PhaedrusBy Keith Hipolito

Gaius Julius Phaedrus

Born c. 15 B.C in Pydna of Roman, Macedonia

Died 50 AD in Italy

Roman Fabulist

First writer to Latinize books of fables, producing it in iambic metre of Greek prose fables and made extensive use of Aesop’s Fables

Early Life

Slave by birth

Lived in the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, and Claudius

Traveled to Italy as a Freedman under the Emperor Augustus’ household

Suffered from the wrath of Sejanus, a minister from Tiberius and went through trials and punishment.

Writing StyleCompared to Ennius, Lucilius & Horace who also intertwined fables into their poem, Phaedrus saw himself as a genuine artist.

Combined Charm and a Didactic Purpose

Short

Mannerist style

Uses abstract concepts that belies an awareness of literary canon, esp. Augustan works

drawn from daily life, history, and mythology

Usually compared with Babrius, was inspired by La Fontaine

What is Fable?

Def. a short story, typically with animals as characters conveying a moral

One of the oldest forms of storytelling

Appear in almost every culture around the world

The oldest form is known as a myth

Less primitive than the animistic tale

The Aesop Fable has a foundation of a myth

Famous Works

The Fox and the Sour Grapes

The Wolf and the Lamb

The Lion’s Share

The Two Wallets

The Pearl in the Dung-Heap

Romulus Collection ( prose & verse )

Fame coacta vulpes alta in vinea

Uvam appetebat, summis saliens viribus.

Quam tangere ut non potuit, discedens ait:

“Nondum matura est; nolo acerbam sumere.

Qui facere quae non possunt verbis elevant,

Adscribere hoc debebunt exemplum sibi.

Pg. 401 in Wheelocks Latin

Prose Romulus

• Largest, oldest, & most known

• Contains 83 fables

• Its as old as the 10th century

• Based on earlier prose version known as Aesop

• Collection of fables in the Weissenburg manuscript is the same version

• Became a source from which in the second half of middle ages, all the collections of Latin Fables were wholly or partially drawn

Verse Romulus• Written in elegiac verse

• Also known as Elegiac Romulus

• Made in the 12th century

• Common teaching text for Latin and was most popularly read in the Renaissance era

Phaedrus by PlatoDialogue between Socrates and Phaedrus

Phaedrus was composed around 370 BC, around the same time as Plato’s Symposium and Republic

Discusses the art of rhetoric and how it should be practiced as well as metempsychosis (reincarnation and exotic love)

Also talks about soul, madness, and divine

Works Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaedrus_(fabulist)

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674994805

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/454880/Phaedrus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaedrus_(fabulist)

http://biography.yourdictionary.com/phaedrus