Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or

verse Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry * Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...

, that features animals,

legendary creature A legendary creature (also mythical or mythological creature) is a type of fictional entity, typically a hybrid, that has not been proven and that is described in folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses ...

s, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular

moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. A ...

lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying. A fable differs from a

parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, w ...

in that the latter ''excludes'' animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind. Conversely, an

animal tale An animal tale or beast fable generally consists of a short story or poem in which animals talk. They may exhibit other anthropomorphic qualities as well, such as living in a human-like society. It is a traditional form of allegorical writing. An ...

specifically includes talking animals as characters. Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished. In the King James Version of the New Testament, "" ("'' mythos''") was rendered by the translators as "fable" in the First Epistle to Timothy, the

Second Epistle to Timothy The Second Epistle to Timothy is one of the three pastoral epistles traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle.. Addressed to Timothy, a fellow missionary, it is traditionally considered to be the last epistle he wrote before his death. Alth ...

, the

Epistle to Titus The Epistle to Titus is one of the three pastoral epistles (along with 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy) in the New Testament, historically attributed to Paul the Apostle. It is addressed to Saint Titus and describes the requirements and duties of elders ...

and the

First Epistle of Peter The First Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament. The author presents himself as Peter the Apostle. The ending of the letter includes a statement that implies that it was written from "Babylon", which is possibly a reference to Rome. T ...

. A person who writes fables is referred to as a fabulist.

History

The fable is one of the most enduring forms of folk literature, spread abroad, modern researchers agree, less by literary anthologies than by oral transmission. Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country.

Aesopic or Aesop's fable

The varying corpus denoted ''Aesopica'' or '' Aesop's Fables'' includes most of the best-known western fables, which are attributed to the legendary Aesop, supposed to have been a slave in ancient Greece around 550 BCE. When Babrius set down fables from the ''Aesopica'' in verse for a

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

Prince "Alexander", he expressly stated at the head of Book II that this type of "myth" that Aesop had introduced to the "sons of the Hellenes" had been an invention of "Syrians" from the time of " Ninos" (personifying

Nineveh Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ban ...

to Greeks) and Belos ("ruler").

Epicharmus of Kos Epicharmus of Kos or Epicharmus Comicus or Epicharmus Comicus Syracusanus ( grc-gre, Ἐπίχαρμος ὁ Κῷος), thought to have lived between c. 550 and c. 460 BC, was a Greek dramatist and philosopher who is often credited w ...

and Phormis are reported as having been among the first to invent comic fables. Many familiar fables of Aesop include " The Crow and the Pitcher", " The Tortoise and the Hare" and " The Lion and the Mouse". In the first century AD,

Phaedrus Phaedrus may refer to: People * Phaedrus (Athenian) (c. 444 BC – 393 BC), an Athenian aristocrat depicted in Plato's dialogues * Phaedrus (fabulist) (c. 15 BC – c. AD 50), a Roman fabulist * Phaedrus the Epicurean (138 BC – c. 70 BC), an Epic ...

(died 50 AD) produced Latin translations in iambic verse of fables then circulating under the name of Aesop. While Phaedrus's Latinizations became classic (transmitted through the Middle Ages, though attributed to a certain

Romulus Romulus () was the legendary foundation of Rome, founder and King of Rome, first king of Ancient Rome, Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus ...

, now considered legendary), the writing of fables in Greek did not stop; in the 2nd century AD, Babrius wrote beast fables in Greek in the manner of Aesop, which would also become influential in the Middle Ages (and sometimes transmitted as Aesop's work). In ancient Greek and Roman education, the fable was the first of the ''

progymnasmata Progymnasmata (Greek προγυμνάσματα "fore-exercises"; Latin ''praeexercitamina'') are a series of preliminary rhetorical exercises that began in ancient Greece and continued during the Roman Empire. These exercises were implemented by s ...

