Aesop for Today, February 1

Stories of Aesop and Xanthus the Philosopher

In the early 1400's, knowledge about the life of Aesop came from the research of Maximus Planudes, a monk of Constantinope, who was sent on an embassy to Venice by the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus the elder. His resources were apparently limited, for according to George Fyler Townsend, "this life [of Aesop] by Planudes contains so small an amount of truth, and is so full of absurd pictures of the grotesque deformity of Aesop, of wondrous apocryphal stories, of lying legends, and gross anachonisms, that it is now universally condemned as false, puerile, and unauthentic...It is give up in the present day, by general consent, as unworthy of the slightest credit."

Since then, more reliable facts have been brought to life by a Frenchman, M. Claude Gaspard Bachet de Mezeriac, who declined the honor of being tutor to Louis XIII of France, in order to devote himself to literature. He published his Life of Aesop in 1632. Later investigations by English and German scholars have added very little to Mezeriac's factual accounts. His research however, has been confirmed.

Source: World Wide School.org

In Herodotus' Histories, Aesop lived during the time of the Egyptian Pharaoah Amasis of the sixth century BC.

In the book World's Great Men of Color, Volume I (pp. 73-79), J. A. Rogers quotes Planudes stating that Aesop was a native of Phrygia in Asia Minor. His name Aesop was similar to, and perhaps taken from, Thiop, a term used for all black slaves.

Drusilla Dunjee Houston wrote in Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire (p. 84): "Africans tell many tales like those of Aesop. Many nations claimed Aesop. This was because he was a Cushite of which they were all divisions, so by identity of race he belonged to them all. Tradition said that he was black and deformed. It is very likely that he was a part of the life of Alexandria (Egypt) and the cities of Asia Minor."

Rogers quotes Planudes in an account of how Aesop met Xanthus the Philosopher. Since we know that Planudes' accounts were not very accurate, take this with a grain of salt. It is, however, an interesting story.

In the slave market Aesop was standing with a musician and an orator. Xanthus was interested in purchasing the two but had no use for Aesop.

"Xanthus asked the musician what he could do," and he replied, "Anything." He asked the same question to the orator, and he replied, "Everything." When he asked Aesop the question, he replied, "Nothing."
"Nothing!" repeated Xanthus, at which Aesop replied, "One of my companions says he can do anything and the other asserts that he can do everything; that leaves me nothing."
Struck by the reply, Xanthus said, "If I buy you, will you promise to be good and honest?"
"I'll be that whether you buy me or not," retorted Aesop.
"Will you promise not to run away?"
"Did you ever hear a bird in a cage tell his master that he intended making his escape?" demanded Aesop.
Xanthus, pleased at Aesop's wit, was strongly tempted to buy him, but hesitated because of his black and ungainly form. He said, "That unlucky shape of yours will set people hooting and gaping at us wherever we go."
"A philosopher," replied Aesop calmly, "should value a man for his mind and not for his body."
The purchase was made.

Source: (World's Great Men of Color, Volume I, page 75.)

Once when Xanthus' wife left him after a quarrel, Aesop won her back with his wit. Upon her return Xanthus gave a feast for the leading philosophers of Greece and entrusted Aesop to make the preparations. When the guests sat down to eat they found that each dish was a tongue of some sort.
Angrily Xanthus demanded an explanation. Aesop innocently replied, "You ordered me to make the best provision that I could think of for the entertainment of these excellent persons. As the tongue is the key that leads to all knowledge, what could be more suitable than a feast of tongues for philosophers?"
Xanthus, pleased with the laughter of his guests invited them to dine with him the next day and asked Aesop, since he was set on contradictions, to prepare the feast of the worst. "We shall see what that shall be."
Again all the guest were served were dishes of tongues. Aesop explained to the angry Xanthus that "Was it not an evil tongue that caused a break with your family? Was it not a soft tongue that caused that healed breach? The tongue is at once the best and the worst entertainment."