Modern Editions
Perry
There are several modern editions of Aesopic fables referred to in these pages. Most important is the monumental work published by Ben Perry in 1952, which is entitled Aesopica. This is the only modern edition that attempts to cover both the Greek and Latin traditions, and Perry’s numeration of the fables is the standard which is followed here. The book is a veritable treasure trove but at the same time it is intended exclusively for specialists. Aside from an eleven-page introduction in English, the remaining 750 pages consist entirely of Greek and Latin. Perry’s discussion of the fables is written entirely in Latin; even the instructions for using the indexes in the back of the book are written in Latin. In 1965 Perry published a translation of the poems of Babrius and Phaedrus for the Loeb Classical Library, with an appendix containing hundreds of additional fables translated into English along with extensive English indexes. Readers who want to learn more about the Aesopic tradition but who do not know Greek and Latin will want to consult the appendix to Perry’s Loeb edition rather than trying to use the indexes of his Aesopica.
Chambry
The anonymous Greek fables were carefully collated and edited by the French scholar Émile Chambry, who first published his results in a two-volume edition for the Belles Lettres series in 1925–6, which was then reduced to a single volume for the second edition in 1927 (it is this second edition which was recently translated by Robert and Olivia Temple under the misleading title Aesop: The Complete Fables). As Chambry explains in the opening words of his introduction to the first edition, numerosi sunt Aesopi codices, ‘many are the manuscripts of Aesop’. To be precise, Chambry lists ninety-four manuscripts held in public libraries and explains that he spent seven years analysing their contents, finally printing an edition of the fables containing over 880 individual fables arranged according to slightly over 350 fable types (some fables being represented by one or more variant versions). The fables were organized according to the traditional alphabetizing method based on the first word of the first fable listed for each type. Unfortunately, when Chambry sometimes selected different fables to appear in the second edition, it caused a disruption of the alphabetical system, so that the numeration of the first and second editions is slightly out of kilter.
Hervieux
For the medieval Latin fables, the standard reference is still Leopold Hervieux’s Les Fabulistes latins (1893–9). The first volume contains an edition of the poems of Phaedrus which has largely been superseded by more recent editions, but the second volume, which contains the medieval paraphrases of Phaedrus, is for the most part still the standard edition, which is also true for Hervieux’s edition of Odo’s fables, found in volume four.
van Dijk
The notes to the fables contain several references to recent work by Gert-Jan van Dijk, who has undertaken the monumental task of reviewing the literary evidence for the Aesopic fables in Greece and Rome. His Ainoi, Logoi, Mythoi (1997) contains important texts in Greek and Latin (especially excerpts from the ancient grammarians), together with commentary and analysis of the fables. Although it is not an edition in the strict sense of the word, van Dijk has identified at least one important fable which was omitted from Perry’s inventory (Fable 239), and he provides some very useful discussions about the interpretive context for the relatively few fables which are attested in ancient literary sources.
NOTE ON THE TEXT AND TRANSLATION
Contents
I have preferred to translate fables from sources that have not been translated into English before (especially the Greek fables of Aphthonius and Syntipas, along with the later Latin fables) and I have also made use of the variants published in Chambry’s first edition of the anonymous Greek fables, translating alternate versions which have not previously appeared in English (these are marked with an asterisk in the text). Thus, slightly more than a quarter of the fables included here have not previously appeared in English translation: these are not new fables per se, but they are new versions of the fables in English. For the remainder of the fables, preference was given to material appearing in the ancient collections and in The Life of Aesop, although fables appearing in miscellaneous ancient authors have been included if that is the fable’s only source. In a few cases I have provided two different versions of the same fable in order to highlight the kind of change and variation that is possible within the fable tradition. Finally, I have not excluded any of the items from the extant collections of fables (anonymous Greek fables, Phaedrus, Babrius, Aphthonius, Avianus, and Syntipas), even though there are certainly materials in these collections that are more like jokes or legends than traditional Aesopic fables. Part I of this book is dedicated to fables in the more traditional sense, while these arguably extraneous materials can be found in Part II.
Numeration
It has been traditional to arrange the fables in alphabetical order based on the initial letter of the fable’s first word or its title. This is the arrangement followed in the anonymous Greek fables and in the poems of Babrius, and it is also the arrangement adopted by modern scholars of the fables such as Chambry, Perry, and Rodríguez Adrados. Yet such an alphabetical arrangement is hardly helpful for the casual reader, especially as it is now so easy to supply a separate index to the fables (which, after all, was the purpose of the ancient effort to alphabetize). An alternative to alphabetizing is to group the fables by source and chronologically, which is actually how the numeration systems of Perry and Rodríguez Adrados are organized: they first separate all the Greek fables from the Latin fables (putting the Greek fables first, even when they come later than the early Latin fables), and they then assign some rough chronological and source divisions within those larger groups, then arranging the fables alphabetically within those divisions. This cumbersome process offers no benefits whatsoever to anyone who is reading the fables simply for pleasure. Therefore, instead of arranging the fables alphabetically or chronologically, I have followed the lead of Odo of Cheriton and grouped the fables according to their contents, making it possible to follow the patterns of theme and variation that characterize the Aesopic tradition. The resulting numeration is not meant to be adopted or used for any scholarly purpose; instead, the fables should be referred to by their Perry number, which is the most comprehensive and reliable system currently available. The source for each fable is also indicated, together with its numeration in that particular source. There is an index of Perry numbers in the back of this book, along with an index of original sources (more elaborate cross-indexes, as well as Greek and Latin texts, can be found at the website http://www.aesopica.net).
