AESOP'S FABLES

Aesop's Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop (circa 620 BC – 560 BC), a slave and story-teller living in Ancient Greece. Aesop's Fables has also become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, usually involving personified animals.

The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" was derived), The Tortoise and the Hare, The North Wind and the Sun, and The Boy Who Cried Wolf, are well-known throughout the world.

Aesop (from the Greek: Αισωπος, Aisopos), famous for his fables, was a slave who had lived from about 620 to 560 B.C. in Ancient Greece. The place of Aesop's birth is uncertain – Thrace, Phrygia, Aethiopia, Samos, Athens and Sardis all claim the honour. Little was known about him from credible records, except that he was at one point freed from slavery and that he eventually died in the hands of Delphians. In fact, the obscurity shrouding his life has led some scholars to deny his existence altogether.

The Timeless Wisdom Of The Fables