Fable

Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse

verse,, that features animals
animals,,
legendary creatures,
creatures, plants
plants,, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are
anthropomorphized,, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson (a "moral"),
anthropomorphized
which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying.

Anthropomorphic cat guarding geese, Egypt, ca. 1120 BCE

A fable differs from a parable 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 specifically includes talking animals as characters.
Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished. In the King James Version of the New
Testament, "μῦθος" ("mythos") was rendered by the translators as "fable"[1] in the First
Epistle to Timothy, the Second Epistle to Timothy, the Epistle to Titus and the First Epistle of
Peter.[2]

A person who writes fables is a fabulist.

History

The fable is one of the most enduring forms of folk literature, spread abroad, modern
researchers agree,[3] 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 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 to Greeks) and Belos
("ruler").[4] Epicharmus of Kos and Phormis are reported as having been among the first to
invent comic fables.[5] Many familiar fables of Aesop include "The Crow and the Pitcher",
"The Tortoise and the Hare" and "The Lion and the Mouse". In ancient Greek and Roman
education, the fable was the first of the progymnasmata—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[6] 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. Grandparents enjoy enormous
respect in African societies and fill the new role of story-telling during retirement years.
Children and, to some extent, adults are mesmerized by good story-tellers when they
become animated in their quest to tell a good fable.

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 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.[7] 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
Hitopadesha, Vikram and The Vampire, and Syntipas' Seven Wise Masters, which were
collections of fables that were later influential throughout the Old World. 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 Eastern ones.[8] 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, 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

Printed image of the fable of the blacksmith and the dog from the sixteenth century.[9]

Fables had a further long tradition through the Middle Ages, and became part of European
high literature. During the 17th century, the French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine (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, indeed
the entire human scene of his time.[10] La Fontaine's model was subsequently emulated by
England's John Gay (1685–1732);[11] Poland's Ignacy Krasicki (1735–1801);[12] Italy's
Lorenzo Pignotti (1739–1812)[13] and Giovanni Gherardo de Rossi (1754–1827);[14] Serbia's
Dositej Obradović (1739–1811); Spain's Félix María de Samaniego (1745–1801)[15] and
Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa (1750–1791);[16] France's Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755–
94);[17] and Russia's Ivan Krylov (1769–1844).[18]

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'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" 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's Animal Farm (1945) similarly satirized Stalinist
Communism 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 book "Fábulas Peruanas" (http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icd
l/BookPreview?bookid=atafabu_00510018&route=author_Spanish&lang=Spanish&msg&il
ang=Spanish) , 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.[19]

Fabulists
Aesop, by Velázquez

Vyasa
 Valmiki

Jean de La Fontaine
Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani

John Gay
Christian Fürchtegott Gellert

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

 Ignacy Krasicki

Dositej Obradović
Félix María de Samaniego

Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa

Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian

Ivan Krylov
Hans Christian Andersen

Ambrose Bierce
Joel Chandler Harris

Władysław Reymont
Felix Salten

Don Marquis
 James Thurber

George Orwell

Classic

Aesop (mid-6th century BCE), author/s of Aesop's Fables

Vishnu Sarma (ca. 200 BCE), author of the anthropomorphic political treatise and fable
collection, the Panchatantra

Bidpai (ca. 200 BCE), author of Sanskrit (Hindu) and Pali (Buddhist) animal fables in
verse and prose, sometimes derived from Jataka tales
Syntipas (ca. 100 BCE), Indian philosopher, reputed author of a collection of tales known
in Europe as The Story of the Seven Wise Masters

Gaius Julius Hyginus (Hyginus, Latin author, native of Spain or Alexandria, ca. 64 BCE –
17 CE), author of Fabulae

Phaedrus (15 BCE – 50 CE), Roman fabulist, by birth a Macedonian

Nizami Ganjavi (Persian, 1141–1209)

Walter of England (12th century), Anglo-Norman poet, published Aesop's Fables in

distichs c. 1175

Marie de France (12th century)

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (Persian, 1207–73)

Vardan Aygektsi (died 1250), Armenian priest and fabulist

Berechiah ha-Nakdan (Berechiah the Punctuator, or Grammarian, 13th century), author of

Jewish fables adapted from Aesop's Fables

Robert Henryson (Scottish, 15th century), author of The Morall Fabillis of Esope the
Phrygian

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519)

Biernat of Lublin (Polish, 1465? – after 1529)

Jean de La Fontaine (French, 1621–95)

Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani (Georgian, 1658–1725), author of "A Book of Wisdom and Lies"

Bernard de Mandeville (English, 1670–1733), author of The Fable of the Bees

John Gay (English, 1685–1732)

Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (German, 1715–69)

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (German, 1729–81)

Ignacy Krasicki (Polish, 1735–1801), author of Fables and Parables (1779) and New
Fables (published 1802)

Dositej Obradović (Serbian, 1739–1811)

Félix María de Samaniego (Spanish, 1745–1801), best known for "The Ant and the
Cicade"
 Tomás de Iriarte (Spanish, 1750–91)

Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian, (French, 1755–94), author of Fables (published 1802)

Ivan Dmitriev (Russia, 1760–1837)

Ivan Krylov (Russian, 1769–1844)

Hans Christian Andersen (Danish, 1805–75)

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

George Orwell (1903 – 50)

Dr. Seuss (1904 – 91)

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904 – 91)

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), Portuguese writer, author of Ensaio sobre a cegueira
 Italo Calvino (1923 – 85), 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 graphic novels

David Sedaris (born 1956), author of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

Hayao Miyazaki (born 1941), Japanese filmmaker, director of Spirited Away

Guillermo del Toro[20] (born 1964), 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

