AESOP

Aesop: translation

(6th c. BC)

Greek teller of fables, or stories with a satirical and moral twist. The life of Aesop is itself a fable: he is traditionally supposed to have been hunchbacked and ugly (which may be a symbol of racial stereotyping), to have been the slave of a philosopher, Xanthus of Samos, and to have gained his freedom only to fall foul of the citizens of Delphi, who were anxious to protect the reputation of their oracle against him and threw him off a cliff. Xanthus and his wife are represented as particularly prone to losing their dignity in the presence of Aesop, who is therefore a symbol of the subversive role of low, popular, folk wisdom in contrast to so-called high culture and philosophy. His fables were particularly popular in the late Renaissance, attracting commentaries from philosophers including Valla, Erasmus, and Lessing.