ENG-1102 Term III Research Paper

Professor Elizabeth Owens 

2/28/2009

By: Brooke Galo

When you look up the writings of Aesop, you immediately realize that there is something similar in all of his fables: simple moral endings to each story. These moral endings are as relevant now, surpassing time, place, and history, to bring the same enlightenment to us today as they did over 2000 years ago.

The history as to who Aesop was is cloudy and staggered.

It is speculated that he was from Ancient Greece; however, the dates of his birth and death are still not confirmed.

Many notations state that he was born in 620 B.C. and died in 560 B.C.

Aesop’s Fables are mentioned in many other Ancient Greeks works.

Works like Aristophanes comedy “The Wasps”, which was about Philocleon who learned about the “absurdities” of Aesop from parties and banquets.

In addition, Plato wrote that Socrates “whiled away his jail time turning some of Aesop’s fables ‘which he knew’ into verses.”

The first history that is found about Aesop’s Fables was when he visited Athens. He related the fable “The Frogs Desiring a King” to the citizens of Athens to try to discourage them from changing to another ruler that could have possibly ripped their community apart at the seams.

Aesop never did put his fables in writing, as far as history tells. The first written fables were put together by Demetrius of Phalerum and were held in the library at Alexandria during the Hellenistic period; however, no copies of this manuscript have been found today.

William Caxton published an English translation of Aesop’s Fables in 1484. This publication is still in circulation today. Caxton did not look at the material as being adult but rather ageless. He felt that the talking beasts, mythical creatures and moral tone of the stories would make for great childhood reading.

Not every fable said to be by Aesop is actually Aesop’s own original material. Over the years some of the wording and possible meanings have been changed in translation and through storytelling. Some original details may have been mistranslated, completely lost or even altered but, without the translation of his works, storytelling over thousands of years, and the good old-fashioned talent of reading, Aesop would not be remembered at all.