Who was Aesop?
The life of Aesop may be sketched in general, but important parts of his biography are missing and his precise identity remains to be determined. All agree that this sixth-century BCE storyteller was of captured slave origins and that he was sold to a merchant of the island of Samos, a man perhaps originally from Phrygia in Asia Minor. According to his editor, Robert Temple, Aesop was a native of Mesembria in mainland Thrace, but Aristotle, an avid collector and lover of Aesop’s entertaining, peasant-like tales, says in his Constitution of Samos that Aesop lived much of his life in Samos. Aesop’s tales were widely valued for their folkloric wisdom and oracular applicability. Although it is clear that the dispersal of Aesop’s literary tradition originated in Greece, all scholars agree that Aesop was not a slave by birth (doulos) but an andrapodon, or slave by virtue of foreign capture. Because of this status he was liable to further exile and sale. While precise confirmation that Aesop
Fables are short stories which teach a lesson and are often about animals. The supposed author of these Fables, Aesop, is thought to have lived from 620 to 560 B.C., but his place of birth is uncertain. Whether he came from Ethiopia, Phrygia, Samos, Athens, Sardis or Thrace, we do not know, but some early writers say that he was the slave of a citizen named Iadmon at Samos, in what is now Greece.
