Aesop ca. 620-564 B.C.E.

Often when we think of 'literature,' we think of the elevated forms of narrative prose, poetry, and drama. Aesop's fables, which represents "a hodgepodge of funny anecdotes, proverbs, animal stories, and morality tales from the ancient Greco-Roman world" have come to be thought of as children's fare; however, in their day they were nothing of the sort. These tales were told for entertainment, and have been cited and recited by poets, philosophers, historians, and politicians. As these fables represent an extension of the oral tradition that gave way to a variety of performative literature that was "lowly, down-to-earth, unpretentious, and fun" (623).

Aesop himself has been the subject of lore. He was thought to be a slave, reputed for his exceptional "ugliness and outspokenness." In the Middle Ages he was rumored to be a "black Ethiopian" (1). Perhaps these assumptions about the progenitor of these fables says something about the circumstances of his audiences: while Greek tragedy and epic consistently featured high-born characters and members of the aristocracy who wrestle with a moral conscience and struggle to elevate themselves to godlike beings, fables featured the concerns of the lower castes of society, and contained didactic--or moral--messages. Our text observes that "...tragedy and epic, allow us to identify, aspirationally, with people whose status is higher than our own; fables, by contrast, evoke characters who are lowly, and often not even human. They are aimed at ordinary people, not aristocrats, and often suggest the danger and folly of trying to change one's status in life, create revolution, or usurp the position of one's betters" (624). And, unlike the often convenient morality of the upper classes, these tales represent a 'consistent morality' among the folk.

Our text points out that several of the tales told by Aesop feature animals that were not native to Greece. This trope of exotic animal characters suggests a cross-cultural influence among ancient cultures; further it suggests ancient moorings for popular children's fables and folktales prevalent today, including the Brer Rabbit and Tarbaby stories made popular by Joel Chandler Harris in the nineteenth century.