Æʹsop’s Fables

were compiled by Babʹrios, a Greek, who lived in the Alexandrian age.

Æsop, a Phrygian slave, very deformed, and the writer of fables. He was contemporary with Pythagŏras, about B.C. 570.

Almost all Greek and Latin fables are ascribed to Æsop, as all our Psalms are ascribed to David. The Latin fables of Phædrus are supposed to be translations of Æsopian fables.

Æsop of Arabia. Lokman (?). Nasser, who lived in the fifth century, is generally called the “Arabian Æsop.”

Æsop of England. John Gay. (1688–1732.)

Æsop of France. Jean de la Fontaine. (1621–1695.)

Æsop of Germany, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. (1729–1781.)

Æsop of India. Bidpay or Pilpay. (About three centuries before the Christian era.)

· ·

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.