Speaker 1: A hare one day ridiculed the short feet and slow
Speaker 1: pace of the tortoise, who replied, laughing, though you be
Speaker 1: swift as the wind, I will beat you in a race.
Speaker 1: The hare, believing her assertion to be simply impossible, assented
Speaker 1: to the proposal, and they agreed that the fox should
Speaker 1: choose the course and fix the goal. On the day
Speaker 1: appointed for the race, the two started together. The tortoise
Speaker 1: never for a moment stopped, but went on with a
Speaker 1: slow but steady pace straight to the end of the course.
Speaker 1: The hare, lying down by the wayside, fell fast asleep.
Speaker 1: At last, waking up and moving as fast as he could,
Speaker 1: he saw the tortoise had reached the goal and was
Speaker 1: comfortably dozing. After her fatigue, slow but steady wins the race.
Speaker 1: Oh hi, hello nerds. This is let's talk about Miths baby,
Speaker 1: and I'm your host live here with well like childhood,
Speaker 1: I guess I certainly associate Esop's fables with my childhood,
Speaker 1: and I've been keen to talk about them on the
Speaker 1: podcast for ages now, and so finally here we are. Honestly,
Speaker 1: for the longest time, I never even knew or maybe
Speaker 1: just like never made the connection or paid attention that
Speaker 1: some of my favorite stories from childhood were actually ancient
Speaker 1: Greek stories. I had no idea that one of the
Speaker 1: first authors I ever read by myself was an ancient
Speaker 1: Greek from the Archaic period. And that's not even half
Speaker 1: of what makes him so cool, And yet that's exactly
Speaker 1: how my own reading started. Are we surprised by how
Speaker 1: things went for me? Hardly? Though he's famous now for
Speaker 1: children's fables, Esop was very likely from the Archaic period
Speaker 1: of ancient Greece and not writing for children at all.
Speaker 1: Probably around the sixth century is when he was from
Speaker 1: making his legacy. Honestly, like more similar to the concept
Speaker 1: of like Homer than one might imagine, and really like,
Speaker 1: I mean, how incredibly cool is that. I can't quite
Speaker 1: believe that it took me this long to talk about him.
Speaker 1: One of the editions of Esop's fables that I have
Speaker 1: is this Penguin Classics edition, translated by Olivia and Robert Temple.
Speaker 1: It isn't the one that I'm quoting from, We'll get
Speaker 1: to that, but it has information that we need, and
Speaker 1: one of the first things it provides is a so
Speaker 1: called biography of Esop. It's simple to the point, and
Speaker 1: thus I'm going to read it to you with a
Speaker 1: couple of edits on my part. Quote. Esop probably lived
Speaker 1: in the middle part of the sixth century BCE. A
Speaker 1: statement in Herodotus gives ground for thinking that he was
Speaker 1: a slave belonging to a citizen of Samos. There are
Speaker 1: many references to Esop found in the Athenian writers Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle,
Speaker 1: and more. It is not known whether he wrote down
Speaker 1: his fables himself, nor indeed how many of them are
Speaker 1: correctly attributed to him. This is episode two nine, Slow
Speaker 1: but Steady Wins the Race Ancient Esop and his fables. Tortoise,
Speaker 1: lazily basking in the sun, complained to the sea birds
Speaker 1: of her hard fate that no one would teach her
Speaker 1: to fly. An eagle hovering near heard her lamentation and
Speaker 1: demanded what reward she would give him if he would
Speaker 1: take her aloft and float her in the air. I
Speaker 1: will give you, she said, all the riches of the
Speaker 1: red sea. I will teach you to fly. Then said
Speaker 1: the eagle, and taking her up in his talons, he
Speaker 1: carried her almost to the clouds. Suddenly he let her
Speaker 1: go and she fell on a lofty mountain, dashing her
Speaker 1: shell to pieces. The tortoise exclaimed in the moment of death,
Speaker 1: I have deserved my present fate for what had I
Speaker 1: to do with wings and clouds? Who can with difficulty
Speaker 1: move about on the earth? If men had all they wished,
Speaker 1: they would often be ruined. Esop was very likely an
Speaker 1: enslaved Thracian or some one from generally that area, brought
Speaker 1: to the Greek world and sold. He was also probably
Speaker 1: one of the most well respected enslaved people both during
Speaker 1: and after his lifetime. That last bit is an assumption
Speaker 1: by me, but with what we're getting to later, I
Speaker 1: think it's pretty safe to say we're going to talk
Speaker 1: more about him and his fables so much more. But
Speaker 1: I wanted that upfront because it says a lot about
Speaker 1: him as a person, what he went through and how
Speaker 1: he managed it. The fables themselves aren't like the stories
Speaker 1: as I usually tell them. They're short and to the point,
Speaker 1: and they're not about narrative so much as general theme
Speaker 1: and details. They're best read straight, So throughout this episode,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to be reading you a few of
Speaker 1: them verbatim, these full translations that I'm going to be
Speaker 1: reading here, and those that I've already recited are a
Speaker 1: public domain translation by George Feiler Townsend. It's out of copyright,
Speaker 1: hence why I can read it in full. But Esop himself,
Speaker 1: or what we do and do not know about him,
Speaker 1: is interesting enough to go into lots of detail, so
