Aesop years of life and death. Biography. What they said about the fabulist

Aesop's work left a significant mark on the literary world, and his aphorisms became generally known, remaining relevant today. In ancient times, no doubts were expressed about the historicity of the image, but in the 16th century, for the first time, he questioned this fact.

Aesop's biography is legendary, and his origins are shrouded in secrets. According to some reports, he lived around the middle of the 6th century BC. He was allegedly a small slave from Phrygia, had sharp facial features and a hump.

Despite such external features, Aesop had an amazing gift for words, a sharp mind and a talent for creating fables. From what family the future fabulist came from is unknown, there is also no information about the parents. His homeland is sometimes called Asia Minor, which rings true because of the nature of the name.

According to one of the versions of Aesop's life, the first owner decided to sell a talkative and useless slave of unknown nationality. It was acquired by Xanthus of Samos, whom Aesop amazed with witty answers. The ancient Greek philosopher never regretted the acquisition, because thanks to the cunning and inventive slave, Xanthus remained in the memory of generations, because the legend associates many jokes and wisdom with him.

Slave Aesop serves the master and his guest

A legend is spread about how Xanthus ordered Aesop to purchase “all the best” in the world for the upcoming holiday. And the slave brought only languages \u200b\u200bof various cooking methods and explained to the surprised master that the best thing is language, because laws and treaties are established for them, and wise thoughts are expressed.

Xanthus thought about it and the next day asked Aesop to buy "the worst." And the slave brought tongues again, proving that there is nothing worse: people deceive them, start quarrels and conflicts. Although the owner was angry with the situation, he admitted that Aesop was right.

One day, after a lavish celebration, Xanthus boastfully declared that he could drink the sea. The next morning, the owner of Aesop remembered with horror his own promise. But the slave saved him from shame, advising him to set a condition: that the rival should block the rivers flowing into the sea, because Xanthos did not promise to drink them either. So the philosopher got out of a difficult situation and avoided humiliation.

Aesop more than once asked Xanthus to give him freedom, but he did not want to let go of the wise slave. Everything changed when a strange event happened - an eagle during a council meeting grabbed the state seal and released it in the slave's bosom, and Aesop was asked to explain the incident.

He reacted to the request in a peculiar way: he said that it was not for a slave to advise free people, but if he was fired, he could do it. When the people agreed, Aesop explained that the eagle is a royal bird, which means that the king decided to conquer the city.

The upset residents sent the former slave to the king for reconciliation. The ruler liked Aesop, he made him an adviser and made peace with the inhabitants of the city. Legend has it that after this the sage went to the Babylonian and Egyptian kingdom, met with sages and wrote many interesting fables.

Creation

Aesop became famous not only for quotes and parables, he is considered the first fabulist, because it was Aesop who became the founder of this genre. A fable is a short poetic story with an instructive content. The characters are various animals and plants, in the actions of which the vices of man are seen and ridiculed. This hidden subtext of the work is called Aesopian language.

Books from Ancient Greece have survived to our time, containing short fables, the authorship of which was attributed to Aesop. Today's readers know these works in adaptations by Gulak-Artemovsky and other fabulists.

It is estimated that the Greek poet used about 80 animals and 30 gods, mythical images and representatives of various professions in his work.

Illustration for Aesop's fable "The Fox and the Grapes"

Aesop has an interesting fable about a cunning donkey: once an animal crossed a river with a load in the form of bags of salt. But the donkey could not resist on the flimsy bridge and fell: the salt dissolved, and it became easier to walk. The donkey was delighted and the next time he fell on purpose, but the load was wool, which swelled from the water, and the donkey drowned. The moral of this fable suggests that an ill-conceived cunning is destructive.

Such folk wisdom, common sense and hopes for justice, expressed in a witty form, made Aesop's work immortal.

Personal life

There are several references that say that Aesop's beloved was from Thrace and was in bondage to Iadmon. According to one of the versions of the legend, Rodopis and Aesop had a secret love affair.

In an unspecified period, the life story of Rodopis took the form of a fairy tale about. In one of the variations, which Strabo recounts, when Rodopis was bathing, the eagle stole the girl's sandal. At this time, the king was judging in the open air, and the eagle, soaring over his head, threw a sandal on his lap. The amazed king ordered his subjects to go in search of the girl who had lost her shoes. And, according to legend, when she was found, Rodopis became the wife of the king.

Death

Death overtook Aesop in Delphi, the legend of this time is restored according to Herodotus and, combined with later evidence.

