Thursday, March 13, 2008

Aesop's Fables

translated by Laura Gibbs

I read a book of these of the fables when I was little, and liked the stories of cats and foxes and wolves and frogs, though I didn't think much of the morals attached. The stories were far stronger than the didactic morals. This is a much more complete set of fables, with a better translation.

The Greeks used weasels to catch mice instead of cats, so some old familiar stories sound rather different.

Not all the fables are Aesop's. Some were written as much as 500 years later. Some are Greek and some Roman and some seem to have been retold even later.

All the old famous ones are here—sometimes with noticeable differences. Many of the tellers couldn't resist the urge to have one of the characters explain the situation. “Realizing his mistake after the fact, the wolf exclaimed 'My self-conceit has been my undoing!'” The ancient epimythium doesn't always seem to harmonize well with the message of the fable, but most of the time it illuminates the attitudes.

The tales are a treasury of wisdom, of course, dealing with the various aspects of life in their often contradictory ways. They admonish a man to deal generously with strangers and to take care of his own first and avoid evildoers. (Sometimes minor variations on the same story are used to illustrate completely opposite points!) One theme I don't find much of is forgiveness, but endurance and accepting your lot in life turn up a lot.

I can see why some fables were omitted from the children's collection. The one about the Emperor Tiberias (593) and the silly attendant requires explanation (“slap that makes you a freeman”). There's a tale (521) that shows that the Anatolian antipathy to Arabs is of long standing (Hermes fills a cart with dishonesty and wicked tricks for distribution among mankind, but it breaks down among the Arabs who appropriate the contents). Another (574) suggests a menage a trois as a solution to infidelity.

If you haven't read Aesop's fables, you must. Find a copy of some collection and read it. This one is good.

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