Speaker 1: I am referring to the Penguin Classics edition by Olivia
Speaker 1: and Robert Temple for that background information. Even the introduction
Speaker 1: to this edition of Esop concedes that he may even
Speaker 1: be more famous than Homer himself, though his fame is
Speaker 1: very specific and not as tied to the actual works
Speaker 1: as one might expect. Only a handful of his fables
Speaker 1: are famous, mostly as children's stories lessons kind of fables. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there's this idea that they're about morality, that they convey
Speaker 1: a lesson to the reader, which they're meant to, like,
Speaker 1: take to heart. Meanwhile, there are actually hundreds of these
Speaker 1: fables that exist, and no full translation existed in English
Speaker 1: until this Penguin one. In this introduction, Esop is described
Speaker 1: as being, like quote, a movie star everyone thinks they know,
Speaker 1: but in fact they only know him from certain roles
Speaker 1: he's played. Now Esop is seen as a children's storyteller.
Speaker 1: In the Victorian period, he was seen as a kind
Speaker 1: of source for quote morals such as haste makes waste
Speaker 1: and pride comes before the fall, though this introduction goes
Speaker 1: on to note that these so called morals don't actually
Speaker 1: exist in any of Esop's fables, and many of the
Speaker 1: children's stories that we think of don't quite convey the
Speaker 1: Esop of ancient Greek fables, or rather they're very selective
Speaker 1: in what they use to convey the stories to children,
Speaker 1: whereas many of the stories are much more ancient Greek,
Speaker 1: that is, like, far more violent and weird and troubling.
Speaker 1: He's up as a person, and unlike so many ancient sources,
Speaker 1: it does seem that he actually probably was like a
Speaker 1: really very real person. So he was likely this Thracian
Speaker 1: who was enslaved after he was captured at some point
Speaker 1: and he was sold to someone on this island of Samos,
Speaker 1: where he lived at least for a time. He's from
Speaker 1: the late Archaic period, around the sixth century bceb. He
Speaker 1: was enslaved, but he seems to have made quite a
Speaker 1: name for himself regardless, gaining this reputation of being a
Speaker 1: great storyteller, super witty and smart and just generally a
Speaker 1: cool guy. Since he developed this reputation, many later fables
Speaker 1: ended up getting attributed to him after the fact, since
Speaker 1: they just kind of like fit his whole deal and
Speaker 1: he was famous. A lot of these others that probably
Speaker 1: weren't written by him may have actually come from ancient Libya,
Speaker 1: which just is not modern Libya, but a huge swath
Speaker 1: of northern Africa. Esop may well have been, at least
Speaker 1: by some degrees of separation too contemporary with Sappho herself.
Speaker 1: He became enslaved alongside this woman named Dorica who became
Speaker 1: better known as Rhodopis, and she was a courtizant a
Speaker 1: heta a sex worker, but one of like higher repute
Speaker 1: than others. It seems that these two people were probably
Speaker 1: seized from the same war in Thrace. And then she
Speaker 1: she became super famous for being an awesome and I
Speaker 1: imagine very talented sex worker, and she drew the attention
Speaker 1: of this man named Caracas of Middelini on Lesbos. He
Speaker 1: was Sappho's brother, and Caracas met Rhodopis while he was
Speaker 1: trading wine in Egypt, and he felt so infatuated with
Speaker 1: her that he bought Rodopus's freedom for an exorbitant price,
Speaker 1: which Sappho wrote about because it was so extravagant. And
Speaker 1: thus we have these little detail of evidence that like
Speaker 1: length these two it's so cool and yeah, my brain
Speaker 1: has exploded learning this fucking love the ancient world. It's
Speaker 1: like little mysteries that can be put together and solved
Speaker 1: through all of these little bits and fragments of historical
Speaker 1: and did tidbits like dating things and having their stories
Speaker 1: collide through facts like these and anyway, it's incredible. Also,
Speaker 1: Ridopus seems fascinating and now I want to know so
Speaker 1: much more about her. But today's the Esop. And what
Speaker 1: these facts do is not only suggest that Esop was
Speaker 1: indeed a real man, but they also give us this
Speaker 1: time period for him sixth century BCE that is very early,
Speaker 1: just like our girl Sapo and her brother, who seems
Speaker 1: to have been a pretty cool guy honestly for freeing
Speaker 1: that woman at such a cost, Like he didn't buy her,
Speaker 1: he freed her even if Sapho bought him. Wasteful Sappho,
Speaker 1: A number of flies were attracted to a jar of
Speaker 1: honey which had been overturned in a housekeeper's room and
Speaker 1: placing their feet in it ate greedily. Their feet, however,
Speaker 1: became so smeared with the honey that they could not
Speaker 1: use their wings nor release themselves, and were suffocated. Just
Speaker 1: as they were expiring. They exclaimed, Oh, foolish creatures that
Speaker 1: we are. For the sake of a little pleasure, we
Speaker 1: have destroyed ourselves. Pleasure bought with pain, hurts. Wolf, meeting
Speaker 1: with a lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to
Speaker 1: lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea
Speaker 1: to justify to the lamb the wolf's right to eat him.