It is believed that, while in Delphi, Aesop with his slander caused the anger of several citizens who decided to punish him. To do this, the Delphians stole a golden thicket from the temple utensils and put it in Aesop's travel bag until he saw. The sage was searched, found lost and, like a blasphemer, was stoned.

Many years later, the innocence of the fabulist was discovered, and the descendants of his murderers paid the virus, for which the grandson of that Iadmon, who was considered the first master of Aesop, arrived.

Quotes

Gratitude is a sign of the nobility of the soul.

It is said that Chilo asked Aesop: "What is Zeus doing?" Aesop replied, "Makes the high low and the low high."

If a person takes on two things that are directly opposite to each other, one of them will certainly fail him.

Each person has his own work, and each work has its own time.

A true treasure for people is the ability to work.

Bibliography

• "The Wolf and the Lamb"
• "Fox and grapes"
• "Dragonfly and Ant"
• "Frog and Ox"
• "The peasant and the snake"
• "Pig and lioness"
• "Fisherman and Fish"
• "The Lion and the Mouse"
• "The Raven and the Fox"
• "Beetle and Ant"

Who is Aesop? The answer to this question should be known to every person who likes such instructive literary works as fables. The ancient Greek writer is considered practically the founding father of the genre, but the existence of this character is still unproven. His biography consists, rather, of legends, many of which contradict each other, than of reliable facts.

- a person or a legend?

For the first time, the existence of this character was doubted in the 16th century, before him, no one disputed the fact of the life of the ancient Greek writer. Since then, the discussion has not stopped, scientists have been divided into several camps, offering different versions of the answer to the question of who Aesop is.

Proponents of the theory confirming the historicity of the writer give a lot of arguments that can indirectly prove his existence. However, even they are not able to deny the fact that practically nothing is known about the appearance that the fabulist Aesop possessed. In biographies that consider his personality, he is endowed with various features. There is even a popular version that the fabulist was a hunchback and had an extremely repulsive appearance.

The character of the sage is described by all authors in approximately the same way. Who is Aesop, if you trust their characteristics? A sly, resourceful person, endowed with a sharp mind and a sense of humor, capable of deceiving anyone. Often he is credited with such qualities as grumpiness, spitefulness. However, these characteristics are also practically not confirmed by facts, only by surviving legends.

Biography of the writer

The fabulist Aesop, according to his existence, was born in the 6th century BC. All popular legends about its origin indicate that the writer was born and raised in slavery, this fact is not disputed by historians. The most common version says that this person was the property of the owner, whose name was Iadmon, who lived on this theory was spread thanks to the Greek historian Herodotus, who insisted on it.

Who is Aesop, assuming that the information that Herodotus possessed is correct? The scientist claimed that the writer was a freedman, fell at the hands of the Delphic priests. At the same time, Iadmon insisted on the ransom, which he received from the servants of the temple. It is assumed that the execution of the sage is associated with his mockery of the god Apollo, which the people who worshiped him could not endure.

There is another version, insisting that Xanthus was the owner of Aesop, and the writer was born in Thrace. The basis for such statements was the study of fables attributed to the semi-legendary hero, as well as the processing of information provided by Herodotus.

What is known about fables

Did a man named Aesop really live, or is it just a beautiful legend? He is credited with creating over 450 fables. It is assumed that the works were written in poetic form, but the original has not survived. Aesop's fables have come down to our contemporaries in the form of retellings, set out in prose. It is also believed that they originally traveled from generation to generation orally.

The first to combine the works of the fabulist into volumes was Demetrius of Phaler, at least his works are the most ancient known. In the third century BC Demetrius created 10 books, unfortunately, they were lost more than 10 centuries ago. Further, other scientists began to translate the fables into Latin and write them down, for example, Flavius \u200b\u200bAvian.

Features of the works

Aesop's reasoning about the world had a great influence on many writers who lived much later than the legendary character. It is not surprising, because he invented a whole universe, whose inhabitants were animals, birds, insects. Since people are not heroes of works, an instructive lesson takes on an allegorical character.

The stories attributed to the fabulist fascinate with their laconicism, simplicity and uncomplicated morality. The object of ridicule in them is the vices that people have not been able to get rid of to this day. This endows Aesop's works with constant relevance. An instructive conclusion is a characteristic feature of all fables, without exception. A person who reads them does not have to guess on their own where the main character went wrong.

