Fables and Aesop's Fables

The Deffiniton And History Of Fables

A Fable is a fictitious story or tale writen to deliver a moral or usefull knowledge that can be used in life usually featuring animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are given human qualities. The moral of a fable is revealed at the end in a short statement or paragraph involving the events of the story. A fable differs from a parable because parables exclude animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors with speech and other qualities of humankind. Fables like 'The Thistle And The Cedar Tree' have been around since medieval times and were told in ancient eygpt to teach people basic life morals in a conceptual narrative that people could relate to during the era. Aesope's Fables include most of the best-known western fables, Aesope was supposed to have been a slave in ancient Greece around 550 BC. Aesope's Fables were used in Greek and Roman education, Aesopes fables were used in Roman training exercises in prose composition and public speaking, students would be asked to learn fables, expand upon them, invent their own, and finally use them as persuasive examples in longer forensic or deliberative speeches.

Fables had a further long tradition through the Middle Ages, and became part of European high literature During the 17th century. In modern times, while the fable has been used in many children's books, it has also been fully adapted to modern adult literature, films and television shows like Star Trek.

Aesopes Fables

Aesope's Fables are basicly a collection of fables which have been around for centuries. The collection of fables is credited to a slave and story teller who lived and worked in ancient Greece, his fables are some of the most well known in th world. Aesop's fables are told today mainly for the moral education of children. Many of the stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes, The Tortoise and the Hare, The North Wind and the Sun, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Ant and the Grasshopper are well known through out the world.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf also know as The Shepard Boy And The Wolf is a Fable that i remember being told when i was younger and that i find the most memorable. A basic summary of the story is that a bored shepherd boy who was entertaining himself by tricking nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his flock of sheep. When they came to his rescue, they found that the alarms were false and that they had wasted their time, the boy did this a few times in the story. When the boy was actually confronted by a wolf, the villagers did not believe his cries for help and the wolf ate his flock of sheep, and sometimes the boy aswell depending on the version of the stroy. Each of Aesop's fables were writen to deliever a moral message to children, in The Boy Who Cried Wolf, the moral of the story is that Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie once, twice, and then know body will believe when he tells the truth. The moral of each fables was usually stated at the end of the story. The phrase "boy who cried wolf" has also become a figure of speech when someone is calling for help when he or she does not really need it. Also in common English there goes the saying "Never cry wolf" to say that you never should lie. Like most of Aesop's fables different versions of the story have been writen using different situations and settings. Aesop's fables were often told in different cultures using different situations but keeping the same moral and message. I remember a version of the same story which included a little girl who would telephone the fire brigade saying that there was a fire at her house, the fire brigade would turn up and find there wasnt a fire, in the end there is a fire in her house, she phones the fire brigade and they dont believe her so her house bruns down and she dies a very painfull death, this version is slightly more harse than the original, however, delivers the same message in a way that was easier for me to understand. Aesop's fables were and are still adapted to work in different cultures and scenarios so that people can find them easier to relate with.