11/01/2021 Fable - Wikipedia

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

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.

Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished. In the King James
Version of the New Testament, "µῦθος" ("mythos") was rendered by the Anthropomorphic cat guarding
translators as "fable"[1] in the First Epistle to Timothy, the Second geese, Egypt, ca. 1120 BCE
Epistle to Timothy, the Epistle to Titus and the First Epistle of Peter.[2]

A person who writes fables is a fabulist.

Contents
History
Aesopic or Aesop's fable
Africa
India
Indian fables with morals[8]
Europe
Modern era
Fabulists
Classic
Modern
Notable fable collections
See also
Further reading
Notes
References

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.
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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 fabulous novels, mostly explainable by the fact that the culture derives
traditions and learns qualities from natural elements. Some of the gods are forms of animals with ideal
qualities. Also, 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 witty as the animals try to outwit one another
by trickery and deceit. In Indian fables, man is not superior to the animals. The tales are often comical.
The Indian fable adhered to the universally known traditions of the fable. The best 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.[7] Earlier

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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.

Indian fables with morals[8]

A case of spiritualist India, Indian Fables Stories Panchatantra are the most seasoned enduring accounts
of humankind, getting by for a considerable length of time, from mouth to mouth, before they were
recorded. You will cherish the clear pace of the tales, and they generally make for extraordinary sleep
time or narrating meetings. Offer them will all story darlings, and let them appreciate the light,
captivating existence of the narratives.

The Panchatantra is an antiquated Indian assortment of between related creature tales in Sanskrit
section and composition. The soonest recorded work, ascribed to Vishnu Sharma, dates to around 300
BCE. The tales are likely a lot more established, having been passed down ages orally. The word
“Panchatantra” is a blend of the words Pancha – which means five in Sanskrit, and Tantra – which
means weave. Truly interpreted, it implies interlacing five skeins of customs and lessons into a book.

They are really archived forms of oral stories that stumbled into ages previously. Indeed, even today, they
are supported stories across India and different pieces of the world. We are pleased to present to you an
assortment of the most well known Panchatantra stories to you, for they are cherished by grown-ups and
kids the same.

They give the children an early balance onto good and social qualities, forming the youthful personalities
into a moral future. The vast majority of the accounts accompany recordings after the content, to give
you an overall encounter. Appreciate them, with your children, and offer them with everybody, and help
manufacture an increasingly wonderful world.

These Indian Panchatantra stories are converted into straightforward English, and consequently they fill
in as extraordinary material for short Indian stories for youngsters. Antiquated tales, still pertinent for
the present howdy tech way of life

Europe

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
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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 Printed image of the fable of the blacksmith and the dog
protest fables.” The characters are not only from the sixteenth century.[9]
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/icdl/BookPreview?bookid=atafabu_00510018&route=a
uthor_Spanish&lang=Spanish&msg&ilang=Spanish) published in 2003, they have collected myths,
legends, 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

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Aesop, by Velázquez Vyasa Valmiki

Jean de La Fontaine Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani John Gay

Christian Fürchtegott Gotthold Ephraim Ignacy Krasicki

Gellert Lessing

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Dositej Obradović Félix María de Tomás de Iriarte y

Samaniego Oropesa

Jean-Pierre Claris de Ivan Krylov Hans Christian

Florian Andersen

Ambrose Bierce Joel Chandler Harris Władysław Reymont

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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)
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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 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
Pierre Gamarra (1919 – 2009)
Richard Adams (born 1920), author of Watership Down
José Saramago (1922 – 2010)
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
Randall Kenan (born 1963)
Guillermo del Toro[20] (born 1964), Mexican filmmaker
Pendleton Ward (born 1982), American animator, creator of Adventure Time

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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
Kalila and Dimna, Vol 1: Fables of Friendship and Betrayal (2008) by Ramsay Wood
Kalila and Dimna, Vol 2: Fables of Conflict and Intrigue (2011) by Ramsay Wood

See also
Allegory
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.npr.org/201
1/01/17/132621436/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" (htt
ps://www.tor.com/2017/09/29/the-challenge-of-modern-fables-ben-loorys-erudite-surrealism/).
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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" (http://ww
w.huffingtonpost.com/atim-oton/arits-fables-kids-series_b_1001656.html). Huffingtonpost.com.
Retrieved May 8, 2012.
7. Ben E. Perry, "Introduction", p. xix, in Babrius and Phaedrus (1965)
8. Ohale, Nagnath (2020-05-25). "Indian Fables Stories - In Indian Culture Indian fables with morals" (ht
tps://inindianculture.com/indian-fables-stories/). In Indian Culture. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
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/fontain
e.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://literat.u
g.edu.pl/ikbajk/index.htm)
13. His Favole e Novelle (1785) is available on (https://archive.org/details/favoleenovelle01pigngoog).
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://books.
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/samanieg
o.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.net/flor
ian/la-vie-de-florian.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100612144726/http://shanaweb.ne
t/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-partners.o
rg/friends/literature/19century/krylov2.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110221221002/h
ttp://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.

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20. Kermode, Mark (30 July 2013). "The Devil's Backbone: The Past Is Never Dead . . " (https://www.crit
erion.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
Buckham, Philip Wentworth (1827). Theatre of the Greeks (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_IjAZAA
AAYAAJ). J. Smith. "The Theatre of the Greeks."
King James Bible (http://www.studylight.org/desk/?l=en&query=fable&section=0&translation=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 (http://fairytalez.c
om/author/la-fontaine/)

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