The writer invites readers to think about their own behavior, actions, views on the world, to separate true values \u200b\u200bfrom false ones. His writings are useful for people of all ages, from the smallest children. It is still better for the latter to get acquainted with instructive creativity with the help of Krylov's fables.

Plots of works

Many plots of fables, supposedly written by Aesop, are familiar to people from early childhood. Hardly anyone has heard of the children who dug up the entire vineyard in a vain search for their father's inheritance. About a fox who, not by force, but by cunning and flattery, took away the food from the raven, leaving the unfortunate bird a fool. About a fox, who justified her inability to get grapes located on a too high branch, by the fact that he was not yet ripe. How the flea was caught and what came of it.

Influence on other writers

Russian Aesop - this is how the writer Ivan Krylov is called, on whose ancient Greek sage really had a tremendous influence. To be convinced of this, it is enough just to remember the famous story of the raven, fox and cheese, and then compare it with the "original". Indeed, almost all the subjects of the popular Krylov fables are taken from works that have survived since ancient times. This does not mean that the writer can be accused of plagiarism. It was his works written simple language, ideal for young children to read, are considered a flawless example of the modern genre.

Those who like the fables of Krylov and Aesop can pay attention to the work of other writers who actively used ancient Greek stories as a source of inspiration. For example, the works of the Frenchman Jean de La Fontaine, "simplified" translations of Leo Tolstoy.

Aesop (ancient Greek Αἴσωπος) (fr. Ésope, eng. Aesop) - a semi-legendary figure of ancient Greek literature, a fabulist who lived in the 6th century BC. eh ..

(Aesop. Painting by Diego Velazquez (1639-1640))

Biography

Whether Aesop was a historical person is impossible to say. There was no scientific tradition about Aesop's life. Herodotus (II, 134) writes that Aesop was a slave of a certain Iadmon from the island of Samos, lived during the time of the Egyptian king Amasis (570-526 BC) and was killed by the Delphians. Heraclides of Pontus writes more than a hundred years later that Aesop came from Thrace, was a contemporary of Therekides, and his first master was called Xanthus, but he extracts this data from the same story of Herodotus by way of unreliable inferences. Aristophanes ("Wasps", 1446-1448) already gives details about the death of Aesop - a wandering motive of the thrown bowl, which served as a reason for his accusation, and the fable about an eagle and a beetle, which he told before death. The comedian Plato (late 5th century) already mentions the posthumous reincarnations of the soul of Aesop. The comedian Alexis (end of the 4th century), who wrote the comedy Aesop, confronts his hero with Solon, that is, he is already weaving the legend of Aesop into the cycle of legends about the seven wise men and King Croesus. His contemporary Lysippos also knew this version, depicting Aesop at the head of the seven wise men). Xanthus' slavery, connection with seven wise men, death from the cunning of the Delphic priests - all these motives became links in the subsequent Aesopian legend, the core of which had already taken shape by the end of the 4th century. BC e.

Under the name of Aesop, a collection of fables (of 426 short works) has been preserved in prose. There is reason to believe that in the era of Aristophanes (end of the 5th century) a written collection of Aesop's fables was known in Athens, according to which children were taught at school; “You are an ignoramus and lazy person, you haven’t even learned Aesop,” says one character in Aristophanes. These were prosaic retellings, without any artistic finishing. In fact, the so-called Aesop collection includes fables from various eras.

Later, Aesop's name became a symbol. His works were passed by word of mouth, and in the III century BC. e. were recorded in 10 books by Demetrius of Phaler (c. 350 - c. 283 BC). This collection was lost after the 9th century. n. e. During the epoch of the emperor Augustus Phaedrus transposed these fables in Latin iambic verse, Flavius \u200b\u200bAvian, around the 4th century, transposed 42 fables in Latin elegiac distichus. Around 200 AD e. Babriy described them in Greek verses in the size of holiyamb. The works of Babriy were included by Planud (1260-1310) in his famous collection, which influenced later fabulists. "Aesop's Fables", all compiled in the Middle Ages.

Aesop's fables have been translated (often revised) into many languages \u200b\u200bof the world, including by the famous fables Jean La Fontaine and Ivan Krylov.

Ezop's language (named after the fabulist Aesop) is a cryptography in literature, an allegory that deliberately disguises the thought (idea) of the author.

A complete translation of all Aesop's fables in Russian was published in 1968.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

semi-legendary figure of ancient Greek literature, fabulist who lived in the VI century BC. e.