Speaker 1: He thus addressed him, Surrah, last year, you grossly insulted me. Indeed,
Speaker 1: bleeded the lamb in a mournful tone of voice. I
Speaker 1: was not then born, then, said the wolf. You feed
Speaker 1: it my pasture. No good, sir, replied the lamb, I
Speaker 1: have not yet tasted grass. Again, said the wolf. You
Speaker 1: drink of my well? No, exclaimed the lamb, I have
Speaker 1: never yet drank water, for as yet, my mother's milk
Speaker 1: is both food and drink to me, upon which the
Speaker 1: wolf seized him and ate him up, saying, well, I
Speaker 1: won't remain supperless even though you refute every one of
Speaker 1: my imputations, the tyrant will always find a pretext for
Speaker 1: his tyranny. As I mentioned earlier, Esop was famous enough
Speaker 1: in the ancient world that he's mentioned in authors like
Speaker 1: Aristophanes and Plato, among others. He's referenced in The Birds
Speaker 1: and the Wasps of Aristophanes references to his fables as
Speaker 1: light hearted pieces, like jokes. Almost it suggests that people
Speaker 1: of Athens, those who attended symposia, these fancy drinking parties
Speaker 1: of the wealthier class, would study Esop and memorize parts
Speaker 1: to retell later. It made them seem smart and refined,
Speaker 1: and Aristotle loved him to studying and collecting Esop's fables
Speaker 1: a couple of centuries after he had died, and teaching
Speaker 1: them at his school. Ultimately, the point is Esop was
Speaker 1: seriously famous for his skill with wit and storytelling, and
Speaker 1: he was enslaved, which is just like really an interesting
Speaker 1: piece of history, the idea that the stories of that
Speaker 1: man are still so famous, children's books of them are
Speaker 1: still published today all the time, still read commonly, and
Speaker 1: he was an enslaved person from twenty five hundred plus
Speaker 1: years ago. Fucking badass. As to the stories themselves, Like
Speaker 1: I said, we're reading just a few of them in
Speaker 1: their entirety because they're meant to convey this purpose, a point,
Speaker 1: a moral that isn't about morality always, but it's still
Speaker 1: the most it's just the best word to use, like
Speaker 1: the moral of the story. Anyway, We're gonna get into
Speaker 1: the not about morality thing in a bit, because at
Speaker 1: the same time, these fables are a look at the
Speaker 1: world of that time in a way, and a look
Speaker 1: into this man's mind and whoever wrote whichever ones were
Speaker 1: later attributed to him. They're a very different look into
Speaker 1: the ancient world because while some do feature the gods
Speaker 1: as characters like we're used to, they're not myths as
Speaker 1: I usually talk about myths. They have like this different
Speaker 1: purpose entirely. But just like with myths and storytelling, like Homer,
Speaker 1: these were probably originally these were probably originally told through
Speaker 1: oral storytelling before likely after Esop's death, but actually who
Speaker 1: knows before they were written into forms that were then
Speaker 1: copied to the point that we have them now. This
Speaker 1: is additionally interesting because we get to imagine a setting
Speaker 1: where this man who was not a bard, not a
Speaker 1: poet necessarily not a musician as far as I understand,
Speaker 1: and who was enslaved and owned by somebody, had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to tell his stories widely enough that he became famous,
Speaker 1: and those stories became so renowned as to warrant this
Speaker 1: like extensive collection and preservation. And since Savo came up
Speaker 1: earlier and brilliantly organically in details I really can't get over.
Speaker 1: I will also point out that it's quite notable that
Speaker 1: Esop's work, whatever of the fables were truly written or
Speaker 1: told by him, originally survive in like these complete forms.
