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Aesop is considered to be the most important mythmaker of antiquity and the ancient didactic fables, called Aesopian or Aesopian Fables, are attributed to him. The evidence that exists about his life is confusing and contradictory. To this day, Greek and foreign researchers disagree about his existence and origin. He probably came from Thrace, ancient Phrygia (now Turkey) or Samos, while others say he was Ethiopian. Popular legend depicts him as a very ugly man. Aesop was contemporary of the poet Sappho and the Seven Wise Men of Ancient Greece. For some time he was a slave who managed to free himself. Thus, he traveled to many parts of the then known world. In 1543, the first collection of 150 Aesopian fables was printed in Venice. About a century later, in 1644, the first illustrated collection was published in Venice, which is considered the first illustrated book in the world. The 3583 fables attributed to Aesop are short stories of a moral, social and allegorical character, which are formulated in a humorous or mocking, even comical way and have a didactic goal. It is therefore observed that the allegory of the myth is carried out mainly through animals. Animals speak, think and behave like humans and reveal all human weaknesses, passions, vices and defects. Aesop's fables usually end in a proverb or some didactic epithet. They were translated into almost all languages ​​of the world and today they are a very popular part of children's literature. Ancient and subsequent writers such as Phaedrus in Ancient Rome and Jean de La Fontaine in 17th century France have been influenced by him.

This is part of the "From Aesop to La Fontaine" project, which was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The project ends in October of 2022.

References:

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2020, March 26). Aesop. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aesop

Daly, Lloyd. Aesop Without Morals. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1961.

Katsadoros, George C. “Aesopic Fables in the European and the Modern Greek Enlightenment,” Review of European Studies 3:2, 2011.

Lee Rubin, D. (1991). A pact with silence: Art and through in the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine. Ohio State University Press: Colombus.

Papademetriou, I. -Th. A. Aesop as an Archetypal Hero. Athens: Hellenistic Society for Humanistic Study, 1997.