Some of Aesop's Fables with Modern Instances

Aesop was an Ancient Greek fabulist or story teller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables. Although his existence remains uncertain and (if they ever existed) no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. Many of the tales are characterized by animals and inanimate objects that speak, solve problems, and generally have human characteristics.


Scattered details of Aesop's life can be found in ancient sources, including Aristotle, Herodotus, and Plutarch. An ancient literary work called The Aesop Romance tells an episodic, probably highly fictional version of his life, including the traditional description of him as a strikingly ugly slave who by his cleverness acquires freedom and becomes an adviser to kings and city-states. Older spellings of his name have included Esop(e) and Isope. A later tradition (dating from the Middle Ages) depicts Aesop as a black Ethiopian. Depictions of Aesop in popular culture over the last 2500 years have included several works of art and his appearance as a character in numerous books, films, plays, and television programs.


Abandoning the perennial image of Aesop as an ugly slave, the movie Night in Paradise (1946) cast Turhan Bey in the role, depicting Aesop as an advisor to King Croesus who falls in love with the king's intended bride, a Persian princess played by Merle Oberon. There was also the 1953 teleplay Aesop and Rhodope by Helene Hanff, broadcast on Hallmark Hall of Fame with Lamont Johnson playing Aesop.


The musical Aesop's Fables by British playwright Peter Terson was first produced in 1983. In 2010, the play was staged at the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa with Mhlekahi Mosiea as Aesop. 


Most of these Fables have been handed down to us in a Greek form: for these Halm's text has been used. 

The Translations aim at replacing the florid style of our older English versions, and the stilted harshness of more modern ones, by a plainness and terseness more nearly like the character of the originals.

The reason of this is, that in the collaboration the Designer and Translator have not been on terms of equal authority; the former has stood unshakeably by English tradition, and has had his own way.