Fable number and form

Phaedrus compiled all the fables into five books and each one varies in size. The first book contains 31 fables, the second 9, the third 19, the fourth 24 fables and the last book has 10 fables. Babrius compiled all the fables into one collection and it contains 143 fables. The fables we read nowadays are simplified and always have morals attached at the end. However the forms of ancient fables are different from what we know today. Each fable of Phaedrus begins with its title and often with a promythium.

This is followed by the main body of the text and sometimes a gnomic sentence or an epimythium. There was no explicit “moral” attached at the end of the fable. Each fable of Babrius begins without a title but starts with the main body of the text. A few fables end with an epimythium. The promythium, of which we have spoken, is a brief statement concerning the application of a fable made by the author before he begins the narrative. As in “Phaedrus III 5: Success invites many to their ruin. The function of the promythium was to index the fable under the heading of a writer or speaker who would consult the fable-repertoire for the purpose of finding a fable that would illustrate an idea he wished to express effectively.” (XV. Ben Perry, 1965) Sometimes it serves as a summary of a fable. Promythia enable users to quickly find the most applicable fable for an argument. On the contrary, an epimythium is added after a fable intended as an explanation. It follows the story and stands outside the plot. Sometimes, the author would single out the point that he wanted to make or draw from the fable, too. (Christos Zafiropoulos.) Let’s see an example from Phaedrus Book I, fable 20:

“The Hungry Dogs”

A foolish project is not only ineffective;

it is also a voice that lures mortals to their ruin.

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Some dogs saw a hide sunk in a river and, in order to get it out more easily and devour it, they set about drinking up the water.

But they burst themselves and died before they could attain their object.

This fable doesn’t have a moral at the end. Its promythium clearly pointed out the implication of the fable. Hence if anyone would like to use it as an illustration to warn others not to commit folly deeds. This fable is right on the spot. Now let’s take a look at fable 107 of Babrius:

“The Lion and the Mouse”

A lion caught a mouse and was about to eat him. The little house-bred thief, now close to death, poor creature, faintly muttering begged for life with words like these: “ ’Twere well for you to hunt down stags and horned bulls, and with their flesh make fat your belly. A mouse is not meal enough for you to taste with the edge of your lips. Come I pray you, spare me. Perhaps someday, though small, I shall repay this favour.” The beast laughed and let his suppliant live. But he himself ere long fell in with youthful lovers with the chase, was taken captive in their net, made helpless, and bound fast. The mouse ran forth unnoticed from his hole, and, gnawing the sturdy rope with his tiny teeth, set the lion free. By saving this in turn the lion’s life, he made a recompense well worth the gift of life that he’d received.

[The meaning of this fable is clear to men of good will: Spare the poor, and don’t hesitate to rely on them, considering that a mouse once freed a lion caught

in trap.]

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The epimythium indicates the implication of the fable directly and suggests that we should “spare the poor, and don’t hesitate to rely on them.” These two examples show us the functionality and application of fables. However, the practice of promythia was gradually abandoned or ignored and replaced by the presence of epimythia. In Phaedrus epimythia appear for the first time along with promythia with increasing frequency. “In the first book of Phaedrus, the proportion of promythia to epimythia is 25:4, but in the fifth book it is 2:7. Babrius, writing in the last quarter of the first century, has some epimythia but no promythia.” (XV. Ben Perry) The moral of fables we see nowadays are evolved from the use of epimythia and gradually became an inseparable feature of fables.

2.1.2 “Some” special fables

People are familiar with Aesop’s fables in the 21st century. How about fables in their original form? Most of the fables are not far from the versions we can read today. Some fables seem to have enjoyed popularity for ages. Nevertheless, as I sorted through the fables of Phaedrus and Babrius, I discovered some fables that are “indecent and obscene”

and some even contain “discrimination” against certain groups of people. I have selected fables that don’t seem to be “appropriate” from the point of view of modern times. The first fable is from Phaedrus book III, fable 3, titled “Aesop and the farmer.”

Judging from the title we can already tell that it is not a story told by Aesop but others.

The message it carries may seem legitimate, the story itself is nevertheless vulgar. The promythium of the fable reads: “one who has learned by experience is commonly believed to be surer prophet than a soothsayer, but the reason for this is not told; it will gain currency now for the first time, thanks to my fable.” And the story goes like this:

“The ewes of a certain man who kept flocks gave birth to lambs with human heads. Being greatly alarmed at this prodigy and in deep dejection, he hastened

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to consult the soothsayers. One of them replied that this thing had reference to the owner’s life, and that he must avert the danger by the sacrifice of a victim;

another declared the meaning to be that his wife was an adulteress and his children spurious, but this omen could be dispelled at the cost of a larger sacrifice victim. Why say more? They had different opinions and increased the man’s anxiety by the addition of greater anxiety. Aesop happened to be standing by, an old man of keen discernment, who nature could never deceive;

said he: “if you wish to take proper measure to avert this portent, farmer, give wives to your shepherds.”

It might take an innocent soul some time to comprehend the fable. However, the fable is obviously implying bestiality. The fable itself was to make a point yet its measure seems pretty indecent. The second fable is from Phaedrus book IV, fables 13. The promythium reads: “‘Nothing is more profitable to a man than to speak the truth.’ This is a maxim that should, of course, be approved by everyone; but sincerity is usually brought to its own destruction <in places where the current value of falsehood is greater than that of truth >.” As the fable is rather lengthy I will provide the reader only with a summary of its content. The story is about an ape who caught two men, one born deceptive and the other truthful. The ape made them tell him who he was and what his fellow apes were. The deceptive man told the ape that he was the King of the other apes and got rewarded. The other spoke the truth, saying that he was merely an ape, and was later torn to pieces. The epimythium reads: “This is a tale for wicked men who love deceit and malice, and who murder honesty and truth.” This fable reflects the cruel fact of the world that sometimes deceitfulness triumphs honesty. This “message” seems to encourage people that cheating can be forgivable and may be beneficial.