For readers who are interested in the chronological history of the fables, it is perhaps worth explaining briefly the logic behind Perry’s numeration, since it is possible to understand something about each fable’s history by examining its Perry number. Fables that are extant in any Greek source whatsoever (ancient or Byzantine) are numbered from 1 to 471 (1–273 for the anonymous Greek collections; 274–378 derive from Babrius; 379–471 come from miscellaneous Greek sources). Perry then turns to the fables of Phaedrus which are not extant in any Greek source, numbering them from 472 to 557. Any Perry number greater than 557 therefore indicates a fable which is extant only in a medieval Latin source (and Perry includes Avianus among the medieval Latin sources).
The Translation
I have translated the verse fables into prose, although the reader will still detect a great deal of stylistic variation: the poems of Avianus still feel much more intricate and artificial than the simple prose fables of Aphthonius or Syntipas. I have occasionally translated the customary Greek and Latin epithets in a form that will be more comprehensible to modern readers (so where the phrase ‘leader of the Muses’ appears, I have translated ‘Apollo, leader of the Muses’, or sometimes just ‘Apollo’). I have also sometimes glossed the name of a god or historical figure to remind the reader of their particular function: ‘Aphrodite, the goddess of love’, for example, or ‘Ma
rs, the god of war’. When a fable comes from a Greek source, I have used the Greek names of the gods (Zeus, Hera, Athena, et al.), and Latin names are used in the Latin fables (Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, et al.). The first time a divinity, place-name, or historical figure is mentioned in a fable, there is a note to the fable, and there is also an index of proper names, making it easy to find the first fable in which a particular god or person or place is mentioned.
A very interesting problem is posed by the linguistic gender of the animals in Greek and Latin. Every Greek and Latin noun, including the names of animals, has a fixed linguistic gender which is either masculine or feminine. The Greek raven, korax, is always masculine, as is the Latin corvus, while the Greek weasel, gale, is always feminine, as is the Latin weasel, mustela. Yet sometimes the gender may be masculine in Greek and feminine in Latin, or vice versa. So, for example, the Greek frog, batrachos, is masculine while the Latin frog, rana, is feminine. In English, then, a fable that is translated from the Greek will refer to the frog as ‘he’ while a fable translated from Latin will refer to the frog as ‘she’. The same thing is also true of the eagle, one of the most common characters in the fables: the Greek eagle, aetos, is masculine, while the Latin eagle, aquila, is feminine. This may cause some confusion at first, but by consulting the source for the fable, the reader can reassure himself (or herself) that the animal in question is not suffering from a gender-identity crisis—unless, of course, the animal is a hyena (see Fable 365).
Finally, the notes to the fables contain a number of proverbs. These include Greek and Latin proverbs which I have often cited from Erasmus’ Adagia; although it was first published in the sixteenth century, this remains a definitive reference work for the Greek and Latin proverb traditions (I have also included some citations from the Emblem book of Alciato, Erasmus’ somewhat younger contemporary). In addition to the Greek and Latin proverbs, there are also some English proverbs, often taken from the early English translations of Aesop’s fables by Caxton (late fifteenth century) and Sir Roger L’Estrange (late seventeenth century). These proverbs are meant to suggest to the reader the broader tradition of folk wisdom (Greek, Latin, or English) in which the fables of Aesop can be more fully understood and appreciated. For the same reason, I have included references in the notes to the ancient natural-history writers, such as Pliny (first century CE) and Aelian (early third century CE), who provide important information about the animal lore and legends that often contributed to the plots of the fables.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anonymous Greek Fables
The anonymous Greek fables translated here are taken from the first edition of Émile Chambry for the Belles Lettres Paris (series: 1925–6); fables marked with an asterisk are found only in Chambry’s first edition. An English translation of Chambry’s second edition by Robert and Olivia Temple is published in the Penguin Classics series (London: 1998).
Babrius
The texts of Babrius generally follow Ben Perry’s edition for the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: 1965), which includes an English translation.
Phaedrus
The texts of Phaedrus generally follow Perry’s Loeb edition (1965), which includes an English translation. There is also a recent English translation of Phaedrus by P. F. Widdows (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992).
Avianus
The texts of Avianus are taken from the edition by J. W. Duff and A. M. Duff for the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: 1934, including an English translation). There is also a recent English translation by David Slavitt (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1993).
Life of Aesop
Fables from the Life of Aesop follow the recent edition by Franco Ferrari published in the BUR series (Milan: 1997). For an English translation, we can thank William Hansen for having reprinted Lloyd Daly’s translation, originally published in Aesop without Morals (New York: Yoseloff, 1961), in his recent Anthology of Greek Popular Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998).
