Fables. Aesop

The fable is one of the oldest forms of thinking and one of the oldest genres of the art of word. The fable tradition, numbering a centuries -old history, goes back to the legendary Greek sage Aesop. His name is first mentioned in Herodotus's History (V century BC), how do we find out that Aesop lived in the VI century. BC on Samos and was a slave. Later information about him is quite different and contradictory. Initially, the fables belonged to the oral tradition and were recorded much later than the death of Aesop, they reached us through a number of sources - Greek and Latin, many plots were subsequently attributed to Aesopa.

This collection included a full set (about 500) of the Azopov fables in translation and with the comments of the outstanding philologist-classic M. L. Gasparov. The very number of texts related to the tradition with the name of Aesop speaks of the unusual popularity of these straightforward stories, which contain everyday experience. It is no coincidence that many poets were eagerly used in their work, including Lafontaine, Lessing, Krylov, who created the best examples of the new European literary fable.