Aesop's Fables

by Aesop; Gibbs, Laura

• ISBN13: 9780192840509
• ISBN10: 0192840509
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

'The story goes that a sow who had delivered a whole litter of piglets loudly accosted a lioness. "How many children do you breed?" asked the sow. "I breed only one", said the lioness, "but it is very well bred!"'The fables of Aesop have become one of the most enduring traditions of European culture, ever since they were first written down nearly two millennia ago. Aesop was reputedly a tongue-tied slave who miraculously received the power of speech; from his legendary storytelling came the collections ofprose and verse fables scattered throughout Greek and Roman literature. First published in English by Caxton in 1484, the fables and their morals continue to charm modern readers: who does not know the story of the tortoise and the hare, or the boy who cried wolf?This new translation is the first to represent all the main fable collections in ancient Latin and Greek, arranged according to the fables' contents and themes. It includes 600 fables, many of which come from sources never before translated into English.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
Note on the Text and Translation	xxxii
Select Bibliography	xxxvi
Chronology of the Fables	xl
AESOP'S FABLES	1	(284)
Aesop, the Popular Favourite	3	(2)
The Fables	5	(226)
Aetiologies, Paradoxes, Insults, and Jokes	231	(54)
Index of Perry Numbers	285	(4)
Index of Sources	289	(6)
General Index	295