Aphthonius
The texts of Aphthonius are taken from F. Sbordone’s edition in the Rivista Indo-Greco-Italica, 16 (1932) 47–57; there is no English translation available.
Syntipas
The texts of Syntipas are taken from Ben Perry’s Aesopica (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1952); there is no English translation available.
The Romulus Fables
There are a considerable number of fables from the Romulus collections which are reprinted in Ben Perry’s Aesopica (1952); fables not cited by Perry can be found in Leopold Hervieux’s Les Fabulistes latins II (Paris: 1893–9). There is no English translation available of the Romulus collections, although the fables cited by Perry are translated into English (sometimes in paraphrase form) in the appendix to his Loeb edition of Babrius and Phaedrus.
Ademar
The fables of Ademar follow Ferruccio Bertini and Paolo Gatti in Favolisti Latini Medievali (Genova: 1988), supplemented by the comments and observations in Ferruccio Bertini’s Interpreti medievali di Fedro (Naples: Liguori Editore, 1998), which contains a detailed analysis of Ademar’s fables and his sources.
Odo
The Latin texts of Odo are from Leopold Hervieux, Les Fabulistes latins IV (Paris: 1893–9) and there is also an English translation by John C. Jacobs (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1985).
Miscellaneous Greek and Latin Fables
The miscellaneous Greek and Latin fables that do not derive from the sources listed above are taken from Perry’s Aesopica (1952).
Erasmus
The proverbs of Erasmus are cited from the Adagia in Opera Omnia (Hildesheim: 1961, a reprint of the 1703 edition). There is an English translation by Margaret Phillips and R. A. B. Mynors included in the University of Toronto’s Collected Works of Erasmus (1982–92, three additional volumes forthcoming). This English translation of Erasmus is the best place for English readers to consult the Greek proverb collections attributed to Zenobius, Apostolius, and others; the Greek texts of the proverb collections are published in E. Leutsch and F. G. Schneidewin, Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum (Gottingen: 1839–51).
Alciato
The emblems of Andrea Alciato (also known as Alciati) are translated from the Emblematum liber, or the Book of Emblems, which was published in various editions throughout the sixteenth century. There is an English translation by Betty Knott (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996).
English Versions of Aesop
The morals of Caxton are cited from Caxton’s Aesop as edited by R. T. Lenaghan (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967). The morals of Roger L’Estrange are cited from his Aesop’s Fables (recently republished by the Everyman’s Library of Children’s Classics (New York: 1992), although his seventeenth-century English prose is surely impenetrable to actual children).
Eastern Traditions
There is a comprehensive English translation of the Buddhist jataka tales by E. G. Cowell and others (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1895; reprinted 1973). For the Panchatantra see the recent English translation by Patrick Olivelle for Oxford World’s Classics, The Pañcatantra (Oxford: 1997). There are many English translations of selected poems by Rumi, the thirteenth-century Persian poet, but the only complete English translation of the Mathnawi is the edition of R. A. Nicholson (recently reprinted, Bangkok: White Orchid Press, 1990). In addition, it is worth noting that parts of the Life of Aesop depend on the Semitic legends of Ahikar or Ahiqar. The Story of Ahiqar was a widely popular text in the ancient Near East, and is extant in Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, as well as in Armenian and Greek; in English, see James M. Lindenberg, The Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983). Perry’s Loeb edition of Babrius and Phaedrus provides an extremely valuable survey of the parallels between the Aesopic fable tradition and the traditions of ancient Mesopotamia.
European Fables
The medieval Hebrew fables of Berechiah ha-Nakdan were translated into English by Moses Hadas (Ne
w York: Columbia University Press, 1967). There are numerous translations of the fables of the medieval poet Marie de France, including a recent translation into English verse by Harriet Spiegel (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987). John E. Keller and L. Clark Kenting have published an English translation of the first printed edition of Aesop’s fables in Spain (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1993). The seventeenth-century Yiddish fables of Reb Moshe Wallich were translated by Eli Katz (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994). There are numerous translations of the seventeenth-century French fables of Jean de la Fontaine, including a complete edition in English verse by Norman Spector (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1988).
Fable Scholarship in English
There is very little scholarship on Aesop in English, with the exception of several recent volumes published by Brill. One of these new volumes has already been mentioned, Gert-Jan van Dijk’s Ainoi, Logoi, Mythoi (Mnemosyne Supplementum 166: 1997), and now there is a two-volume English translation of Francisco Rodríguez Adrados’s massive study, History of the Graeco-Latin Fable (Leiden, Brill: 1999–2000). Running to almost 1,500 pages, this study contains an abundance of useful material, but its entire approach to the early history of the fable is predicated on a very tenuous reconstruction of the lost fable collections of Demetrius of Phalerum and other Hellenistic Greek sources for which there is no direct textual evidence. Much of Rodríguez Adrados’s effort is directed towards extracting fragments of Greek poetry from the prose versions of the fables, an eccentric endeavour that will have very little meaning for English-language readers who do not know Greek.
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