6th Century Greece

Greek Society• Highly Classed (citizens, metics,

slaves)• Political Organization – City

States Tyrants and Aristocrats• Colonization of Mediterranean

(Apollo)• Seafaring and Trade (coinage)• Religion – Olympic Gods• Cultural Icons – Athletes and

Warriors• Prosperity

Figures

• Thales of Miletus

• Solon of Athens

• Pythagoras of Abdera

• Sappho of Lesbos

Heroic Literature

• Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey

• Poetry and Song

Aesop• A war captive and

slave on the island of Samos

• Ugly, malformed• Great wit• Maker of stories• Died in Delphi• Plato, Aristotle,

Herodotus, and Aristophanes write of him

Famous Readers

• Socrates spent time putting Aesop’s fables to verse

• Aristotle made a systematic study of the fables

• St. Augustine found fables an acceptable vehicle for teaching faith

• Martin Luther translated an anthology of Aesopic fables and considered them on part with the Bible as instructive literature

Beast Fable

• Short, clever story

• Usually humorous

• Talking animal characters

• Containing moral

• Characterized by practical wisdom and social criticism

• Seen as weapon of the small and weak against the mighty

Tradition

• Aesop -6th Century B.C. Greece

• Phaedrus – 1st Century A.D. Roman

• Renard – 11th Century A.D. German/French

• Harris (Remus) – 19th Century A.D. American

“The fable was invented because slaves could not say what they wished outright, so they projected their personal sentiments onto fables, eluding blame under guise of jesting.”

Preservation of Aesop

• Used as Roman school texts (Practice in grammar, paraphrase,

translation, rhetoric)

• Used in Middle Ages in sermons

• Medieval Beast Tales combined ancient fables, Christian culture, vernacular of peasants (Physiologus, Bestiaries)