Editing Fable (section)

==Global history==
The fable is one of the most enduring forms of [[folklore|folk literature]], spread abroad, modern researchers agree,<ref>''Enzyklopädie des Märchens'' (1977), see "Fabel", "Äsopica" etc.</ref> 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 [[legend]]ary [[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 "[[Ninus|Ninos]]" (personifying [[Nineveh]] to Greeks) and [[Belus (Assyrian)|Belos]] ("ruler").<ref>Burkert 1992:121</ref> [[Epicharmus of Kos]] and Phormis are reported as having been among the first to invent comic fables.<ref>P. W. Buckham, p. 245</ref> Many familiar fables of Aesop include "[[The Crow and the Pitcher]]", "[[The Tortoise and the Hare]]" and "[[The Lion and the Mouse]]".

In the first century AD, [[Phaedrus (fabulist)|Phaedrus]] (died 50 AD) produced Latin translations in iambic verse of fables then circulating under the name of Aesop. While Phaedrus's Latinizations became classic (transmitted through the Middle Ages, though attributed to a certain [[Romulus (fabulist)|Romulus]], now considered legendary), the writing of fables in Greek did not stop; in the 2nd century AD, [[Babrius]] wrote beast fables in Greek in the manner of Aesop, which would also become influential in the Middle Ages (and sometimes transmitted as Aesop's work).{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

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.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

===Africa===
[[Oral tradition|African oral culture]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/atim-oton/arits-fables-kids-series_b_1001656.html |author=Atim Oton |title=Reaching African Children Through Fables and Animation |publisher=Huffingtonpost.com |date=October 25, 2011 |access-date=May 8, 2012}}</ref> 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. Children and, to some extent, adults are mesmerized by good story-tellers when they become animated in their quest to tell a good fable.

The [[Anansi]] oral story originates from the tribes of [[Ghana]]. "All Stories Are Anansi's" was translated by Harold Courlander and Albert Kofi Prempeh and tells the story of a god-like creature Anansi who wishes to own all stories in the world.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=The Norton Anthology World Literature |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-393-60285-2 |edition=4th |location=500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY |pages=902–905}}</ref> The character Anansi is often depicted as a spider and is known for its cunning nature to obtain what it wants, typically seen outwitting other animal characters.<ref name=":0" />

===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.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ohale|first=Nagnath|date=2020-05-25|title=Indian Fables Stories – In Indian Culture Indian fables with morals|url=https://inindianculture.com/indian-fables-stories/|access-date=2020-07-16|website=In Indian Culture|language=en-GB|archive-date=2020-07-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731105845/https://inindianculture.com/indian-fables-stories/|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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 [[History of India|ancient India]] during the [[1st millennium BC|first millennium BCE]], often as [[Story within a story|stories within]] [[frame story|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]]'', ''[[Baital Pachisi|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 language|Greek]] and [[Near East]]ern ones.<ref>Ben E. Perry, "Introduction", p. xix, in ''Babrius and Phaedrus'' (1965)</ref> Earlier [[Indian epic poetry|Indian epics]] such as [[Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa|Vyasa's]] ''[[Mahabharata]]'' and [[Valmiki]]'s ''[[Ramayana]]'' also contained fables within the main story, often as [[side story|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===
[[File:Fabel van de smid en de hond.jpg|thumb|Printed image of ''the fable of the blacksmith and the dog'' from the sixteenth century<ref>{{Cite web|title=Fabel van de smid en de hond|url=https://lib.ugent.be/viewer/archive.ugent.be:B04BBED2-F681-11E9-9639-C36B765DA7FD#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-675,0,4065,2270|access-date=2020-09-28|website=lib.ugent.be}}</ref>]]

Fables had a further long tradition through the [[Middle Ages]] and became part of European high literature. The Roman writer [[Avianus]] (active around 400 AD) wrote Latin fables mostly based on [[Babrius]], using very little material from Aesop. Fables attributed to Aesop circulated widely in collections bearing the title of ''[[Romulus (fabulist)|Romulus]]'' (as though an author named Romulus had translated and rewritten them, though today most scholars regard this Romulus to be a legendary figure). Many of these Latin version were in fact Phaedrus's 1st-century versified Latinizations. Collections titled ''Romulus'' inspired a flurry of medieval authors to newly translate (sometimes into local vernaculars), versify and rewrite fables. Among them, [[Adémar de Chabannes]] (11th century), [[Alexander Neckam]] (12th century, ''Novus Aesopus'' and shorter ''Novus Avianus''), [[Gualterus Anglicus]] (12th century) and  Marie de France (12th-13th century) wrote fables adapted from models generally understood to be Aesop, Avianus or the so-called "Romulus".{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

