered by a number of children as the first story of Cinderella. Aesop’s Fables or more commonly called the collection of the fables was documented with the name of Aesopica. It basically makes a reference to the different collections of moralized stories which were credited on the shoulders of Aesop himself. In fact such is the generic form of his fables that brief fables are attached with his name and they are known as “Aesop’s Fables”. Most of these were linked up with the personified animals more than anything else. Amongst the most famous of these fables are The Fox and the Grapes, The Tortoise and the Hare, The North Wind and the Sun and The Boy Who Cried Wolf. These fables are indeed well known throughout the world and literally everybody knows about them, to this day and age. It is because of the fame of these fables that a number of poets and writers have time and again adopted his fables and piece of works. The noteworthy among them are the French poet Jean de La Fontaine and Russian writer Leo Tolstoy who used to write free adaptations of his fables in his writings. Thus Aesop was renowned for his work in the field of fables and he still has a lot of respect for his work and sayings all over the world. His name is engraved amongst the very best in time and he will surely live to be as one of the giants of human personalities that man will come to know in the coming times. All said and done, Aesop’s fables leave an impression which is not only indelible but also long-lasting. BIBLIOGRAPHY Jacobs, Joseph. The Fables of Aesop: Selected, Told Anew, and Their History Traced, 1889 Word Count: 1,009 Read More