Aesop
c. 620–564 BC (traditional) · Storyteller of ancient Greece to whom hundreds of fables, such as The Tortoise and the Hare, have been attributed.
Aesop is the name attached to a large collection of short animal fables, such as The Tortoise and the Hare and The Fox and the Grapes, that were told in ancient Greece. Very little is known about him for certain. The historian Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC, says Aesop was an enslaved man who lived in the sixth century BC and was killed at Delphi. Later legends, especially a popular Life of Aesop, describe him as clever but ugly and tell how he won his freedom by his wit, but these stories are not reliable history. The fables were passed on by word of mouth and later written down and retold by authors such as Phaedrus in Latin and Babrius in Greek. Many of the fables now credited to Aesop were probably composed by others. Translated and illustrated in countless editions, they remain among the most familiar stories in the world.
Aesop is also an author in the library: author page and works.
Faith: Faith not well documented; almost nothing certain is known of his life. Source: Wikipedia
Key dates
- 6th century BC Lifetime according to ancient tradition
- 5th century BC Mentioned by Herodotus
- 1st century AD Fables retold in Latin verse by Phaedrus
Read about them
Grades K–2
- Aesop's Fables · In the library
More lives
Aeschylus · Apollodorus · Apollonius of Rhodes · Apuleius · Aristophanes · Euripides
Notes: Aesop's dates are traditional; his life is known mainly from later legend.