In the later Middle Ages, Aesop's fables were newly gathered and edited with a prefatory biography of Aesop. This biography, usually simply titled ''Life of Aesop'' (''Vita Aesopi''), is more invented than factual, and itself a sort of moralistic fable; known in several versions, this ''Aesop Romance'', as scholars term it today, enjoyed nearly as much fame as the fables themselves by the end of the fifteenth century. The most common version of this tale-like biography is attributed to the Byzantine scholar [[Maximus Planudes]] (1260–1310), who also gathered and edited fables for posterity. In the Renaissance, Aesopic fables were hugely popular. They were published in luxurious illuminated manuscripts, such as the so-called "Medici Aesop" made around 1480 in Florence based on the corpus established by Planudes, probably for the [[Piero the Unfortunate|son]] of [[Lorenzo de' Medici]] (now kept in the New York Public Library). Early on, Aesopic fables were also disseminated in print, usually with Planudes's ''Life of Aesop'' as a preface. The German humanist [[Heinrich Steinhöwel]] published a bilingual (Latin and German) edition of the fables in Ulm in 1476. This publication gave rise to many re-editions of the sole German prose translation (known as the ''Esopus'' or ''Esopus teutsch''). It became one the great bestsellers of the last decades of the fifteenth century. Several authors adapted or versified fables from this corpus, such as the German poet and playwright Burkard Waldis, whose versified ''Esopus'' of 1548 was influential. Even the artist and polymath [[Leonardo da Vinci]] (1452–1519) composed some fables in his native Florentine dialect.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

During the 17th century, the [[France|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.<ref>Translations of his 12 books of fables are available online at [http://oaks.nvg.org/fontaine.html oaks.nvg.org]</ref> La Fontaine's model was subsequently emulated by England's [[John Gay]] (1685–1732);<ref>His two collections of 1727 and 1738 are available in one volume on Google Books at [https://archive.org/details/fablesjohngayil00owengoog <!-- quote=john gay   "fables". --> books.google.co.uk]</ref> Poland's [[Ignacy Krasicki]] (1735–1801);<ref>His ''Bajki i przypowieści'' (Fables and Parables, 1779) are available online at [http://literat.ug.edu.pl/ikbajk/index.htm ug.edu.pl]</ref> Italy's Lorenzo Pignotti (1739–1812)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/favoleenovelle01pigngoog |quote=pignotti   favola. |title=His ''Favole e Novelle'' (1785) is available on |via=[[Internet Archive]] |year=1830 |publisher=da'torchi di R.di Napoli |access-date=May 8, 2012}}</ref>{{Verify source|date=May 2012}} and Giovanni Gherardo de Rossi (1754–1827);<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rKoTAAAAQAAJ&q=pignotti+++favola |title=His ''Favole'' (1788) is available on Google Books |access-date=May 8, 2012|last1=Rossi |first1=Giovanni Gherardo De |year=1790 }}</ref>{{Verify source|date=May 2012}} Serbia's [[Dositej Obradović]] (1745–1801);<ref>9 books of fables are available online in Spanish at [http://amediavoz.com/samaniego.htm amediavoz.com]</ref> Spain's [[Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa]] (1750–1791);<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Zr0DAAAAQAAJ |quote=Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa fabulas. |title=His ''Fabulas Literarias'' are available on |via=[[Internet Archive]] |year=1816 |access-date=May 8, 2012}}</ref>{{Verify source|date=May 2012}} France's [[Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian]] (1755–1794);<ref>His five books of fables are available online in French at [http://www.shanaweb.net/florian/la-vie-de-florian.htm shanaweb.net] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612144726/http://shanaweb.net/florian/la-vie-de-florian.htm |date=2010-06-12 }}</ref> and Russia's [[Ivan Krylov]] (1769–1844).<ref>5 books of fables are available online in English at [http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/literature/19century/krylov2.html friends-partners.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221221002/http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/literature/19century/krylov2.html |date=2011-02-21 }}</ref>