Aesop Fable information part 10
10|The Life of Aesop|FORE=7|BACK=0|MARG=5|SCFX=10
The Life of Aesop^15
The life and history of Aesop is involved, like that of Homer, the
most famous of Greek poets, in much obscurity. Sardis, the capital of
Lydia; Samos, a Greek island; Mesembria, an ancient colony in Thrace;
and Cotiaeum, the chief city of a province of Phrygia, contend for the
distinction of being the birthplace of Aesop. Although the honor thus
claimed cannot be definitely assigned to any one of these places, yet
there are a few incidents now generally accepted by scholars as
established facts, relating to the birth, life, and death of Aesop.
He is, by an almost universal consent, allowed to have been born about
the year 620 B.C., and to have been by birth a slave. He was owned by
two masters in succession, both inhabitants of Samos, Xanthus and
Jadmon, the latter of whom gave him his liberty as a reward for his
learning and wit. One of the privileges of a freedman in the ancient
republics of Greece, was the permission to take an active interest in
public affairs; and Aesop, like the philosophers Phaedo, Menippus, and
Epictetus, in later times, raised himself from the indignity of a
servile condition to a position of high renown. In his desire alike
to instruct and to be instructed, he travelled through many countries,
and among others came to Sardis, the capital of the famous king of
Lydia, the great patron, in that day, of learning and of learned men.
He met at the court of Croesus with Solon, Thales, and other sages,
and is related so to have pleased his royal master, by the part he
took in the conversations held with these philosophers, that he
applied to him an expression which has since passed into a proverb,
"The Phrygian has spoken better than all."
On the invitation of Croesus he fixed his residence at Sardis, and was
employed by that monarch in various difficult and delicate affairs of
State. In his discharge of these commissions he visited the different
petty republics of Greece. At one time he is found in Corinth, and at
another in Athens, endeavouring, by the narration of some of his wise
fables, to reconcile the inhabitants of those cities to the
administration of their respective rulers Periander and Pisistratus.
One of these ambassadorial missions, undertaken at the command of
Croesus, was the occasion of his death. Having been sent to Delphi
with a large sum of gold for distribution among the citizens, he was
so provoked at their covetousness that he refused to divide the money,
and sent it back to his master. The Delphians, enraged at this
treatment, accused him of impiety, and, in spite of his sacred
character as ambassador, executed him as a public criminal. This
cruel death of Aesop was not unavenged. The citizens of Delphi were
visited with a series of calamities, until they made a public
reparation of their crime; and, "The blood of Aesop" became a
well-known adage, bearing witness to the truth that deeds of wrong
would not pass unpunished. Neither did the great fabulist lack
posthumous honors; for a statue was erected to his memory at Athens,
the work of Lysippus, one of the most famous of Greek sculptors.
Phaedrus thus immortalizes the event:
Aesopo ingentem statuam posuere Attici,
Servumque collocarunt aeterna in basi:
Patere honoris scirent ut cuncti viam;
Nec generi tribui sed virtuti gloriam.
[Translation:
Aesop great statue lay population; Servumque eternal problem of the base; Suffer us, to see that all might know that the way of honor; Nor is it for the tribe, but to the power of the glory of the race of.]
These few facts are all that can be relied on with any degree of
certainty, in reference to the birth, life, and death of Aesop. They
were first brought to light, after a patient search and diligent
perusal of ancient authors, by a Frenchman, M. Claude Gaspard Bachet
de Mezeriac, who declined the honor of being tutor to Louis XIII of
France, from his desire to devote himself exclusively to literature.
He published his Life of Aesop, Anno Domini 1632. The later
investigations of a host of English and German scholars have added
very little to the facts given by M. Mezeriac. The substantial truth
of his statements has been confirmed by later criticism and inquiry.
The Life of Aesop^15
The life and history of Aesop is involved, like that of Homer, the
most famous of Greek poets, in much obscurity. Sardis, the capital of
Lydia; Samos, a Greek island; Mesembria, an ancient colony in Thrace;
and Cotiaeum, the chief city of a province of Phrygia, contend for the
distinction of being the birthplace of Aesop. Although the honor thus
claimed cannot be definitely assigned to any one of these places, yet
there are a few incidents now generally accepted by scholars as
established facts, relating to the birth, life, and death of Aesop.
He is, by an almost universal consent, allowed to have been born about
the year 620 B.C., and to have been by birth a slave. He was owned by
two masters in succession, both inhabitants of Samos, Xanthus and
Jadmon, the latter of whom gave him his liberty as a reward for his
learning and wit. One of the privileges of a freedman in the ancient
republics of Greece, was the permission to take an active interest in
public affairs; and Aesop, like the philosophers Phaedo, Menippus, and
Epictetus, in later times, raised himself from the indignity of a
servile condition to a position of high renown. In his desire alike
to instruct and to be instructed, he travelled through many countries,
and among others came to Sardis, the capital of the famous king of
Lydia, the great patron, in that day, of learning and of learned men.
He met at the court of Croesus with Solon, Thales, and other sages,
and is related so to have pleased his royal master, by the part he
took in the conversations held with these philosophers, that he
applied to him an expression which has since passed into a proverb,
"The Phrygian has spoken better than all."
On the invitation of Croesus he fixed his residence at Sardis, and was
employed by that monarch in various difficult and delicate affairs of
State. In his discharge of these commissions he visited the different
petty republics of Greece. At one time he is found in Corinth, and at
another in Athens, endeavouring, by the narration of some of his wise
fables, to reconcile the inhabitants of those cities to the
administration of their respective rulers Periander and Pisistratus.
One of these ambassadorial missions, undertaken at the command of
Croesus, was the occasion of his death. Having been sent to Delphi
with a large sum of gold for distribution among the citizens, he was
so provoked at their covetousness that he refused to divide the money,
and sent it back to his master. The Delphians, enraged at this
treatment, accused him of impiety, and, in spite of his sacred
character as ambassador, executed him as a public criminal. This
cruel death of Aesop was not unavenged. The citizens of Delphi were
visited with a series of calamities, until they made a public
reparation of their crime; and, "The blood of Aesop" became a
well-known adage, bearing witness to the truth that deeds of wrong
would not pass unpunished. Neither did the great fabulist lack
posthumous honors; for a statue was erected to his memory at Athens,
the work of Lysippus, one of the most famous of Greek sculptors.
Phaedrus thus immortalizes the event:
Aesopo ingentem statuam posuere Attici,
Servumque collocarunt aeterna in basi:
Patere honoris scirent ut cuncti viam;
Nec generi tribui sed virtuti gloriam.
[Translation:
Aesop great statue lay population; Servumque eternal problem of the base; Suffer us, to see that all might know that the way of honor; Nor is it for the tribe, but to the power of the glory of the race of.]
These few facts are all that can be relied on with any degree of
certainty, in reference to the birth, life, and death of Aesop. They
were first brought to light, after a patient search and diligent
perusal of ancient authors, by a Frenchman, M. Claude Gaspard Bachet
de Mezeriac, who declined the honor of being tutor to Louis XIII of
France, from his desire to devote himself exclusively to literature.
He published his Life of Aesop, Anno Domini 1632. The later
investigations of a host of English and German scholars have added
very little to the facts given by M. Mezeriac. The substantial truth
of his statements has been confirmed by later criticism and inquiry.
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