Aesop and the most famous fables of him analyzed
Who did not listen, in their childhood, to some of these fables before going to sleep? These short stories, followed by a moral, are part of the collective imagination and have lasted through time until today.
We are now going to meet the best known fable counter, Aesop, and some of his most famous stories, in the translation of Pedro Bádenas de la Peña and Javier López Faca.
The hare and the Tortoise
The story below is an Aesop classic compiled by La Fontaine, another great promoter of this literary genre. "The hare and the tortoise" is a typical fable: it is not known where or when the events occurred, and the main characters are humanized animals, that is, they have consciousness, language and feelings humans.
A tortoise and a hare argued over who was faster. Thus, they fixed a date and a place and parted company. The hare, due to her natural rapidity, neglected to rush, threw herself over the edge of the road and fell asleep. But the tortoise, aware of his own slowness, did not stop running, and thus overtook the sleeping hare and took the prize of triumph.
The fable shows that effort often overcomes careless nature.
The Ant and the Grasshopper
The story "The Cicada and the Ant" is perhaps Aesop's most famous and widespread fable. The story is short, barely two paragraphs long, and presents two antagonistic animals as characters. main: the ant, symbol of work and commitment, and the cicada, symbol of laziness and neglect. While the ant worked hard all summer to stock up in winter, the cicada, an immediate, spent time singing without thinking about the winter to come.
In the winter an ant would aerate the grain that it had gathered during the summer from its anthill. A hungry cicada begged him to give it some food to continue living. "What were you doing last summer?" Asked the ant. "I was not lounging around," said the cicada, "but busy singing all the time." Laughing the ant and putting away the grain, she said: "Well, dance in winter since in summer you played the flute."
Here you can see a video with the adaptation of this story:
The lion and the Mouse
The fable of "The Lion and the Mouse" teaches the reader about the cycle of generosity and the value of life in community. When the mouse needed help, the lion helped him. Later, when the lion was in trouble, the mouse was ready to protect him. The fable exhorts us to practice good and teaches that one day we can help and another day we may need help.
While a lion slept, a mouse scurried over his body. The lion woke up and was about to eat the mouse. He asked her to release him, saying that if he saved him, he would appreciate it. The smiling lion let him escape. But soon after it happened that the lion was saved thanks to the mouse. For some hunters who had captured him tied him with a rope to a tree, the mouse, when they heard his wailing, He came, gnawed on the rope and when he freed him he said: «You laughed at me before because you didn't expect me to give you back. favor; but now you know well that there is gratitude among mice. "
The fable shows that in changes of fortune the very powerful come to be in need of the weakest.
The wolf and the lamb
In the case of the fable "The Wolf and the Lamb", these animals occupy opposite positions. While the lamb represents innocence and humility, always trying to justify and solve the problems that arise, the wolf is a symbol of cruelty and evil.
A wolf who saw a lamb in a river wanted to eat it on a plausible pretext. So even though he was upriver, he accused him of stirring the water and not letting him drink. The lamb replied that he was drinking with the tips of his lips and that, furthermore, it was impossible for him, who was lower down, to stir the water upstream. The wolf, as he failed with his accusation, said: "But last year you insulted my father." The lamb replied that a year ago he had not yet been born. The wolf then told him: "Well, even if your justifications come out right, I'm not going to stop eating you."
The fable shows that no fair argument is valid for those who intend to harm.
The Fox and the Raven
Foxes are one of the most recurrent animals in Aesop's fables. Characterized by his unparalleled cunning, the fox frequently finds unconventional solutions to achieve his goals. In the case of the story "The Fox and the Crow", the fox steals from the crow a piece of food that he had stolen first. History teaches the dangers of vanity and pride.
A crow that had stolen a piece of meat landed on a tree. And a fox, who saw it, wanted to take possession of the meat, stopped and began to exalt its proportions and beauty, he also told her that he had more than enough merits to be the king of birds and, without a doubt, he could be if had a voice. But wanting to show the fox that he had a voice, he dropped the meat and began to squawk. She launched herself and after he snatched the meat, said: "Raven, if you also had judgment, you would lack nothing to be the king of the birds."
The fable is valid for the fool.
Check out this video adaptation:
The best known fables of Aesop
It is difficult to guarantee which fables were actually told by Aesop in Ancient Greece, since much of what was written was lost or not signed. For this reason, many of the fables have actually been attributed to him by knowledgeable experts on the subject.
Here we put together a list with some of the best known fables attributed to this author, the greatest storyteller in history:
- The fox and the grapes
- The tortoise and the hare
- The wolf and the lamb
- The ant and the beetle
- The donkey and the load of salt
- The wolf and the sheep
- The deer and the lion
- The dog and the shadow
- The wolf and the dog
- The deer, the wolf and the sheep
- The wolf and the stork
- The swallow and the other birds
- The wolf and the heron
- The Fox and the Raven
- The lion, the cow, the goat and the sheep
- The donkey and the lion
- The frog and the bull
- The horse and the lion
- The nut and the wolf
- The fox and the lion
- The mouse and the frog
- The rooster and the fox
- The dog and the sheep
- Hares and frogs
- The sow and the she-wolf
- The wolf and the kid
- The dog and the shadow
- The lion and the Mouse
- The rook and the turkey
Who was Aesop?
Little is known about Aesop and there are even those who question his existence. The first reference to the writer was made by Herodotus, who relates that this storyteller had been a slave.
Born supposedly between the 7th or 6th centuries BC. by C. In Asia Minor, Aesop was a storyteller of immense culture, captured and brought to Greece to serve as a slave.
His influence in Greece became such that the sculptor Lysippus erected a statue in his honor. The storyteller had a tragic end when he was sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit.
Heraclides Ponticus, a sage from the Alexandrian era, recounted Aesop's conviction and death penalty. He was accused of having stolen a sacred object, a crime that carried a fatal penalty.
Aristophanes also confirmed this story told by Heraclides and gave more details of what happened: Aesop, visiting Delphi, provoked its inhabitants by declaring that they did not work and lived only from the offerings dedicated to the god Apollo. Furious, the inhabitants implanted in Aesop's suitcase a sacred cup to incriminate him. When the "robbery" was discovered, Aesop was fatally condemned to be thrown from a cliff.
We know the work of Aesop thanks to the Greek Demetrio de Falero (280 a. de C.), who compiled the stories told. The Byzantine monk Planudius also collected other stories attributed to him.
What are fables?
The fable is a narrative literary genre that derives from the story, but differs from it in that the narrator gives a moral lesson through the story told.
Fables also frequently have personified animals, to which human characteristics are attributed.
Fables were created in the East and spread around the globe. Its course is believed to have been from India to China, from there to Tibet, and finally to Persia.
However, it is often said that fables originated in Greece, since it is there that they reached the form and characteristics that we know today.
The first recorded fables date from the 8th century BC. by C. The first volume found, Pantchatantra, was written in Sanskrit and later translated into Arabic.
Aesop was one of the most famous fabulists, despite the fact that he did not invent the genre. For this reason, he is remembered today as his great popularizer.
We don't know for sure how many stories he created. A series of manuscripts have been found over time, even when it is impossible to guarantee their authorship. The greatest specialist in the production of Aesop was the Frenchman Émille Chambry (1864-1938).
(Text translated by Andrea Imaginario).
