Show aesop author of f ra 1612 I 1 1 was bom about 61 15 C aesop the reputed author of the collection of fables Is sad sa d to have been born about B 0 and the greek island of samos Is the place most commonly given as that of his birth notes a writer in the cleveland Clevelan 4 plain dealer he was a slave and Is supposed to have been given his freedom because e of his unusual talents oa on gaining gainin his tits freedom he visited greece and lydia at the court of croesus kin king of lyd a he won great favor and w was as employed emp loed ed on several missions of ini im on one of these at delphi he was thrown over a precipice by the pr ests who became enraged at his sms such Is the story of aesop there Is I 1 no record as to when and under what circumstances he composed the fables some authorities hold that he was as not a historical personage at all no more than a name that some how attached itself to an ancient col lection of tales greek art nevertheless had a definite idea of him representing him as a dwarf at least one statue survives it Is certain that some of the fables are much older than the period in which aesop lived but that may mean only that he was a plagiarist the fable of the lion and the mouse and te dispute of the stomach and the members are two stories which hae haie been found in egypt dating hundreds of years before B C others have been traced to chinese and indian sources |