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Aesop was a Greek
folk hero who is supposed to have lived in the 6th century BC. He gained
a great reputation as a teller of animal fables. Through these many
fables, Aesop showed the wise and foolish behavior of men, and taught a
lesson in the form of a moral. Not much is known about the life of Aesop.
It is believed Aesop was born in Thrace, Greece, as a slave. It is said
that his wisdom so delighted one of his masters that the slave was given
his freedom. According to one tradition, Aesop lived for a while as a
slave on the island of Samos, after being freed he traveled widely, then
was murdered while visiting Delphi.
There are no records that Aesop
ever wrote down his fables or published them. His fables were not meant
to entertain children. He told them as moral lessons for adults, who in
turn passed them on to others. Not until 200 years after his death did
the first written collection of fables appear. Aesop's fables later
served as an inspiration for the writings of Jean de La Fontaine, a
17th-century French writer. Since then Aesop's Fables have been
translated into almost every language in the world.
Source:
Stewart, Pat (illustrator). Aesop' s Fables. Dover Publications,
Inc., 1994
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