Aesop's Fables

By Aesop

Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with his name have descended to modern times through a number of sources and continue to be reinterpreted in different verbal registers and in popular as well as artistic media.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MVP
• Release date: Jul 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9782291073666

Aesop

Aesop was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables.

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Æsop's Fables

Contents

Introductory Note

The Cock and the Pearl

The Wolf and the Lamb

The Dog and the Shadow

The Lion’s Share

The Wolf and the Crane

The Man and the Serpent

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

The Fox and the Crow

The Sick Lion

The Ass and the Lapdog

The Lion and the Mouse

The Swallow and the Other Birds

The Frogs Desiring a King

The Mountains in Labour

The Hares and the Frogs

The Wolf and the Kid

The Woodman and the Serpent

The Bald Man and the Fly

The Fox and the Stork

The Fox and the Mask

The Jay and the Peacock

The Frog and the Ox

Androcles

The Bat, the Birds, and the Beasts

The Hart and the Hunter

The Serpent and the File

The Man and the Wood

The Dog and the Wolf

The Belly and the Members

The Hart in the Ox-Stall

The Fox and the Grapes

The Horse, Hunter, and Stag

The Peacock and Juno

The Fox and the Lion

The Lion and the Statue

The Ant and the Grasshopper

The Tree and the Reed

The Fox and the Cat

The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

The Dog in the Manger

The Man and the Wooden God

The Fisher

The Shepherd’s Boy

The Young Thief and His Mother

The Man and His Two Wives

The Nurse and the Wolf

The Tortoise and the Birds

The Two Crabs

The Ass in the Lion’s Skin

The Two Fellows and the Bear

The Two Pots

The Four Oxen and the Lion

The Fisher and the Little Fish

Avaricious and Envious

The Crow and the Pitcher

The Man and the Satyr

The Goose With the Golden Eggs

The Labourer and the Nightingale

The Fox, the Cock, and the Dog

The Wind and the Sun

Hercules and the Waggoner

The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey

The Miser and His Gold

The Fox and the Mosquitoes

The Fox Without a Tail

The One-Eyed Doe

Belling the Cat

The Hare and the Tortoise

The Old Man and Death

The Hare With Many Friends

The Lion in Love

The Bundle of Sticks

The Lion, the Fox, and the Beasts

The Ass’s Brains

The Eagle and the Arrow

The Milkmaid and Her Pail

The Cat-Maiden

The Horse and the Ass

The Trumpeter Taken Prisoner

The Buffoon and the Countryman

The Old Woman and the Wine-Jar

The Fox and the Goat

Introductory Note

The habit of telling stories is one of the most primitive characteristics of the human race. The most ancient civilizations, the most barbarous savages, of whom we have any knowledge have yielded to investigators clear traces of the possession of this practise, The specimens of their narrative that have been gathered from all the ends of the earth and from the remotest times of which we have written record show traces of purpose, now religious and didactic, now patriotic and political; but behind or beside the purpose one can discern the permanent human delight in the story for its own sake.

The oldest of stories are the myths: not the elaborated and sophisticated tales that one finds in, say, Greek epic and drama, but the myth pure and simple. This is the answer of primitive science to the question of the barbaric child, the explanation of the thunder or the rain, of the origin of man or of fire, of disease or death. The form of such myths is accounted for by the belief known as animism, which assumed personality in every object and phenomenon, and conceived no distinction in the kind of existence of a man, a dog, a tree, or a stone. Such myths are still told among, e. g., the American Indians, and the assumption just mentioned accounts for such features as the transformation of the same being from a man into a log or a fish, or the marriage of a coyote and a woman. Derived from this state of belief and showing