Aesop (also spelled
Æsop, from the
Greek —
Aisōpos), known only for the genre of
fables ascribed to him, was by tradition a
slave (
δούλος) who was a contemporary of
Croesus and
Peisistratus in the mid-
sixth century BC in
ancient Greece. The various collections that go under the rubric "
Aesop's Fables" are still taught as moral lessons and used as subjects for various entertainments, especially children's plays and
cartoons. Most of what are known as Aesopic fables is a compilation of tales from various sources, many of which originated with authors who lived long before Aesop. Aesop himself is said to have composed many fables, which were passed down by oral traditio
noun Socrates was thought to have spent his time turning Aesop’s fables into verse while he was in priso
noun Demetrius Phalereus, another Greek philosopher, made the first collection of these fables around
300 BC. This was later translated into
Latin by
Phaedrus, a slave himself, around
25 BC. The fables from these two collections were soon brought together and were eventually retranslated into Greek by Babrius around A.D. 230. Many additional fables were included, and the collection was in turn translated to Arabic and Hebrew, further enriched by additional fables from these cultures.