Speaker 1: Whereas saphos are fragmentary at best, Sappho's bits and pieces
Speaker 1: of poems survived through like random acts of human existence.
Speaker 1: For the most part, her works survived because papyrus that
Speaker 1: featured it these works were often like reused for other things,
Speaker 1: and then they managed to retain some of her words
Speaker 1: in these fragments or various other means like that, like
Speaker 1: unintentionally preserved versus intentionally preserved, intentionally copied, in order to
Speaker 1: keep it from falling to pieces or being lost. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Esop was like an enslaved person, and I don't want
Speaker 1: to say that to lessen Esop's importance, or to suggest
Speaker 1: that he was anything less because he was lave. That
Speaker 1: a very famous free woman's poetry didn't survive whereas his
Speaker 1: did is just well. Anyways, the patriarchy at work, isn't
Speaker 1: it the Christian patriarchy, Probably because we rely a lot
Speaker 1: on Christian monks for what survives to us today, it's
Speaker 1: not surprising that he didn't grant a woman the same honors,
Speaker 1: even though Sapo two was super famous in the ancient world,
Speaker 1: revered by Plato and others just like Esa. A lion
Speaker 1: roaming by the seashore saw a dolphin lift up its
Speaker 1: head out of the waves, and suggested that they contract
Speaker 1: an alliance, saying that of all the animals, they ought
Speaker 1: to be the best friends, since the one was the
Speaker 1: king of the beasts on the earth and the other
Speaker 1: the sovereign ruler of all the inhabitants of the ocean.
Speaker 1: The dolphin gladly consented to this request. Not long afterwards,
Speaker 1: the lion had a combat with a wild bull and
Speaker 1: called on the dolphin to help him. The dolphin, though
Speaker 1: quite willing to give his assistance, was unable to do
Speaker 1: so as he could not buy any means reached the land.
Speaker 1: The lion abused him as a trader. The dolphin replied, nay,
Speaker 1: my friend, blame not me but nature, which, while giving
Speaker 1: me the sovereignty of the sea, has quite denied me
Speaker 1: the power of living upon the land. Aristotle's appreciation for
Speaker 1: Esop is one of the main reasons, or like at
Speaker 1: least a major contributing factor, to the survival of it
Speaker 1: of all of his work. So while we might wish
Speaker 1: that he'd taken such an interest in, say Sappho, at
Speaker 1: least he cared about Esop. He had such a collection
Speaker 1: of Esop's fables in his university library that later students
Speaker 1: and writers were then able to access the works for themselves,
Speaker 1: become fans, and kind of like keep it all going
Speaker 1: like this nice guy named Demetrius. In the introduction to
Speaker 1: this edition that I've been reading, Temple says that Demetrius
Speaker 1: likely accessed Esop's work via the Lyceum Aristotle's library in Athens,
Speaker 1: and through that access he compiled a collection of the
Speaker 1: fables and other works called Sayings of Seven Wise Men,
Speaker 1: And then it means we have it today. Aristotle, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: is also a source of variations on some of the
Speaker 1: fables and kind of like this historical background for how
Speaker 1: they came to be. He talked about a time when
Speaker 1: Esop was living on Samos, and he defended a leader
Speaker 1: there who was being tried for his life. He did
Speaker 1: this defense of this person by telling a specific fable
Speaker 1: about a fox crossing a river. A fox swimming across
Speaker 1: a rapid river was carried by the force of the
Speaker 1: current into a very deep ravine, where he lay for
Speaker 1: a long time, very much bruised, sick, and unable to move.
Speaker 1: A swarm of hungry, blood sucking flies settled upon him.
Speaker 1: A hedgehog passing by saw his anguish and inquired if
Speaker 1: he should drive away the flies that were tormenting him
Speaker 1: by no means, replied the fox, Pray, do not molest them.
Speaker 1: How is this, said the hedgehog. Do you not want
Speaker 1: to be rid of them? No, returned the fox, For
Speaker 1: these flies, which you see, are full of blood and
Speaker 1: sting me but little. And if you rid me of
Speaker 1: these flies, which are already satiated, others more hungry will
Speaker 1: come in their place and will drink up all the
Speaker 1: blood I have left. Apparently, Esop used this story to
Speaker 1: say that this leader he was defending was so wealthy
Speaker 1: already that if he was found guilty and put to death,
Speaker 1: other people would just come in and rob the treasury,
Speaker 1: but like he didn't need to because he had so
Speaker 1: much money. Temple goes on to say that this was
Speaker 1: a very likely a true story because Aristotle did such
Speaker 1: extensive research into the history of Samos that he would know.
