23 Jan In four occasions Aesop was wrongly accused of a crime
AESOP 625-560 B.C.
No author of Greek antiquity has been more read, translated, adapted, embellished, printed, and illustrated than Aesop.
According to Herodotus (Histories, 2.134-135), Aesop was a slave who won his freedom by telling fables. Aesop is mentioned by Aristotle, Aristophanes, Athenaeus, Plato, Callimachus, Lucian, Philostratus, Pliny, Plutarch, Seneca, Strabo, and Zenobius. In his last days Socrates versified Aesop.
In four occasions Aesop was wrongly accused of a crime.
Aesop was accused of stealing figs when still mute. He defended himself brilliantly by throwing up, showing that he had had no figs that day. Aesop gestured for the servants to throw up for the master, and they did. The vomit revealed the thieves.
In the second accusation, a magistrate intercepted Aesop on the street and asked him where he was going. Aesop answered, “I don’t know.”
This annoyed the magistrate who ordered him taken to prison. As he was being taken away Aesop replied, “You see I told the truth. I didn’t know I was going to prison.” Amused, the magistrate let him go.
The third occurred in Babylon after Aesop adopted Helios (or Aenus or Eunus), an ungrateful young man who plotted his ruin. Helios forged letters that implicated Aesop in treason. Aesop was imprisoned and left for dead. Later King Lycurgus, frantic with perplexity, lamented that Aesop was dead when he was badly needed, then rejoiced to learn he was alive.
Aesop promptly solved the King’s problem, then took Helios aside to instruct him with maxim after maxim. For instance, “Be cautious and civil. With a wagging tail a dog gets fed, but with a barking mouth, beatings.” Humiliated, Helios starved himself to death.
The fourth accusation cost Aesop his life. According to Planudes, Aesop’s intelligence won him positions of high responsibility. He solved the problems of three kings, Croesus of Lydia, Lycurgus of Babylon, and Nectanabo of Egypt. Barlow illustrated his reception by Croesus.
Aesop traveled from Babylon to Greece. In Delphi, he was scandalized by the greed and arrogance of its people. His sharp wit insulted the magistrates, who plotted to shame and kill him. Planting a gold cup in his baggage, they found it, identified it as stolen from a temple, and convicted Aesop of blasphemy and theft. Aesop tried to talk his way out of it with a series of fables, but to no avail. Sometimes fables fail.
He was thrown from a cliff to his death. His death brought retribution. Zeus punished Delphi with famine and other Greeks punished it with a severe revenge.
SOURCE : cooper.library.illinois.edu
IMAGE : pinterest.com/pin/772789617323787743/