''—training exercises in prose composition and public speaking—wherein 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. The need of instructors to teach, and students to learn, a wide range of fables as material for their declamations resulted in their being gathered together in collections, like those of Aesop.

Africa

African oral culture has a rich story-telling tradition. As they have for thousands of years, people of all ages in Africa continue to interact with nature, including plants, animals and earthly structures such as rivers, plains, and mountains. Children and, to some extent, adults are mesmerized by good story-tellers when they become animated in their quest to tell a good fable. The Anansi oral story originates from the tribes of Ghana. "All Stories Are Anansi's" was translated by Harold Courlander and Albert Kofi Prempeh and tells the story of a god-like creature Anansi who wishes to own all stories in the world. The character Anansi is often depicted as a spider and is known for its cunning nature to obtain what it wants, typically seen outwitting other animal characters. Joel Chandler Harris wrote African-American fables in the Southern context of slavery under the name of Uncle Remus. His stories of the animal characters Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear are modern examples of African-American story-telling, this though should not transcend critiques and controversies as to whether or not Uncle Remus was a racist or apologist for slavery. The Disney movie ''

Song of the South ''Song of the South'' is a 1946 American Live-action animated film, live-action/animated musical film, musical drama film directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson; produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures. ...

'' introduced many of the stories to the public and others not familiar with the role that storytelling played in the life of cultures and groups without training in speaking, reading, writing, or the cultures to which they had been relocated to from world practices of capturing Africans and other indigenous populations to provide slave labor to colonized countries.

India

India has a rich tradition of fables, many derived from traditional stories and related to local natural elements. Indian fables often teach a particular moral. In some stories the gods have animal aspects, while in others the characters are archetypal talking animals similar to those found in other cultures. Hundreds of fables were composed in ancient India during the first millennium BCE, often as stories within frame stories. Indian fables have a mixed cast of humans and animals. The dialogues are often longer than in fables of Aesop and often comical as the animals try to outwit one another by trickery and deceit. In Indian fables, humanity is not presented as superior to the animals. Prime examples of the fable in India are the Panchatantra and the Jataka tales. These included Vishnu Sarma's ''

Panchatantra The ''Panchatantra'' (IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, sa, पञ्चतन्त्र, "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story.

'', the '' Hitopadesha'', '' Vikram and The Vampire'', and Syntipas' '' Seven Wise Masters'', which were collections of fables that were later influential throughout the

Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...

. Ben E. Perry (compiler of the " Perry Index" of Aesop's fables) has argued controversially that some of the Buddhist ''Jataka tales'' and some of the fables in the ''Panchatantra'' may have been influenced by similar Greek and

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

ern ones. Earlier Indian epics such as Vyasa's '' Mahabharata'' and Valmiki's '' Ramayana'' also contained fables within the main story, often as side stories or back-story. The most famous folk stories from the Near East were the ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'', also known as the ''Arabian Nights''. The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian assortment of fables. The earliest recorded work, ascribed to Vishnu Sharma, dates to around 300 BCE. The tales are likely much older than the compilation, having been passed down orally prior to the book's compilation. The word "Panchatantra" is a blend of the words "pancha" (which means "five" in Sanskrit) and "tantra" (which means "weave"). It implies weaving together multiple threads of narrative and moral lessons together to form a book.

Europe

Fables had a further long tradition through the Middle Ages and became part of European high literature. Fables had a further long tradition through the Middle Ages and became part of European high literature. The Roman writer Avianus (active around 400 AD) wrote Latin fables mostly based on Babrius, using very little material from Aesop. Fables attributed to Aesop circulated widely in collections bearing the title of ''