Speaker 1: Anna might even indicate that Esop became a lawyer who
Speaker 1: actually represented this leader and maybe other people like him
Speaker 1: in court. Honestly, I don't know how this works alongside
Speaker 1: the fact that he was enslaved, so I won't try
Speaker 1: to explain that. But regardless of whatever intricacies existed there,
Speaker 1: it is fascinating and an extra bit about Esop, and
Speaker 1: just like really emphasizes his character in the ancient world,
Speaker 1: and like everything he did. One winter, a farmer found
Speaker 1: a snake stiff and frozen with cold. He had compassion
Speaker 1: on it, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom.
Speaker 1: The snake was quickly received by the warmth, and, resuming
Speaker 1: its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a
Speaker 1: mortal wound. Oh cried the farmer with his last breath,
Speaker 1: I am rightly served for pitying a scoundrel. The greatest
Speaker 1: kindness will not bind the ungrateful. A dog crossing a
Speaker 1: bridge over a stream with a piece of flesh in
Speaker 1: his mouth saw his own shadow in the water and
Speaker 1: took it for that of another dog with a piece
Speaker 1: of meat double his own size. He immediately let go
Speaker 1: of his own and fiercely attacked the other dog to
Speaker 1: get his larger piece from him. He thus lost both
Speaker 1: that which he grasped at in the water because it
Speaker 1: was a shadow, and his own because the stream swept
Speaker 1: it away. For all I said at the beginning that
Speaker 1: these were very different from the usual myths I talk about.
Speaker 1: That isn't entirely the case, at least with all of them.
Speaker 1: While it's not the majority, many of the fables of
Speaker 1: Esop do feature the gods as characters. Temple explains that
Speaker 1: a leading scholar on Esop suggests that these fables with
Speaker 1: divine characters are those that are most likely actually the
Speaker 1: work of a person, versus so many that would have
Speaker 1: been attributed to him well after the fact. These stories
Speaker 1: often convey how things came to be. They explain something
Speaker 1: about the world, and because of that they're also the
Speaker 1: most linked to myths themselves, which so often do the
Speaker 1: same thing. They is in different ways than the traditional myths,
Speaker 1: but ultimately the purpose is often similar. There are so
Speaker 1: many examples listed in this introduction, but I'm going to
Speaker 1: share just a couple. This one is about Zeus and
Speaker 1: a bee. A bee from Mount Hemetis, the queen of
Speaker 1: the hive, ascended to Olympus to present Zeus with some
Speaker 1: honey fresh from her combs. Zeus, delighted with the offering
Speaker 1: of honey, promised to give whatever she should ask. She
Speaker 1: therefore besought him, saying, give me I pray thee a sting,
Speaker 1: that if any mortal shall approach to take my honey,
Speaker 1: I may kill him. Zeus was much displeased, for he
Speaker 1: loved the race of men, but could not refuse the
Speaker 1: request because of his promise. He thus answered the bee,
Speaker 1: you shall have your request, but it will be the
Speaker 1: peril of your own life, for if you use your sting,
Speaker 1: it shall remain in the wound you make, and then
Speaker 1: you will die from the loss of it. Evil wishes
Speaker 1: like chickens come home to roost. We will get to
Speaker 1: the addition of those little sentences at the end so
Speaker 1: simple and to the point. This fable explains how bees
Speaker 1: can sting and why they die if they do. It's
Speaker 1: similar to the myths that explain like natural phenomena, but
Speaker 1: in such like simple and purposeful ways that it's still
Speaker 1: kind of like it's its own thing entirely doesn't sound
Speaker 1: like the traditional myths, And it seems a lot of
Speaker 1: these cases of divine characters. Who the characters actually are
Speaker 1: can change a lot depending on which version of a
Speaker 1: fable exists, and many existed alongside each other even in
Speaker 1: the ancient world, like one about Zeus, Prometheus, Athena and Momos,
Speaker 1: or sometimes it's Poseidon instead of Prometheus. And in addition to
Speaker 1: the characters themselves changing over time and depending upon the version,
Speaker 1: sometimes the stories themselves are changed to be less mythological
Speaker 1: than they might have originally been. The example described in
Speaker 1: this introduction is one where the earth is said to
Speaker 1: have swallowed the sea, but according to writing by Aristotle,
Speaker 1: the original version actually had Charribdis swallowing it up. It
Speaker 1: seems like changes like these kind of mirrored what was
Speaker 1: happening in the world itself. The deities themselves were becoming
Speaker 1: a little less important kind of being conflated together for
Speaker 1: the sake of I don't even know, just having fewer.
