Aesop: unclear biography, no written fables, with timeless morals

1. Nobody knows who was Aesop. All what we can find about him is unreliable and old. There is pretty wide agreement he was a slave who was freed and became a great rhetorician. But it is not clear where this happened.

Or when.

Or where he was from.

Or if he even existed.

Aesop's biography can be found in several books but all of them belong to the fiction section.

So when we try to answer the question 'Who is Aesop?' we should probably say, it is a trademark used to sign famous fables. Many of Aesop's fables were written more than thousand years after he supposedly lived.

2. Reality or fiction, several historians from Old Greece mentioned Aesop's name. His cleverness helped him not only to get freedom, he became adviser to influential people (that includes kings) too. His low social status did not allow him directly criticizing decisions of nobility, so he was forced to use fables to illustrate their mistakes and provide them with proper advice.

3. Like every celebrity Aesop should be described in as many details as possible. His appearance is certainly at the top of the list. There are speculations about African origin and dark tone of his skin. The word Aesopus was for centuries translated as 'from Ethiopia' or simply 'dark man'.

Etymologically this is wrong but in 1971 they still made a TV movie with Bill Cosby playing Aesop. Thanks to imagination of medieval artists he was also a dwarf, stutterer, hunchback and a lame. It seems for many centuries writers and painters competed in showing his ugliness.

4. Ugly or cute, Aesop was supposedly involved in a romance with one of the most popular ladies of questionable virtues in his times (about 5 centuries AD).

5. Aesop's work, no matter who's originally was, inspired many writers to write their own fables in verses or prose, or rewrite Aesop's, often with humorous and surprising, even shocking twists.

We don't have enough space for all the names, but we should mention at least Ambrose Bierce and Jean de La Fontaine as two of the greatest.

The influence of former slave from Ancient Greece didn't stop in literature.

Many paintings, musical compositions, theater plays, movies... were made after 'his' tales.

Why? Their characters and structures are simple and their morals are useful for different reasons. Some are really evergreen and can be used as such and some are so outdated they almost scream for artistic reinterpretation.

Because they are public domain, nobody don't have to worry about copyright issues either, so it is a win win ...

6. Many of the Aesop's fables are almost the same as tales in another famous collections from India and Southeast Asia. Dozens of stories from Panchatantra and Jataka tales share the same plots and morals, many others differ in characters or plots and others have completely different morals.

Nobody knows how many of fables from Ancient Greece originate in India and in how many cases the opposite is true.

7. What we can say for sure, some of the more famous fables attributed to Aesop could never be his work. Among these are: Mice in council, Milkmaid and her pail, Scorpion and frog, Wolf in sheep's clothing... So when talking about Aesop we should think more as of a brand than writer.

8. The so called Aesop quotes are often attributed to Aesop although some of them come from stories written many centuries after he supposedly lived. Any excuse will serve the tyrant origins in The wolf and the lamb, One cannot be first in everything comes from Juno and the Peacock, Crying over spilt milk from The milkmaid and her pail, ...

10. As we can expect from his mysterious life Aesop's death should be nothing but spectacular. Citizens of Delphi, afraid to be shown in not so favorable light, accused him stealing from the temple of Apollo (bribed servant helped them) and sentenced Aesop to death.

Before he was thrown from the cliff, he said: 'You can kill me, but my death will be revenged by great misfortunes.'

After he died Delphi was really affected by many problems, and the situation settled down only after people from Delphi built a temple dedicated to Aesop and punished his murderers. That's what I call the power of the word.

Esop's life, fables, morals, followers
If you want to know who was Aesop (sometimes called Esop), what are his most famous fables (with short summaries and morals) and some background, don't hesitate to visit this page.