Information about the life of the great fable-teller Aesop is very limited; it is not even certain whether he lived or not. According to various sources, he is a mythical, fictional figure who never existed and has been remembered throughout history as an intermediary for the telling of fables. However, some sources, such as the book The Life of Aesop, thought to date from the 1st century BC, say that he was born in Phrygia, describe in detail how ugly he was, and describe his adventurous life in humorous language.
The historian Herodotus writes that Aesop lived on the island of Samos in the Aegean Sea and was born in Thrace. Some sources write that Aesop was born near Eskişehir in Anatolia. According to Herodotus, Aesop lived in the early 6th century BC, was captured in a war, sold as a slave, freed by his owner thanks to his wit and ability to tell tales, and died in Delphi. Herodotus portrays Aesop as a famous fabulist. This information is supported by references to Aesop by the comedian Aristophanes. From Aristophanes’ plays, it seems that he assumed that almost everyone was aware of Aesop’s stories. Aesop is also mentioned by Athenian philosophers and writers such as Xenophon, Aristotle, Plato and, through his transmission, Socrates. Aristotle even paid special attention to Aesop and tried to collect his fables.
Originally part of the oral tradition, fables became part of the written tradition with the spread of writing culture in ancient Greece and then in the Roman world. The Athenian philosopher Demetrius Phalereus was the first to compile Aesop’s fables into a book, but no trace of this work remains. The first compilation attempt that has survived belongs to the Roman poet Phaedrus, who translated the tales from Greek into Latin in the 1st century AD. He was followed by the poet Babrius, who translated the tales into Greek verse. In the following centuries, many poets and storytellers compiled Aesop’s fables. The best known of these is the French storyteller Jean de La Fontaine. La Fontaine was largely inspired by Aesop in more than half of the 239 fables he wrote.
Closer to the present day, the identification of fables historically attributed to Aesop through Greek and Latin sources has gradually become an area of academic research. Notable works in the modern period include collections by Leopold Hervieux (1893-99), Émile Chambry (1927), Ben Perry (1952) and Gert-Jan van Dijk (1997).
Although modern and academic studies on Aesop date back to the 19th century, the first Aesop collection, which is more holistic and analytical than previous studies and compiled from ancient Greek and Roman sources, belongs to Émile Chambry. In this collection, published in French in Paris in 1927, 358 stories attributed to Aesop are numbered and listed in alphabetical order.
Until recently, Aesop’s fables were not considered children’s literature. In antiquity, they were narratives addressed to adults, dealing with religious, social and political issues, and in essence allowing people to implicitly criticize rulers. It was only after the Renaissance that fairy tales began to be interpreted for children and used as an educational and moral tool. Contrary to popular belief, the protagonists of Aesop’s fables are not only animals and plants, but also mythical and mythological characters. For example, not only do animals, plants or inanimate beings think, speak and behave like humans, but humans also appear before the gods and speak to them. At the end of the tales, which reveal various human states such as cunning, deceitfulness, misfortune, greed, ambition, cowardice, helplessness, dishonesty, disloyalty and stupidity, a moral lesson, message or advice is usually given. In this respect, Aesop’s fables continue to accompany the human story today, as they have for thousands of years.
Sculptor
A man carved a wooden statue of the god Hermes and went to the market to sell it. When he waited a long time and there were no buyers, he shouted, “I am selling a god who brings both luck and money,” to attract people’s attention. A passerby asked him, “If the statue is so useful, why are you selling it instead of using it yourself?” “I urgently need cash, but he is in no hurry to help,” the sculptor replied.
The Fox and the Grapes
A hungry fox came under a vine. And what a vine it was! Ripe grapes were hanging in clusters, making the man’s mouth water. The fox jumped up and down to eat the grapes, but he couldn’t reach the clusters. No matter what he did, he could not even pick a single grape. Finally, he conceded defeat, and as he walked away in anger, he said, “None of them have been picked yet. They are all rotten!” How easy it is to despise what one cannot achieve.
The Boy and the Wolf
A boy standing on a high rock saw a wolf passing by below. He began to insult him and mock him. The wolf stopped and looked at him. “Coward! Do you think you can make me angry? It is not you who insults me, it is that high rock you are standing on!”
