185. Aesops Fables – Aesophus

February 2009
History: a collection of fables credited to Aesop (620–560 BC), a slave and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece. Aesop's Fables have become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, especially beast fables involving anthropomorphic animals. His fables are some of the most well known in the world. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. Aesop was a slave who lived mid-fifth century BC, in Ancient Greece. The place of Aesop's birth was and still is disputed: Little is known about him from credible records, except that he was at one point freed from slavery and that he eventually died in Delphi. In fact, the obscurity shrouding his life has led some scholars to deny his existence altogether
Plot: Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" was derived), The Tortoise and the Hare, The North Wind and the Sun and The Boy Who Cried Wolf, are well-known throughout the world.
Review: Sure, they’re cram full of wisdom but any genre starts to pale when you read 203 examples of it. There are some classics in there of course and some that should be more well-known but all in all, the way life is, it isn’t reading these that will make us wise in the end. The only way we’re really going to be one step ahead of our stupid selves is by simply growing old and making mistakes. I listened to this book. It is a group of very short stories – fables- that are meant to teach a simple lesson. And I loved it because so ancient, and so much of childrens stories I’ve heard all my life are based on these fables.
Opening Line: “A cock was once strutting up and down the farmyard among the hens when suddenly he espied something shining amid the straw.”
Closing Line: “And this is the end of Æsop’s Fables. HURRAH!”
Quotes: “Men can exist without butchers, but they will never go without beef.”
Rating: Dullsville.