Aesop

Aesop (also spelled Æsop; from the Greek Αισωπος, Aisopos), known only for his fables, was by tradition a slave who lived from about 620 to 560 BC in Ancient Greece. Aesop's Fables are still taught as moral lessons and used as subjects for various entertainments, especially children's plays and cartoons. According to tradition he was at one point freed from slavery and eventually died at the hands of Delphians, but nothing is known about Aesop from credible records. In fact, the obscurity shrouding his life has led some scholars to doubt his existence altogether.

Life

An antique Roman marble figure of Aesop showing him in his traditional guise of an ugly and misshapen man

The place of Aesop's birth is uncertain – Thrace, Phrygia, Ethiopia, Samos, Athens, and Sardis all claim the honour. According to the sparse information gathered about him from references to him in several Greek works (he was mentioned by Aristophanes, Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle), Aesop was a slave of a Greek named Iadmon, who resided on the island of Samos. Aesop must have been freed, for he conducted the public defence of a certain Samian demagogue (Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 20). He subsequently lived at the court of Croesus, where he met Solon, and dined in the company of the Seven Sages of Greece with Periander at Corinth. During the reign of Peisistratus he was said to have visited Athens, where he told the fable of The Frogs Who Desired a King to dissuade the citizens from attempting to depose Peisistratus for another ruler. A contrary story, however, said that Aesop spoke up for the common people against tyranny through his fables, which incensed Peisistratus, who was against free speech.

Popular stories surrounding Aesop were assembled in a vita prefixed to a collection of fables under his name, compiled by Maximus Planudes, a 14th century monk. He was described as extremely ugly and deformed, which is how he was also represented in a marble figure in the Villa Albani in Rome. This biography had actually existed a century before Planudes. It appeared in a 13th century manuscript found in Florence. However, according to another Greek historian Plutarch's account of the symposium of the Seven Sages, at which Aesop was a guest, there were many jests on his former servile status, but nothing derogatory was said about his personal appearance. Aesop's deformity was further disputed by the Athenians, who erected in his honour a noble statue by the sculptor Lysippus. Some suppose the sura, or "chapter," in the Qur'an titled Luqman to be referring to Aesop, a well-known figure in Arabia during the time of Muhammad.

Aesop's Fables

Aesop's Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop. Aesop's Fables has also become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, usually involving personified animals.

Fill in the following chart using complete sentences to detail the Storyline and to isolote the moral of each story.

TITLE	STORYLINE	MORAL
Bitten but not Shy
Borrowed Plumes
A Breed of Faint-Hearts
An Ass in a Lion's Skin (1)
The Victor Vanquished

Swan Song

Seeing is Believing

Where your Treasure is, there will your heart be also

A Bird in the Hand

One Good Turn Deserves Another

An Ass in a Lion's Skin (2)

How the Tortoise Got its Shell

The Law of Self-Preservation

Misplaced Confidence

A Waste of Good Counsel

Bowing Before the Storm

Getting the Worst of Both Worlds

The Irony of Fate

Hope Deferred

The Axe is Laid Unto the Root of the Trees

Go to the ant, thou Sluggard

Cut off your Tails to Save my Face!

Friend or Foe?

The Fox and the Mask

Sour Grapes

A Case for Patience

A Companion in Fear

One-Way Traffic

Taught by Experience

A Lesson for Fools

Delusion

The Mighty Fallen

Trying to Make a Silk Purse out of a Sow's Ear

The One-Eyed Deer

Reaping Without Sowing

Vengeance at Any Price

A Clumsy Liar

The Best Method of Defence

Killed By Kindness