'' (as though an author named Romulus had translated and rewritten them, though today most scholars regard this Romulus to be a legendary figure). Many of these Latin version were in fact Phaedrus's 1st-century versified Latinizations. Collections titled ''Romulus'' inspired a flurry of medieval authors to newly translate (sometimes into local vernaculars), versify and rewrite fables. Among them, Adémar de Chabannes (11th century), Alexander Neckam (12th century, ''Novus Aesopus'' and shorter ''Novus Avianus''), Gualterus Anglicus (12th century) and Marie de France (12th-13th century) wrote fables adapted from models generally understood to be Aesop, Avianus or the so-called "Romulus". In the later Middle Ages, Aesop's fables were newly gathered and edited with a prefatory biography of Aesop. This biography, usually simply titled ''Life of Aesop'' (''Vita Aesopi''), is more invented than factual, and itself a sort of moralistic fable; known in several versions, this ''Aesop Romance'', as scholars term it today, enjoyed nearly as much fame as the fables themselves by the end of the fifteenth century. The most common version of this tale-like biography is attributed to the Byzantine scholar Maximus Planudes (1260–1310), who also gathered and edited fables for posterity. In the Renaissance, Aesopic fables were hugely popular. They were published in luxurious illuminated manuscripts, such as the so-called "Medici Aesop" made around 1480 in Florence based on the corpus established by Planudes, probably for the son of Lorenzo de' Medici (now kept in the New York Public Library). Early on, Aesopic fables were also disseminated in print, usually with Planudes's ''Life of Aesop'' as a preface. The German humanist

Heinrich Steinhöwel Heinrich Steinhöwel (also ''Steinhäuel'' or ''Steinheil''; 1412 – 1482) was a Swabian author, humanist, and translator who was much inspired by the Italian Renaissance. His translations of medical treatises and fiction were an important con ...

published a bilingual (Latin and German) edition of the fables in Ulm in 1476. This publication gave rise to many re-editions of the sole German prose translation (known as the ''Esopus'' or ''Esopus teutsch''). It became one the great bestsellers of the last decades of the fifteenth century. Several authors adapted or versified fables from this corpus, such as the German poet and playwright Burkard Waldis, whose versified ''Esopus'' of 1548 was influential. Even the artist and polymath Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) composed some fables in his native Florentine dialect. During the 17th century, the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

fabulist

Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, , ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

(1621–1695) saw the soul of the fable in the moral—a rule of behavior. Starting with the Aesopian pattern, La Fontaine set out to satirize the court, the church, the rising

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

, indeed the entire human scene of his time. La Fontaine's model was subsequently emulated by England's

John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peac ...

(1685–1732); Poland's Ignacy Krasicki (1735–1801); Italy's Lorenzo Pignotti (1739–1812) and Giovanni Gherardo de Rossi (1754–1827); Serbia's Dositej Obradović (1745–1801); Spain's

Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa Tomás de Iriarte (or Yriarte) y Oropesa (''Puerto de la Cruz'', La Orotava, island of Tenerife, 18 September 1750Madrid, 17 September 1791), was a Spanish neoclassical poet. Life Tomás was born to the Iriarte family, many of whose member ...

(1750–1791); France's Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755–1794); and Russia's Ivan Krylov (1769–1844).

Modern era

In modern times, while the fable has been trivialized in children's books, it has also been fully adapted to modern adult literature. Felix Salten's '' Bambi'' (1923) is a '' Bildungsroman''—a story of a

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

's coming-of-age—cast in the form of a fable. James Thurber used the ancient fable style in his books '' Fables for Our Time'' (1940) and ''Further Fables for Our Time'' (1956), and in his stories "

The Princess and the Tin Box "The Princess and the Tin Box" is a short story by James Thurber in the form of a modern fable.Tiffin, Jessica (2009)''Marvelous Geometry: Narrative and Metafiction in Modern Fairy Tale'' pp. 38–39. Wayne State University Press It was first publis ...

" in ''The Beast in Me and Other Animals'' (1948) and "The Last Clock: A Fable for the Time, Such As It Is, of Man" in ''Lanterns and Lances'' (1961). Władysław Reymont's ''The Revolt'' (1922), a metaphor for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, described a revolt by animals that take over their farm in order to introduce "equality".

