THE WORLD OF AESOP AND HIS FABLES

c. 2000 B.C

In ancient Mesopotamia proverbs and fables featuring animals are recorded on clay tablets. Probably based on older material, now lost, such stories were most likely invented independently in more than one place; prehistoric travelers car ried them back and forth across the world.

c. 620

Aesop was born a slave or possibly captured into slavery at an early age; his birthplace might have been Thrace, Phrygia, Samos, Athens, Sardis, or Ethiopia. As a young man he was taken by a slave trader to what is now Turkey. When no one would buy him, he was taken to the island of Samos, where a man said to be a philosopher called Xanthus purchased him as a servant for his wife. Later he was owned by Iadmon, a Samian, who gave Aesop his freedom.

Seventh-sixth centuries

The Seven Sages of Greece—Solon of Athens, Chilon of Sparta, Thales of Miletus, Bias of Pri ene, Cleobulus of Lindos, Pittacus of Mitylene, and Periander of Corinth—are revered as the source of the highest practical wisdom. According to Plutarch, Aesop is a guest at one of the sages’ banquets.

c. 560

Aesop’s cunning, wisdom, and oratory had freed

him from slavery, but this year they will cost him his life. The citizens of Delphi, offended by perceived insults to their aristocracy and the god Apollo, plant a golden cup in his baggage, then accuse him of having stolen it; they execute Aesop by throwing him off a cliff.

425

In his History of the Greco-Persian wars, the Greek historian Herodotus writes about Aesop.

422

In his comedy Wasps, Aristophanes notes that, at banquets in ancient Athens, a common entertainment was the telling of anecdotes and comic stories in the style of Aesop.

360

Plato records in his dialog Phaedo that Socrates, in prison awaiting execution, had diverted himself by writing some of Aesop’s fables in verse.

c. 300

In Athens, Demetrius Phalareus may compile the first collection of fables attributed to Aesop, but it will not survive after about 900 A.D. In India, the first of the didactic Jataka tales are written and will continue to be recorded until about 400 A.D.; many are based in ancient folklore and have close parallels in Aesop. Part of the canon of sacred Buddhist literature, the collection—some 550 anecdotes and fables—depicts early incarnations of the Buddha.

c. 100

In India, a Sanskrit collection of tales is collected that will form the basis for the Panchatantra (see third and fourth centuries A.D.).

First century

The Roman poet Horace records, in his Satires, one of the most famous of Aesop’s fables, “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse” (no. 141).

c. 15 B.C.

Phaedrus is born as a slave in Thrace; at a young age he moves to Italy, where he gains his freedom. He will live until 50 A.D.

First century A.D.

In Rome, Phaedrus records the oldest surviving collection of Aesopic fables in Latin iambic verse; the five books of his collection contain

some 94 fables. Later editors will rely heavily on Phaedrus as a source for their “Aesop’s fables.”

Second century

Babrius, probably a Hellenized Roman, assembles the oldest extant collection of Aesopic fables in Greek. It includes more than 200 fables, 143 of which are still extant in verse form; 57 others have survived paraphrased in prose. Babrius’s Aesopic fables will also serve as a source for later editors.

Third-fourth centuries

In India, the Panchatantra is compiled; many of these 87 animal fables were ancient oral folktales.

400

Flavius Avianus rewrites in Latin verse 42 of the Greek fables from the Babrius collection. Although these stories are not as succinct as the best fables, the collection will be influential in medieval Europe and often used in schools.

c. 1000

The great collection of Arabic short fiction The 1001 Nights, also known as The Arabian Nights Entertainment, is compiled; based on Indian, Persian, and Arabic folklore, many of the individual stories are undoubtedly even older. In addition to romantic tales of fantasy and magic, The 1001 Nights also contains a number of Aesop-like animal fables.

c. 1160-1190

Marie de France, the greatest woman author of the Middle Ages, composes 103 original fables in French verse; called ysopets, they are in the Aesopic tradition.

c. 1300

The Byzantine scholar Planudes Maximus compiles a well-regarded collection of Aesop’s fables and writes the earliest known biography of Aesop. His most likely fictional descriptions of Aesop portray him as monstrously deformed. However, ancient texts that refer to Aesop make no mention of any such deformity.

1330

The popularity of fables attributed to Aesop leads to new literary creations in the same tra

dition. This year, an anonymous English scribe writes Gesta Romanorum (Deeds of the Romans) ; among the 283 recorded “deeds” are a dozen animal fables similar to those of Aesop.

c. 1450

Movable-type printing is developed, greatly facilitating the publication of fable collections in vernacular languages throughout Europe.

1461

The first book printed in German is a collection of fables attributed to Aesop and Flavius Avianus ; compiled by Ulrich Boner, it is titled Der Edelstein (The Precious Stone).

c. 1476

Heinrich Steinhöwel publishes Esopus , a collection of fables in Latin and German; translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Czech, it will become an international best-seller.

1484

William Caxton publishes an English translation of the French version of Steinhöwel’s Esopus; it is among the first books published in English.

1668—1694

Jean de La Fontaine publishes about 240 poems in the Aesopic tradition; many readers today know Aesopic fables primarily through La Fontaine’s rendition.