Speaker 1: They were relied on a little less, and things like
Speaker 1: science were becoming more prominent ideas that negated the need
Speaker 1: for certain characters like the sentient and wildly wonderful whirlpool
Speaker 1: of the Odyssey Charibdis. It makes sense that it's stories
Speaker 1: like these that get affected by these changes in society
Speaker 1: and their belief structures, because they're not stories in the
Speaker 1: same way things like the Odyssey are. They have a
Speaker 1: much more explicit purpose, and so they reflect the world
Speaker 1: of the ancient Greeks more explicitly. They need to change
Speaker 1: along with society in a way that things like Homer
Speaker 1: would never need to, because they remain these distinct and
Speaker 1: entertaining stories, these pieces of art, regardless of how the
Speaker 1: world itself changes. A very poor man, a carpenter by trade,
Speaker 1: had a wooden image of Hermes before which he made
Speaker 1: offerings day by day and begged the idol to make
Speaker 1: him rich. But in spite of his entreaties, he became
Speaker 1: poorer and poorer. At last, being very angry, he took
Speaker 1: his image down from its pedestal and dashed it against
Speaker 1: the wall. When its head was knocked off, out came
Speaker 1: a stream of gold, which the carpenter quickly picked up
Speaker 1: and said, well, I think you are altogether contradictory and unreasonable.
Speaker 1: For when I paid you honor, I reaped no benefits.
Speaker 1: But now that I maltreat you, I am loaded with
Speaker 1: an abundance of riches. One thing that stands out most
Speaker 1: in these fables are the morals attached at the end.
Speaker 1: That last one is a great example quote in serving
Speaker 1: the Wicked, expect no reward, and be thankful if you
Speaker 1: escape injury for your pains. These things that are kind
Speaker 1: of tacked on at the end. But an important thing
Speaker 1: to know about these are that they didn't necessarily appear
Speaker 1: in the original fables themselves. As Temple says in this
Speaker 1: edition quote, it will readily appear to most readers that
Speaker 1: the morals are often silly and inferior in wit and
Speaker 1: interest to the fables themselves. And yeah, he's definitely right there.
Speaker 1: They don't fit. They feel tacked on, like they're shoving
Speaker 1: the point down your throat, like the fable didn't make
Speaker 1: it well enough. They've got to really just like handhold you.
Speaker 1: And that's because they were often added later by collectors
Speaker 1: of the poems. They're often separated in the text themselves, too,
Speaker 1: like very explicitly in this Penguin edition, because it's a
Speaker 1: real conscious effort that they're making in addition to laying
Speaker 1: it all out of the introduction. In the versions that
Speaker 1: I've been reading today, it's obviously a much older addition,
Speaker 1: and so while they appear kind of separate, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit less explicit that these are out of place.
Speaker 1: After the fact. Sometimes they're relevant and smart morals, like
Speaker 1: one mentioned in this intro that isn't in the addition
Speaker 1: I'm reading from. But it's about fishermen who've been out
Speaker 1: fishing for ages and haven't caught anything. They're feeling very
Speaker 1: bad for themselves, and just at that moment, a fish
Speaker 1: who's being chased through the water jumps out and just
Speaker 1: like lands in their boat. The moral attached is quote.
Speaker 1: Thus it is that what skill denies us chance often
Speaker 1: gives us freely or like. Another good example is this one.
Speaker 1: A carter was driving a wagon along a country lane
Speaker 1: when the wheels sank down into a rut. The rustic driver,
Speaker 1: stupefied and aghast, stood looking at the wagon, and did
Speaker 1: nothing but utter loud cries to Hercules to come and
Speaker 1: help him. Hercules, it has said, appeared and thus addressed him.
Speaker 1: Put your shoulders to the wheels, my man, goat on
Speaker 1: your bullocks, and never more pray to me for help.
Speaker 1: Until you have done your best to help yourself, or
Speaker 1: depend upon it, you will henceforth in vain. Self help
Speaker 1: is the best help. That one is also pretty straightforward,
Speaker 1: like you can't always rely on others, particularly when it's
Speaker 1: something that you could at least try to do yourself.
Speaker 1: Plus that was extra fun because it's got Heracles serving
Speaker 1: the lesson up in like a very Heraclean way. But
Speaker 1: for all the morals can be silly at times, or forced,
Speaker 1: or just feel really out of place. It's important to
Speaker 1: note that often these are the reasons that we still
Speaker 1: have so many of the fables, As Temple says, quote,
Speaker 1: we probably owe the preservation of the fables to their
Speaker 1: utilitarian use by orators and rhetoricians, so we must not
Speaker 1: begrudge them their morals. And even better, he adds that
Speaker 1: as long as we realize the history and the context
Speaker 1: of these morals quote, they develop a kind of kitch
Speaker 1: fascination in themselves, like taking an interest in ornamental teapots.
