Part 1 of 5 · freeIntroduction
Legend makes Aesop a Greek slave who lived around 600 to 500 BC, the father of the fable. The historian Herodotus, the comic playwright Aristophanes and the philosopher Plato all mention him. Yet the first known collection of his fables, put together by Demetrius of Phalerum in the 4th century BC, appeared long after his death. If, that is, he was ever alive.
Nobody knows for sure whether a man called Aesop really existed. The best way to think of him is as a half-historical figure, like Robin Hood: a real storyteller, and then a legend that added a good deal of fiction to the facts. One thing is certain: far more fables are attributed to him than one man could have written.
The rest is in the Sophia app.The remaining parts, the open-book quiz and the full glossary. Free to start; Premium unlocks everything.
- 2Speaking truth to power
- 3Fictions that picture the truth
- 4Just for children?
- 5Fables all the way to Orwell
Open-book quiz8 questions whose answers are in the text.
Glossary6 terms explained in a tap.
30 languagesThe same course, from French to Japanese.