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The next fable is from Phaedrus IV, fable 15 titled Prometheus. It is badly fragmented and only two lines remain and it reads: “<Then using the same materials he made, immediately after> fashioning her private parts, the woman’s tongue. From that circumstance the obscene relationship derives.” This fable is associated with the creation of man by Prometheus. Some believed that this fable implies oral sex (Knapp, 2011). Following fable 15, fable 16 is again about Prometheus. This time the fable engages homosexuality and how it came into being. The fable states that Prometheus was creating humans, putting their genitals on the bodies, and was invited to Bacchus’.

After returning to his work and, in his drunken state, mistakenly places female’s parts on bodies of masculine sex and masculine parts on females. The fable ends with the sentence: “hence lust now gratifies itself with a perverted pleasure.” Here Phaedrus provides an etiological myth for the creation of individuals attracted to their own sex or, more specifically masculine women and effeminate males. It is deem as a mistake and perverted. “The pleasure (gaudium) is described as pravum (depraved), with connotations of something distorted, deformed, improper or bad.” (Johnson & Ryan, 2005, p.114) Babrius, fable 116 titled “A Domestic Triangle” has some description of unconventional sex, too. It was about a married woman who “fulfilled her desire completely” with a boy. Her husband, instead of being furious about it, made his wife persuade the boy to come to their house. Thereafter he, in turn, whenever the two were inclined to do anything, amused himself with the boy. The epimythium goes like “it is bad for anyone who let himself be imposed upon, when it lies within his power to avenge himself.” The implication of the fable is clear however the fable itself is pretty vulgar and suggestive. As the title reads, “A Domestic Triangle.” The fable indeed involves threesome and probably pederasty.

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The next fable is Babrius, fable 16, titled “The Disappointed Wolf.” This fables comes with no promythium or epimythium however it ends with a statement made by the main protagonist that reads: “How can you expect, when I put my trust in a woman?” It all begins with a rustic nurse who threatened her infant when it cried saying “be still, less I throw you to the wolf.” Of course she didn’t mean what she said. The implication of the fable underlines that women are not trust-worthy and clearly carries a certain stereotype. Another fable that discriminates women and misrepresents their nature is Babrius, fable 22, titled “The Middle-Aged Man with Two Mistresses.” The story is still included in some fables for children today; however the words “mistresses” are often replaced by “wives” and the content is edited as well. The original story, or rather, the Babrius version describes a man had two mistresses. One was younger than him and the other older. Whenever he made love to them, the old one plucked out his black hair and the young one plucked out his grey hair. This man ended up bald. The fable comes with an epimythium claiming that “how pitiable a man is who falls into the hands of women” and “women are like the sea; which smiles and lures men on to its speaking surface, then snuff them out.” Whoever first invented this fable must have been hurt badly by a woman so as to see women as such evil creatures. The interpretation of this fable had a tendency to disparage women while ignoring the foolishness of man.

Babrius, fable 56 titled “How the Arabs got to be Liars.” It is about a wagon filled with lies by the God Hermes, upon entering the country of the Arabs the wagon broke down and was stripped clean. This fables doesn’t have epimythia, the implication however is more than clear. The last sentence reads “That’s why the Arabs, as I’ve learned from personal experience, are liars and impostors; not a word of truth is on their tongue.”

Obviously Babrius or whoever first wrote this fable hated Arabs and denounced them as liars. No matter if it was a stereotype from those times or if it was simply a personal

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grudge against Arabs. When reading the fable, readers learned discrimination and racism. Another story that has something to do with discrimination is Babrius, fable 62, titled “Only A Half-Breed.” It was about a mule who aspired to race. He was first pumped thinking of his mother who was a horse. And then he felt ashamed thinking of his father who was an ass. This fable seems to imply one’s impurity of origin. The mule was made to feel inferior about himself. The horse may refer to the upper class while the ass/donkey may refer to a slave.

These topics touched on by the fables of Phaedrus and Babrius seems pretty sensitive and the wording was bold and straightforward. It is difficult to imagine a scenario where these fables are applied. However we know that fables were by no means “innocent”,

“fun”, and “instructive” as they are today. We might consider these stories taboo or inappropriate, some even promote inappropriate behavior or stereotypes. However the intended audience of fables, at the time, were adults and “civilized” men. These fables were created to “illustrate” certain beliefs and arguments. Aristophanes presents heterosexuality and homosexuality as categories which are indeed both defined by nature (Cohen, 1994, p.190) Writers such as Herodotus, Plato, Xenophon, Athenaeus, and many others had also explored aspects of same-sex love. The society at the time was intensely patriarchal. What matters is the social status in a sexual relationship.

Some fables may degrade woman and other groups of people. These fables were, nonetheless, considered “persuasive” and “compelling”, because of this they were found in the collections of orators. Though vulgar, obscene, biased or misleading, these fables were written and composed 2000 years ago. It is safe to say that a lot of wisdom has changed during that time. Fables depict the life and the conventions of ancient Greece while the author provides a personal insight/opinion on the fables content through the use of an epimythium.

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