Speaker 1: Did I need to read that quote necessarily? No, but
Speaker 1: it compared them to ornamental teapots, and that just felt
Speaker 1: too fun to pass up as evidence. Here's another fable,
Speaker 1: one with a very silly moral attached. A man and
Speaker 1: a lion traveled together through the forest. They soon began
Speaker 1: to boast of their respective superiority to each other in
Speaker 1: strength and prowess. As they were disputing, they passed a
Speaker 1: statue carved in stone which represented a lion strangled by
Speaker 1: a man. The traveler pointed to it and said, see there,
Speaker 1: how strong we are, and how we prevail over even
Speaker 1: the king of beasts. The lion replied, this statue is
Speaker 1: made by one of you men. If we lions knew
Speaker 1: how to erect statues, you would see the man placed
Speaker 1: under the paw of the lion. One story is good
Speaker 1: till another is told. An astronomer used to go out
Speaker 1: at night to observe the stars. One evening, as he
Speaker 1: wandered through the suburbs with his whole attention fixed on
Speaker 1: the sky, he fell accidentally into a deep well. While
Speaker 1: he lamented and bewailed, his sores and bruises, and cried
Speaker 1: loudly for help. A neighbor ran to the well, and
Speaker 1: learning what had happened, said, hark, you, old fellow, why
Speaker 1: and striving to pry into what is heaven? Do you
Speaker 1: not manage to see what is on earth? If you
Speaker 1: listeners are anything like me, and I imagine you are,
Speaker 1: because God's is this what Esop is famous for? But
Speaker 1: you would have come to Esop through children's books. Personally,
Speaker 1: I had no idea that he was an ancient Greek,
Speaker 1: let alone someone who didn't write stories for children until
Speaker 1: I was like an adult and looking into these things.
Speaker 1: Of course, that's in large part because I just never
Speaker 1: looked into him. But the stories come to us in
Speaker 1: this guise of children's stories, and so we just kind
Speaker 1: of accept that. But ultimately, as anyone familiar with literature
Speaker 1: of ancient Greece might expect, these were not originally meant
Speaker 1: for chill, nor does Esop broadly resemble anything meant for
Speaker 1: such a young audience. Again, this comes from this Penguin
Speaker 1: edition's introduction, but it makes the point well. Quote. Most
Speaker 1: of those children's editions of Esop are carefully selected, and
Speaker 1: so heavily rewritten that they have only a tenuous connection
Speaker 1: with Esop. Because of this, in the general fame of
Speaker 1: the children's editions, there's an entirely unrealistic idea of who
Speaker 1: and what Esop was in the ancient world, at least
Speaker 1: when it comes to the English speaking world, though I
Speaker 1: imagine this is like fairly widespread beyond too. Apparently many
Speaker 1: of the weirder mythologically based fables weren't even translated into
Speaker 1: English until recently, giving this idea that all of Esop's
Speaker 1: stories were just fun, little anecdotes about animals chatting with
Speaker 1: each other and learning lessons. Now, I probably haven't given
Speaker 1: good examples to the contrary because I am reading from
Speaker 1: such an old translation, even if I'm basing the research
Speaker 1: onto a recent one, but also because I want to
Speaker 1: read them entirely, and I am stuck with these older ones.
Speaker 1: And also, I mean, I found them as a kid,
Speaker 1: so I wanted to read some of the ones with
Speaker 1: the animals talking to people. Fortunately, this intro does a
Speaker 1: lot to dispel these ideas of what Esop was all about.
Speaker 1: But he wasn't some kind of purveyor of Victorian morality,
Speaker 1: but that instead the fables are quote coarse, brutal, lacking
Speaker 1: in all mercy or compassion, and lacking also in any
Speaker 1: political system other than absolute monarchy, with one exception. The
Speaker 1: kings are tyrants, and the women who appear include a
Speaker 1: young wife who scratches in claws at her evidently brutal
Speaker 1: husband's face, and one who is really an animal disguised
Speaker 1: as a human new pounces on a mouse to eat it.
Speaker 1: And those are all the women, it seems. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: ladies don't get a lot of credit in here. H surprise, surprise.
Speaker 1: So for all I've read to you a lot of
Speaker 1: silly animal stories today, there are literally hundreds of others
Speaker 1: more dark and twisted and weird and full of dangerous,
Speaker 1: wicked men and gods. They're full of crime and violence
Speaker 1: and mockery. They're unsympathetic and dark and generally just weird
Speaker 1: because well, at their core, they are stories from the
Speaker 1: ancient Greek world featuring the characters of ancient Greek gods.