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

's ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to crea ...

'' (1945) similarly satirized

Stalinist Communism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...

in particular, and totalitarianism in general, in the guise of animal fable. In the 21st century, the Neapolitan writer Sabatino Scia is the author of more than two hundred fables that he describes as "western protest fables". The characters are not only animals, but also things, beings, and elements from nature. Scia's aim is the same as in the traditional fable, playing the role of revealer of human society. In Latin America, the brothers Juan and Victor Ataucuri Garcia have contributed to the resurgence of the fable. But they do so with a novel idea: use the fable as a means of dissemination of traditional literature of that place. In the boo
"Fábulas Peruanas"
, published in 2003, they have collected myths, legends, and beliefs of Andean and Amazonian Peru, to write as fables. The result has been an extraordinary work rich in regional nuances. Here we discover the relationship between man and his origin, with nature, with its history, its customs and beliefs then become norms and values.

Fabulists

File:Velázquez - Esopo (Museo del Prado, 1639-41).jpg, Aesop, by Velázquez File:Valmiki_Ramayana.jpg, Valmiki File:Jean-de-la-fontaine.jpg,

File:Sulkhan Saba, 1700s miniature.jpg, Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani File:John Gay - Project Gutenberg eText 13790.jpg,

File:Christian Fürchtegott Gellert.jpg, Christian Fürchtegott Gellert File:Lessing in blue.jpg,

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (, ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the developmen ...

File:Per Krafft - Portrait of Bishop Ignacy Krasicki - MNK II-a-671 - National Museum Kraków.jpg, Ignacy Krasicki File:Samaniego.jpg, Félix María de Samaniego File:Tomas de Iriarte Joaquin Inza.jpg,

File:Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian.jpg, Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian File:Ivan Krylov.jpg, Ivan Krylov File:Dositej obradovic Novi Sad.png, Dositej Obradović File:Andersen-hc.jpg, Hans Christian Andersen File:Abierce.jpg, Ambrose Bierce File:Joel Chandler Harris ("Uncle Remus").jpg, Joel Chandler Harris File:Wladyslaw Reymont 1897 (71364799) (cropped).jpg, Władysław Reymont File:Felix Salten 1910.jpg, Felix Salten File:Don Marquis.jpg, Don Marquis File:James Thurber NYWTS.jpg, James Thurber File:GeoreOrwell.jpg,

Classic

* Aesop (mid-6th century BCE), author/s of '' Aesop's Fables'' * Vishnu Sarma (), author of the anthropomorphic political treatise and fable collection, the ''

'' *Bidpai (), author of Sanskrit (Hindu) and Pali (Buddhist) animal fables in verse and prose, sometimes derived from Jataka tales * Syntipas (), Indian philosopher, reputed author of a collection of tales known in Europe as ''Seven Wise Masters, The Story of the Seven Wise Masters'' *Gaius Julius Hyginus (Hyginus, Latin author, native of Spain or Alexandria, – 17 CE), author of the ''Fabulae'' *

(15 BCE – 50 CE), Roman Republic, Roman fabulist, by birth a Ancient Macedonians, Macedonian *Nizami Ganjavi (Persian, 1141–1209) *Walter of England (12th century), Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman poet, published ''Aesop's Fables'' in distichs *Marie de France (12th century) *Rumi, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (Persian, 1207–1273) *Vardan Aygektsi (died 1250), Armenian priest and fabulist *Berechiah ha-Nakdan (Berechiah the Punctuator, or Linguist, Grammarian, 13th century), author of Jewish fables adapted from Aesop's Fables *Robert Henryson (Scotland, Scottish, 15th century), author of ''The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian'' * Leonardo da Vinci (Italy, Italian, 1452–1519) *Biernat of Lublin (Poland, Polish, 1465? – after 1529) *

