Abstract
This article deals with Greek animal fables, traditionally attributed to a former slave, Aesop, who lived during the sixth century BCE. As a genre, the Aesopic fables, or the Aesopica, has had a significant impact on the Western fable tradition and modern Western children’s literature. The Aesopica owes much to the Mesopotamian fables and has parallels in other Near Eastern cultures. Modern research has concentrated on tracing the oriental roots of the fable tradition and the dating of the different parts of the Aesopica, as well as defining the fable as a genre. The traditional reading of fables has, however, excluded animals qua animals, supposing that fables are mainly allegories of the human condition. The moral of the story (included in the epimythia or promythia) certainly guides one to read the stories anthropocentrically, but the original fables did not necessarily include this positioning element. Many fables address the situation when a prey animal, like a lamb, negotiates with a predator animal, like a wolf, by giving reasons why she should not be killed. In this article, I will concentrate on these fables and analyse them from the point of view of their structure and content. Comparing these fables with some animal similes in Homer’s Iliad, I suggest that these fables deal not only with the ethical problem of ‘might makes right’ as a human condition, but also the broader philosophical question of killing other living creatures and the problem of cruelty.
Highlights
Animal fables are narratives—even the Greek terms for fable semantically refer to stories14 —in which animals are the characters of stories, but which seem, as mentioned before, to tell little about the animals themselves
A neutral or non-sentimental view about the fact that some animals eat other animals. He describes the enmity between species in a way which may be reminiscent of animal fables
Aristotle mentions in passing an animal fable in which the hares insist on equality with the lions (Politics 3.13.1284a15–17 = Perry 450)
Summary
David Herman defines zoonarratology as ‘an approach to narrative study that explores how storytelling practices (and strategies for narrative interpretation) relate to broader assumptions concerning the nature, experiences, and status of animals’.13 Animal fables are narratives—even the Greek terms for fable (ainos, mythos, logos) semantically refer to stories14 —in which animals are the characters of stories, but which seem, as mentioned before, to tell little about the animals themselves. From the formal point of view, fables are varied, but as Gert-Jan van Dijk notices, fables often have ‘a tripartite narrative structure (introductory sketch of the situation—action—concluding action or comment)’.20 This is evident, for instance, in a fable from the above-mentioned Augustana collection, ‘The Donkey, The Raven, and The Passing Wolf’ (Perry 190):. Ask whether this is an anachronistic way of reading a Greek fable These kinds of doubts are natural when reading succinct Aesopic fables because they are often enigmatic and the moral of the story frequently seems to point in puzzling, albeit not altogether incomprehensible (for the modern reader), directions—often because epimythia and promythia were late additions.. It is worthwhile to discuss one common topic in all kinds of animal stories, including the Homeric animal similes, namely antagonism, a conflict situation between different species
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