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AESOP (Gr. Aivwvros)

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 277 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AESOP (Gr. Aivwvros) , famous for his Fables, is supposed to have lived from about 62o to 56o B.C. The See also:place of his See also:birth is uncertain—Thrace, See also:Phrygia, Aethiopia, See also:Samos, See also:Athens and See also:Sardis all claiming the See also:honour. We possess little trustworthy See also:information concerning his See also:life, except that he was the slave of Iadmon of Samos and met with a violent See also:death at the hands of the in-habitants of See also:Delphi. A pestilence that ensued being attributed to this See also:crime, the Delphians declared their willingness to make See also:compensation, which, in See also:default of a nearer connexion, was claimed and received by Iadmon, the See also:grandson of his old See also:master. See also:Herodotus, who is our authority for this (ii. 134), does not See also:state the cause of his death; various reasons are assigned by later writers—his insulting sarcasms, the See also:embezzlement of See also:money entrusted to him by See also:Croesus for See also:distribution at Delphi, the See also:theft of a See also:silver See also:cup. Aesop must have received his freedom from Iadmon, or he could not have conducted the public See also:defence of a certain Samian See also:demagogue (See also:Aristotle, See also:Rhetoric, ii. 20). According to the See also:story, he subsequently lived at the See also:court of Croesus, where he met See also:Solon; and dined in the See also:company of the Seven Sages of See also:Greece with See also:Periander at See also:Corinth. During the reign of See also:Peisistratus he is said to have visited Athens, on which occasion he related the See also:fable of The Frogs asking for a See also:King, to dissuade the citizens from attempting to See also:exchange Peisistratus for another ruler. The popular stories current regarding him are derived from a life, or rather See also:romance, prefixed to a See also:book of fables, purporting to be his, collected by See also:Maximus See also:Planudes, a See also:monk of the 14th See also:century.

In this he is described as a See also:

monster of ugliness and deformity, as he is also represented in a well-known See also:marble figure in the See also:Villa See also:Albani at See also:Rome. That this life, however, was in existence a century before Planudes, appears from a 13th-century MS. of it found at See also:Florence. In See also:Plutarch's See also:Symposium of the Seven Sages, at which Aesop is a See also:guest, there are many jests on his See also:original servile See also:condition, but nothing derogatory is said about his See also:personal See also:appearance. We are further told that the Athenians erected in his honour a See also:noble statue by thefamous sculptor See also:Lysippus, which furnishes a strong See also:argument against the fiction of his deformity. Lastly, the obscurity in which the See also:history of Aesop is involved has induced some scholars to deny his existence altogether. It is probable that Aesop did not commit his fables to See also:writing; See also:Aristophanes (Wasps, 1259) represents Philocleon as having learnt the " absurdities " of Aesop from conversation at banquets, and See also:Socrates whiles away his See also:time in See also:prison by turning some of Aesop's fables " which he knew " into See also:verse (See also:Plato, See also:Phaedo, 61 b). See also:Demetrius of Phalerum (345–283 B.C.) made a collection in ten books, probably in See also:prose (Aoycov Aiowireiwv vvvaywyai) for the use of orators, which has been lost. Next appeared an edition in elegiac verse, often cited by Suidas, but the author's name is unknown. See also:Babrius, according to See also:Crusius, a See also:Roman and See also:tutor to the son of See also:Alexander See also:Severus, turned the fables into choliambics in the earlier See also:part of the 3rd century A.D. The most celebrated of the Latin adapters is See also:Phaedrus, a freedman of See also:Augustus. See also:Avianus (of uncertain date, perhaps the 4th century) translated 42 of the fables into Latin elegiacs. The collections which we possess under the name of Aesop's Fables are See also:late renderings of Babrius's version or HpoyvuvaaµaTa, rhetorical exercises of varying See also:age and merit.

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Syntipas translated Babrius into See also:Syriac, and Andreopulos put the Syriac back again into See also:Greek. See also:Ignatius Diaconus, in the 9th century, made a version of 53 fables in choliambic tetrameters. Stories from See also:Oriental See also:sources were added, and from these collections Maximus Planudes made and edited the collection which has come down to us under the name of Aesop, and from which the popular fables of See also:modern See also:Europe have been derived. For further information see the See also:article FABLE; See also:Bentley, Dissertation on the Fables of Aesop; Du Meril, Poesies inidites du moyen age (1854) ; J. See also:Jacobs, The Fables of Aesop (1889) :.i. The history of the Aesopic fable; ii. The Fables of Aesop, as first printed by See also:William See also:Caxton, 1484, from his See also:French See also:translation; Hervieux, See also:Les Fabulistes Latins (1893-1899). Before any Greek See also:text appeared, a Latin translation of too Fabulae Aesopicae by an See also:Italian See also:scholar named Ranuzio (Renutius) was published at Rome, 1476. About 148o the collection of Planudes was brought out at See also:Milan by Buono See also:Accorso (See also:Accursius), together with Ranuzio's translation. This edition, which contained 144 fables, was frequently reprinted and additions made from time to time from various See also:MSS.—the See also:Heidelberg (See also:Palatine), Florentine, Vatican and Augsburg—by Stephanus (1547), Nevelet (161o), See also:Hudson (1718), See also:Hauptmann (1741), Furia (181o), Coray (181o), See also:Schneider (1812) and others. A See also:critical edition of all the previously known fables, prepared by Carl von See also:Halm from the collections of Furia, Coray and Schneider, was published in the Teubner See also:series of Greek and Latin texts. A Fabularum Aesopicarum sylloge (233 in number) from a See also:Paris MS., with critical notes by Sternbach, appeared in a See also:Cracow University publication, Rozprawy akademii unziejetnosci (1894).

End of Article: AESOP (Gr. Aivwvros)

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