Whether Aesop was a historical person is impossible to say. There was no scientific tradition about Aesop's life. Herodotus (II, 134) writes that Aesop was a slave of a certain Iadmon from the island of Samos, then he was released, lived during the time of the Egyptian king Amasis (570-526 BC) and was killed by the Delphians; for his death Delphi paid ransom to the descendants of Iadmon. Heraclides of Pontus writes more than a hundred years later that Aesop came from Thrace, was a contemporary of Therekides, and his first master was called Xanthus, but he extracts this data from the same story of Herodotus by way of unreliable inferences (for example, Thrace as the birthplace of Aesop was inspired by the fact that Herodotus mentions Aesop in connection with the fractional hetera Rodopis, who was also in slavery to Iadmon). Aristophanes ("Wasps", 1446-1448) already gives details about the death of Aesop - a wandering motive of the thrown bowl, which served as a reason for his accusation, and the fable about an eagle and a beetle, which he told before death. A century later, this statement of the heroes of Aristophanes is repeated already as historical fact... The comedian Plato (late 5th century) already mentions the posthumous reincarnations of the soul of Aesop. The comedian Alexis (end of the 4th century), who wrote the comedy Aesop, confronts his hero with Solon, that is, he is already weaving the legend of Aesop into the cycle of legends about the seven wise men and King Croesus. His contemporary Lysippos also knew this version, depicting Aesop at the head of the seven wise men.

Xanthus' slavery, connection with seven wise men, death from the cunning of the Delphic priests - all these motives became links in the subsequent Aesopian legend, the core of which had already taken shape by the end of the 4th century. BC e. The most important monument of this tradition was the "Life of Aesop" compiled in the folk language, which has come down in several editions. In this version important role plays the ugliness of Aesop (not mentioned by the ancient authors), Phrygia becomes his homeland instead of Thrace (a stereotypical place associated with slaves), Aesop appears as a sage and a joker, fooling the kings and his master - a stupid philosopher. In this plot, surprisingly enough, Aesop's own fables play almost no role; anecdotes and jokes told by Aesop in his "Life" are not included in the collection of "Aesopian fables" that has come down to us from antiquity and are quite far from it in genre. The image of the ugly, wise and cunning "Phrygian slave" in finished form goes to the new European tradition. Antiquity did not doubt the historicity of Aesop, the Renaissance first questioned this question (Luther), the philology of the 18th century substantiated this doubt (Richard Bentley), philology of the 19th century brought it to the limit (Otto Crusius and Rutherford after him asserted the mythicality of Aesop with a decisiveness characteristic for the hypercriticism of their era), the 20th century again began to lean towards the assumption of the historical prototype of the image of Aesop.

Heritage

Under the name of Aesop, a collection of fables (of 426 short works) has been preserved in prose. There is reason to believe that in the era of Aristophanes (end of the 5th century), a written collection of Aesopian fables was known in Athens, according to which children were taught

at school; “You are an ignoramus and lazy person, you haven’t even learned Aesop,” says one character in Aristophanes. These were prosaic retellings, without any artistic finishing. In fact, the so-called Aesop collection includes fables from various eras.

In the III century BC. e. his fables were recorded in 10 books by Demetrius of Phaler (c. 350 - c. 283 BC). This collection was lost after the 9th century. n. e.

In the 1st century, the freedman of the emperor Augustus Phaedrus transposed these fables in Latin iambic verse (many of Phaedrus's fables are of original origin), and Avian, around the 4th century, transposed 42 fables in Latin elegiac distichus; in the Middle Ages, Avian's fables, despite their not very high artistic level, were very popular. Latin versions of many of Aesop's collection of fables, with the addition of later tales, and then medieval fables, made up the so-called collection "Romulus". Around 100 AD e. Babrius, who apparently lived in Syria, a Roman by birth, recounted the Aesopian fables in Greek verses of the size of holiyamb. The works of Babriy were included by Planud (1260-1310) in his famous collection, which influenced later fabulists.

The interest in Aesop's fables was carried over to his personality; for lack of reliable information about him, they resorted to legend. The Phrygian talker, allegorically vilifying the mighty of this world, naturally appeared to be a quarrelsome and vicious person, like Homer's Thersite, and therefore the portrait of Thersite, depicted in detail by Homer, was also transferred to Aesop. He was represented as hunchbacked, lame, with the face of a monkey - in a word, in all respects ugly and directly opposite to the divine beauty of Apollo; this is how he was portrayed in sculpture, by the way - in that interesting statue that has survived to us.

