Aesop, Jesus, and Jesop

 Aesop, Jesus, and Jesop

The Fābeler. We don’t know where he came from or where he went, when he lived or if he died. Aristotle thinks he was born in the late 7th century bce along the Black Sea in Thrace. Phaedrus, who translated his fables into Latin, thought he was born in Phrygia. The third-century poet Callimachus thought he came from Sardis. Other writers have said Lydia. He may have died at Delphi, thrown from a cliff because the authorities didn’t like the stories he was telling. He may never have been in Delphi, and just because he was thrown from a cliff doesn’t mean he hit the ground.

The Parābler. For his coming-from and his going-to we do have one set of records, but they don't always agree. Two manuscripts put his birth in Bethlehem. One says he spent part of his boyhood in Egypt. Four are pretty sure he grew up in Nazareth. For his birth, we guess sometime before the turn of the era (the one he turned), for his death maybe in the thirties in the era he turned it to. There are no dates with years attached to them in any of the records. They all agree he was crucified in Jerusalem because the authorities didn’t like the stories he was telling, but just because he was crucified doesn’t mean the crucifixion took.

The Farābeler. Medieval records aren’t much better than records from 500 bce or 100 ce. So, he may have come from England, that is one story, and he may have come from France according to another story; he may have been a figment of another’s imagination.  According to the introduction of the collection I have, he told stories that the authorities didn’t like, or the critics, or much of anyone. Saddened, he walked away from Nottingham and into the forest and was never heard of again.

Still, some of the stories live on. The 19th-century collection I acquired I don't know how (Jesop’s Farables - London, 1881) contains two dozen printed stories but also 50-some blank pages.

06.18.17