Aesop for Monday, January 21

Like Socrates, and other later Greek teachers, Aesop did not write out his teachings, but gave them by word of mouth, to be copied down by his hearers. That is why no collection of fables can be definitely ascribed to him. It was not until at least three centuries after his death that books bearing his name were written. One was by Babrius, a Greek author whose poetic version of Aesop became lost for many centuries, but was discovered and published in 1846. Another collection was by an Athenian orator, Demetrius Phalereus, about 320 B.C.

Aesop's Fables were well know to the Romans. About the time of Christ, a Latin version of them was made by Phaedrus, a freedman of the Emperor, Augustus Caesar. This is the version now used as the textbook collection in today's schools and literature.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the fables were lost sight of, together with many other learned books--all swallowed up in the Dark Ages (about 500 AD to 1500 AD). By about the 14th century a collection was made by Planudes, a learned monk of Constantinople. His book was full of errors, but was valuable as serving to bring back to notice a long forgotten classic author.*

The Cock and the Jewel

A hungry Cock, scratching for food among the straw in the barnyard, happened to turn up a jewel. Feeling quite sure that it was something precious, but not knowing well what to do with it, he addressed it with an air of affected wisdom as follows:

"You are a very fine thing, no doubt, but you are not at all to my taste. For my part, I would rather have one grain of good barley than all the jewels in the world."

A thing is of value only so far as it is of use.

 

 

* from the book Fables of Aesop published by Books, Inc. Publishers, NY and Boston

Based on the texts of L'Estrange and Croxall

Part 1 Fables of Aesop

Part 2 Aesop for Thursday, January 17

Part 3 Aesop for Friday, January 18