LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Aesop: Fables
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Inform students that Aesop, a slave in ancient Greece, was a storyteller. His stories, called fables, were told for hundreds of years before people wrote them down. His fables were short tales that taught important truths about human nature. Aesop’s fables often use animal characters that behave like humans to teach a moral or lesson. (Refer to the ARTSEDGE Unit Fables to help students learn more about the literary form and/or write their own.)
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A collection of fables that relied heavily on Aesop was that of Phaedrus, written in Rome in the 1st century AD. Phaedrus' treatment of them greatly influenced the way later writers used them, notably the 17th century French poet and fabulist Jean de La Fontaine.
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The fables of Aesop have become one of the most enduring traditions of European culture, ever since they were first written down nearly two millennia ago. Aesop was reputedly a tongue-tied slave who miraculously received the power of speech; from his legendary storytelling came the collections of prose and verse fables scattered throughout Greek and Roman literature. First published in English by Caxton in 1484, the fables and their morals continue to charm modern readers: who does not know the story of the tortoise and the hare, or the boy who cried wolf?
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The first extensive translation of Aesop into Latin was done by Phaedrus, a freedman of Augustus in this 1st century AD, although at least one fable had already been translated by the poet Ennius. Avianus ... translated forty two of the fables into Latin elegiacs, probably in the 4th century AD.
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Aesop wrote more than one fable that could be performed. Encourage students to explore other Aesop fables. Like the actors and chorus in ancient Greece, students can alter their masks to create a new character.
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Aesop had become famous for his storytelling and fables. Storytelling has been in existence in every age and in every land. Early man lived in close contact with animals, both wild and domestic. Therefore, it was only natural that stories were invented describing imaginary adventures of animals wherein which they acted and spoke like humans.
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Fables