Speaker 1: And if we've learned anything from almost six years of
Speaker 1: this podcast, that means the stories are going to be
Speaker 1: fucked up but deeply enjoyable all the same. A fox
Speaker 1: one day fell into a deep well and could find
Speaker 1: no means of escape. A goat, overcome with thirst, came
Speaker 1: to the same well, and, seeing the fox, inquired if
Speaker 1: the water was good. Concealing his sad plight unto a
Speaker 1: merry guise, the fox indulged in a lavish praise of
Speaker 1: the water, saying it was excellent beyond measure, and encouraging
Speaker 1: him to descend. The goat, mindful only of his thirst,
Speaker 1: thoughtlessly jumped down, But just as he drank, the fox
Speaker 1: informed him of the difficulty they were both in and
Speaker 1: suggested a scheme for their common escape. If, said he,
Speaker 1: you will place your fore feet upon the wall and
Speaker 1: bend your head, I will run up your back and escape,
Speaker 1: and will help you out afterwards. The goat readily assented,
Speaker 1: and the fox leaped on his back, Steadying himself with
Speaker 1: the goat's horns, He safely reached the mouth of the
Speaker 1: well and made off as fast as he could. When
Speaker 1: the goat upbraided him for breaking his promise, he turned
Speaker 1: around and cried out, you foolish old fellow. If you
Speaker 1: had as many brains as your head as you have
Speaker 1: hairs in your beard, you would never have gone down
Speaker 1: before you had inspected the way up, nor have exposed
Speaker 1: yourself to dangers from which you had no means of escape.
Speaker 1: Look before you leap, Oh, nerds are nerds. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. I know this one was a little bit
Speaker 1: different and full of so much reading, but frankly, I've
Speaker 1: been meaning to learn more about Esop for ages and
Speaker 1: very glad I did, and reading them was really fun
Speaker 1: and kind of just made it all necessary. So I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed me sharing it all with you. I
Speaker 1: don't know nerdy stuff, it's fun, right. Antient greeksources are
Speaker 1: just fascinating in themselves. But being able to look at
Speaker 1: this man's history, not only his personal history and whatever
Speaker 1: we know about it, but the way his works were
Speaker 1: revered and collected, and like who appreciated them, that Aristotle
Speaker 1: did so much not only to preserve them, but to
Speaker 1: teach us more about Eatuff as a person. It's all
Speaker 1: just supremely interesting, because my god, see ancient Greeks. They
Speaker 1: were interesting, And I mean, who expected an appearance by Sappho,
Speaker 1: her brother and his favorite sex worker, not me? A
Speaker 1: man so happy to have had them here with us.
Speaker 1: That was seriously fun. Okay, as always, let's tie this
Speaker 1: episode with a five star review. Thank you all for
Speaker 1: leaving these. They really bring me so much joy and
Speaker 1: they helped the podcast immensely. You were all the best.
Speaker 1: This one comes from a user called ellen Ann in
Speaker 1: the States. Mind blowing. Can't get enough. I started to
Speaker 1: listen to this podcast with no expectation, but left feeling empowered, interested,
Speaker 1: and ready to tell everyone I know interesting Greek mythology
Speaker 1: facts Live is a wonderful storyteller, and her ability to
Speaker 1: relate it into the real world context is mind blowing.
Speaker 1: I've gained entertainment and the educational context from this podcast.
Speaker 1: Most importantly, I've recognized some patriarchal themes that look a
Speaker 1: little too familiar for comfort, speaking as a US woman. Overall,
Speaker 1: if you are ready to learn, laugh, and love, this
Speaker 1: is the podcast for you. Keep being the awesome feminist
Speaker 1: goddess you are. Thank you. I feel so weird reading
Speaker 1: them aloud, but also means the world to me. And
Speaker 1: I know people love having their stuff run aloud, and
Speaker 1: so I do it. But I'm trying not to pat
Speaker 1: myself on the back, but also thank you. These are
Speaker 1: really nice. Let's talk about myths Babies Written and produced
Speaker 1: by me Live Albert. Mikayla Smith is the hermes to
Speaker 1: my Olympian Scott's Michaelas that does so many things, especially
Speaker 1: as I prepare. I'm going to a grease next month,
Speaker 1: so I'm prepping all these episodes in advance, and my
Speaker 1: God could not do it with them. Mikaela, What a Queen.
Speaker 1: Stephanie Foley works to transcribe the podcast for YouTube captions
Speaker 1: and accessibility. The podcast is hosted and monetized by iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: Help me continue bringing you the world of Greek mythology
Speaker 1: and the Ancient Mediterranean by becoming a patron, where you'll
Speaker 1: get bonus episodes more visit patreon dot com, slash mites baby,
Speaker 1: or click the link in this episode's description. Thank you all.
Speaker 1: You are super cool, and so is esop am I right, guys,
Speaker 1: I finally got to him. I am live and I
Speaker 1: love this shit. The content contact of the pre