Panchatantra by Vishnu Sarma

Baital Pachisi (also known as Vikram and The Vampire)

Hitopadesha

A Book of Wisdom and Lies by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani

Seven Wise Masters by Syntipas

One Thousand and One Nights (also known as Arabian Nights, ca. 800–900)

Fables (1668–94) by Jean de La Fontaine

Fables and Parables (1779) by Ignacy Krasicki

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

 Kalīla wa-Dimna

See also

Allegory

Animal tale

Anthropomorphism

Apologia

Apologue

"The Blind Man and the Lame"

Fabel

Fables

Fairy tale

Fantastique

Ghost story

Parable

Proverb

Wisdom

"The Wolf and the Lamb"

Further reading

Gish Jen (3 Jan 2011). "Three Modern Fables to Capture Your Imagination" (https://www.n
pr.org/2011/01/17/132621436/three-modern-fables-to-capture-your-imagination)
(Audio with transcript). NPR : All Things Considered.

Tobias Carroll (29 Sep 2017). "The Challenge of Modern Fables: Ben Loory's Erudite
Surrealism" (https://www.tor.com/2017/09/29/the-challenge-of-modern-fables-ben-lo
orys-erudite-surrealism/) . Tor.com.

Robert Spencer Knotts. "Modern Fables" (http://www.thehumanityproject.com/fables) .

The Humanity Project.

Notes
 1. For example, in First Timothy, "neither give heed to fables...", and "refuse profane and old
wives' fables..." (1 Tim 1:4 and 4:4, respectively).

2. Strong's 3454. μύθος muthos moo’-thos; perhaps from the same as 3453 (through the idea of
tuition); a tale, i.e. fiction ("myth"):—fable.

"For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty." (2nd Peter 1:16)

3. Enzyklopädie des Märchens (1977), see "Fabel", "Äsopica" etc.

4. Burkert 1992:121

5. P. W. Buckham, p. 245

6. Atim Oton (October 25, 2011). "Reaching African Children Through Fables and Animation" (htt
p://www.huffingtonpost.com/atim-oton/arits-fables-kids-series_b_1001656.html) .
Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved May 8, 2012.

7. Ohale, Nagnath (2020-05-25). "Indian Fables Stories - In Indian Culture Indian fables with
morals" (https://inindianculture.com/indian-fables-stories/) . In Indian Culture. Retrieved
2020-07-16.

8. Ben E. Perry, "Introduction", p. xix, in Babrius and Phaedrus (1965)

9. "Fabel van de smid en de hond" (https://lib.ugent.be/viewer/archive.ugent.be:B04BBED2-F681-

11E9-9639-C36B765DA7FD#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-675,0,4065,2270) . lib.ugent.be.
Retrieved 2020-09-28.

10. Translations of his 12 books of fables are available online at oaks.nvg.org (http://oaks.nvg.org/f
ontaine.html)

11. His two collections of 1727 and 1738 are available in one volume on Google Books at
books.google.co.uk (https://archive.org/details/fablesjohngayil00owengoog)

12. His Bajki i przypowieści (Fables and Parables, 1779) are available online at ug.edu.pl (http://litera
t.ug.edu.pl/ikbajk/index.htm)

13. His Favole e Novelle (1785) is available on (https://archive.org/details/favoleenovelle01pigngo

og) . da'torchi di R.di Napoli. 1830. Retrieved May 8, 2012 – via Internet Archive. "pignotti
favola."

14. Rossi, Giovanni Gherardo De (1790). His Favole (1788) is available on Google Books (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=rKoTAAAAQAAJ&q=pignotti+++favola) . Retrieved May 8, 2012.

15. 9 books of fables are available online in Spanish at amediavoz.com (http://amediavoz.com/sam

aniego.htm)
16. His Fabulas Literarias are available on (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Zr0DAAAAQAAJ) .
1816. Retrieved May 8, 2012 – via Internet Archive. "Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa fabulas."

17. His five books of fables are available online in French at shanaweb.net (http://www.shanaweb.n
et/florian/la-vie-de-florian.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100612144726/htt
p://shanaweb.net/florian/la-vie-de-florian.htm) 2010-06-12 at the Wayback Machine

18. 5 books of fables are available online in English at friends-partners.org (http://www.friends-part

ners.org/friends/literature/19century/krylov2.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201
10221221002/http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/literature/19century/krylov2.html) 2011-
02-21 at the Wayback Machine

19. Juan y Víctor Ataucuri García, "Fábulas Peruanas", Gaviota Azul Editores, Lima, 2003
ISBN 9972-2561-0-3.

20. Kermode, Mark (30 July 2013). "The Devil's Backbone: The Past Is Never Dead . . " (https://ww
w.criterion.com/current/posts/2850-the-devil-s-backbone-the-past-is-never-dead) . The
Criterion Collection. The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 25 June 2016. "For those with a
weakness for the beautiful monsters of modern cinema, del Toro has earned himself a
reputation as the finest living exponent of fabulist film."

References

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Fable".

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fables.

Buckham, Philip Wentworth (1827). Theatre of the Greeks (https://archive.org/details/bu

b_gb_IjAZAAAAYAAJ) . J. Smith. "The Theatre of the Greeks."

King James Bible (http://www.studylight.org/desk/?l=en&query=fable&section=0&transl

ation=kjv&oq=&sr=1) ; New Testament (authorised).

DLR [David Lee Rubin]. "Fable in Verse", The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and
Poetics.

Read fables by Aesop (http://fairytalez.com/author/aesops-fables/) and La Fontaine (ht

tp://fairytalez.com/author/la-fontaine/)
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Fable&oldid=1118176704"

Last edited 21 days ago by Anita5192