(

, 1621–1695) * Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani (Georgia (country), Georgian, 1658–1725), author of A Book of Wisdom and Lies, ''The Book of Wisdom and Lies'' *Bernard de Mandeville (England, English, 1670–1733), author of ''The Fable of the Bees'' *

(England, English, 1685–1732) * Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (Germany, German, 1715–1769) *

(Germany, German, 1729–1781) * Ignacy Krasicki (Poland, Polish, 1735–1801), author of ''Fables and Parables'' (1779) and ''New Fables'' (published 1802) * Dositej Obradović (Serbian, 1739–1811) *Félix María de Samaniego (Spain, Spanish, 1745–1801), best known for "The Ant and the Cicade" *Tomás de Iriarte (Spain, Spanish, 1750–91) * Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian, (

, 1755–94), author of ''Fables'' (published 1802) *Ivan Dmitriev (Russia, 1760–1837) * Ivan Krylov (Russian, 1769–1844) *Hans Christian Andersen (Denmark, Danish, 1805–1875)

Modern

*Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) *Rafael Pombo (1833–1912), Colombian fabulist, poet, writer *Ambrose Bierce (1842–?1914) * Joel Chandler Harris (1848–1908) *Sholem Aleichem (1859–1916) *George Ade (1866–1944), ''Fables in Slang'', etc. * Władysław Reymont (1868–1925) * Felix Salten (1869–1945) *Don Marquis (1878–1937), author of the fables of archy and mehitabel *Franz Kafka (1883–1924) *Damon Runyon (1884–1946) * James Thurber (1894–1961), '' Fables for Our Time'' and ''Further Fables for Our Time'' *

(1903–1950) *Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) *Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904–1991) *Nankichi Niimi (1913–1943), Japanese author and poet *Sergey Mikhalkov (1913–2009), Soviet author of children's books *Pierre Gamarra (1919–2009) *Richard Adams (1920–2016), author of ''Watership Down'' *José Saramago (1922–2010), Portugal, Portuguese writer, author of ''Ensaio sobre a cegueira'' *Italo Calvino (1923–1985), ''Cosmicomics'' etc. *Arnold Lobel (1933–87), author of ''Fables'', winner 1981 Caldecott Medal *Ramsay Wood (born 1943), author of ''Kalila and Dimna: Fables of Friendship and Betrayal'' *Bill Willingham (born 1956), author of ''Fables (Vertigo), Fables'' graphic novels *David Sedaris (born 1956), author of ''Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk'' *Hayao Miyazaki (born 1941), Japan, Japanese filmmaker, director of ''Spirited Away'' *Guillermo del Toro (born 1964), Mexico, Mexican filmmaker, director of ''Pan's Labyrinth'' *Pendleton Ward (born 1982), American animator, creator of ''Adventure Time''

Notable fable collections

*'' Aesop's Fables'' by Aesop *'' Jataka tales'' *''

'' by Vishnu Sarma *''Baital Pachisi'' (also known as ''Vikram and The Vampire'') *'' Hitopadesha'' *''Kalīla wa-Dimna'' *''A Book of Wisdom and Lies'' by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani *'' Seven Wise Masters'' by Syntipas *''

'' (also known as ''Arabian Nights'', ) *''La Fontaine's Fables, Fables'' (1668–1694) by

*''Fables and Parables'' (1779) by Ignacy Krasicki *''Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection., Fairy Tales'' (1837) by Hans Christian Andersen *''Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings'' (1881) by Joel Chandler Harris *''Fantastic Fables'' (1899) by Ambrose Bierce *'' Fables for Our Time'' (1940) by James Thurber *''99 Fables'' (1960) by William March *''Collected Fables'' (2000) by Ambrose Bierce, edited by S. T. Joshi

Notes

References

*
King James Bible
''New Testament (authorised)''. *DLR [David Lee Rubin]. "Fable in Verse", ''The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics''. *Read fables b
Aesop
an
La Fontaine