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Aesop Fables
Panchatandra |
Akbar Birbal|
Tenali Raman |
Indian fairy tales |
Aesop stories |
Vikram Betal |
Jataka tales
Arabian Nights |
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Mulla
Nazrrudeen |
Inspirational -Moral Stories
Aesop
(620-560 BC) was known for the genre of
fables ascribed to him. Supposedly he was a
slave who lived at the same time as Croesus
and Peisistratus in the mid-sixth century BC
in ancient Greece.
Aesop's Fables are a collection of very
short stories that teach lessons, usually
with main characters that are animals with
human characteristics. The fables are said
to have been written in ancient Greece by
Aesop, a slave, in 620-560 BC. His name
is pronounced EE-sup, with EE
as in "Easter" and sup as in
"supper". It can also be pronounced as
EE-sop, with sop as in "sopping
wet". There is not total historical
agreement on whether he actually wrote the
fables or merely was a story-teller who
collected the stories. But most often it is
believed to be a combination of the two.
The Ass and His Masters
" He that finds discontentment in one
place is not likely to find happiness in another"
AN ASS, belonging to an herb-seller who gave him too little food and too
much work made a petition to Jupiter to be released from his present service and
provided with another master. Jupiter, after warning him that he would
repent his request, caused him to be sold to a tile-maker. Shortly
afterwards, finding that he had heavier loads to carry and harder work in the
brick-field, he petitioned for another change of master. Jupiter, telling
him that it would be the last time that he could grant his request, ordained
that he be sold to a tanner. The Ass found that he had fallen into worse
hands, and noting his master's occupation, said, groaning: "It would have
been better for me to have been either starved by the one, or to have been
overworked by the other of my former masters, than to have been bought by my
present owner, who will even after I am dead tan my hide, and make me useful to
him."
The Ass and the Mule
-"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"-
A MULETEER set forth on a journey, driving before him an Ass and a Mule,
both well laden. The Ass, as long as he traveled along the plain, carried
his load with ease, but when he began to ascend the steep path of the mountain,
felt his load to be more than he could bear. He entreated his companion to
relieve him of a small portion, that he might carry home the rest; but the Mule
paid no attention to the request. The Ass shortly afterwards fell down
dead under his burden. Not knowing what else to do in so wild a region,
the Muleteer placed upon the Mule the load carried by the Ass in addition to his
own, and at the top of all placed the hide of the Ass, after he had skinned him.
The Mule, groaning beneath his heavy burden, said to himself: "I am
treated according to my deserts. If I had only been willing to assist the
Ass a little in his need, I should not now be bearing, together with his burden,
himself as well."
( Courtesy:
http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?1&TheAssandHisMasters )
More Aesop
Stories/Fables.....
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