In the Middle Ages, an anecdotal biography of Aesop was written in Byzantium, which was long taken as a source of reliable information about him. Aesop is represented here as a slave, sold from hand to hand for a pittance, constantly offended by fellow slaves, and overseers, and masters, but who knows how to successfully take revenge on his offenders. This biography not only did not follow from the true tradition of Aesop - it is not even of Greek origin [source not specified 566 days]. Its source is a Jewish story of the 6th century BC. e. about the wise Ahikar, belonging to the cycle of legends that surrounded the personality of King Solomon among the later Jews. The story itself is known mainly from ancient Slavic alterations (The Story of Akira the Wise).

Martin Luther discovered that Aesop's book of fables is not the sole work of one author, but a collection of older and newer fables, and that the traditional image of Aesop is the fruit of a "poetic legend."

Aesop's fables have been translated (often revised) into many languages \u200b\u200bof the world, including by the famous fables Jean La Fontaine and Ivan Krylov.

In Russian, a complete translation of all of Aesop's fables was published in 1968

The history of life
Aesop (Esop) is considered the ancestor of the fable as a genre, as well as the creator of the artistic language of allegories - the Aesopian language, which has not lost its relevance from ancient times to the present day. In the darkest periods of history, when it was possible to lose a head for a truthful word, humanity did not fall into dumbness only because it had Aesopian language in its arsenal - it could express its thoughts, views, protests in stories from the life of animals, birds, fish ...
With the help of fables, Aesop taught humanity the basics of wisdom. “Using animals in the form in which they are still depicted on the heraldic coats of arms, the ancients passed on from generation to generation the great truth of life ... - wrote Gilbert Chesterton. - If the knightly lion is fierce and terrible, he is really fierce and terrible; if the sacred ibis stands on one leg, it is doomed to stand that way forever.
In this language, arranged like a huge animal alphabet, the most ancient philosophical truths are derived. Just as a child learns the letter "A" on the word "stork", the letter "B" on the word "bull", the letter "B" on the word "wolf", a person learns simple and great truths from simple and strong creatures - heroes of fables " ...
And this never-silent humanity, which owes so much to Aesop, still does not know for sure whether such a person really existed, or whether this is a collective person.
According to legend, Aesop was born in the 6th century BC. in Phrygia (Asia Minor), he was a slave and then a freedman. For some time he lived at the court of the Lydian king Croesus in Sardis. Later, while in Delphi, he was accused of sacrilege by the priestly aristocracy and was thrown off a cliff.
A whole book of funny stories about his life and adventures has been preserved. Despite the fact that Aesop, according to legends, was ugly and a hunchback, besides, he was a real hero of folk legends, telling about his courageous speeches against the rich and nobility, about his shame on the false wisdom of the ruling leaders.
The book Outstanding Portraits of Antiquity (1984) by the German archaeologist, historian and art critic Hermann Hafner presents a drawing on a drinking vessel made in the 5th century BC. in Athens (kept in the Vatican). It grotesquely depicts a hunchback vis-a-vis a fox, which, judging by the gestures, is telling him something. Scientists believe that the figure depicts Aesop.
In the same book, Hafner claims that in Athens during the reign of Demetrius of Phaler (317-307 BC), the statue of Aesop, created by Lysippos, was placed next to the group of "Seven Wise Men", which indicates a high reverence for the fabulist and two centuries after his death. It is believed that during the reign of Demetrius Phaler, a collection of Aesop's fables, compiled by a person unknown to us, also appeared. "In such a composer, apparently, there was something great and humane," as Chesterton rightly noted, "something of the human future and the human past ..."
Under the name of Aesop, a collection of 426 fables has been preserved in prose. Among them there are many familiar plots. For example, “A hungry fox noticed hanging bunches of grapes on one vine. She wanted to get them, but could not and left, saying to herself they are still green. " Or “The wolf saw once how the shepherds in the hut were eating a sheep. He came close and said, "What a noise you would have if I did it!"
The fables from this collection were given literary form by writers of different eras. In the 1st century A.D. for this the Roman poet Phaedrus became famous, and in the II century - the Greek writer Vabrius. In the Middle Ages, the fables of Aesop and Phaedrus were published in special collections and were very popular. The fabulists of modern times Lafontaine in France, Lessing in Germany, I.I. Chemnitser, A.E. Izmailov, I.A. Krylov in Russia.
Of the Russian prose writers, the most masterly master of the Aesopian language was M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. His fairy tales "The Wise Piskar", "The Carp the Idealist", "The Eagle Patron" and others are an excellent example of Aesopian skill.