Babrius was the author of a collection of
fableA fable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from a parable in that the...
s written in
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
.
Practically nothing is known of him. He is supposed to have been a Roman, whose gentile name was possibly Valerius, living in the East, probably in
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
, where the fables seem first to have gained popularity. The address to "a son of King Alexander" has caused much speculation, with the result that dates varying between the 3rd century BC and the 3rd century AD have been assigned to Babrius.
Babrius was the author of a collection of
fableA fable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from a parable in that the...
s written in
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
.
Practically nothing is known of him. He is supposed to have been a Roman, whose gentile name was possibly Valerius, living in the East, probably in
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
, where the fables seem first to have gained popularity. The address to "a son of King Alexander" has caused much speculation, with the result that dates varying between the 3rd century BC and the 3rd century AD have been assigned to Babrius. The Alexander referred to may have been
Alexander SeverusMarcus Aurelius Severus Alexander , commonly called Alexander Severus, was the last Roman emperor of the Severan dynasty...
(AD 222‑235), who was fond of having literary men of all kinds about his court. "The son of Alexander" has further been identified with a certain Branchus mentioned in the fables, and it is suggested that Babrius may have been his tutor; probably, however, Branchus is a purely fictitious name. There is no mention of Babrius in ancient writers before the beginning of the 3rd century AD. As appears from surviving papyrus fragments, his work is to be dated before ca 200 AD (and probably not much earlier, for his language and style seem to show that he belonged to that period). In the first century BC,
Indian philosopherThe term Indian philosophy , may refer to any of several traditions of philosophical thought that originated in the Indian subcontinent, including Hindu philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, and Jain philosophy...
SyntipasSyntipas was an Indian philosopher and writer supposed to have lived around 100 BC, and the reputed author of a collection of tales known generally in Europe as The Story of the Seven Wise Masters....
translated Babrius' work into Syriac, from where Andreopulos translated it back to Greek, since original Greek scripts had all been lost.
The first critic who made Babrius more than a mere name was
Richard BentleyRichard Bentley was an English theologian, classical scholar and critic.- Early life :Bentley was born at Oulton near Rothwell, Leeds, West Yorkshire. His grandfather had suffered for the Royalist cause following the English Civil War, leaving the family in reduced circumstances...
, in his
Dissertation on the Fables of Aesop. In a careful examination of these prose
AesopAesop , known only for the genre of fables ascribed to him, was by tradition a slave who was a contemporary of Croesus and Peisistratus in the mid-sixth century BC in ancient Greece.-Fables:The various collections that go under the rubric "Aesop's Fables" are still taught as moral...
ian fables, which had been handed down in various collections from the time of
Maximus PlanudesMaximos Planoudes, latinized as Maximus Planudes , was a Byzantine Greek grammarian and theologian who lived and worked during the reigns of Michael VIII Palaiologos and Andronikos II Palaiologos.-Life & Work:...
, Bentley discovered traces of versification, and was able to extract a number of verses which he assigned to Babrius.
TyrwhittThomas Tyrwhitt was an English classical scholar and critic.He was born in London, where he also died. He was educated at Eton and Queen's College, Oxford . In 1756 he was appointed under-secretary at war, in 1762 clerk of the House of Commons...
(
De Babrio, 1776) followed up the researches of Bentley, and for some time the efforts of scholars were directed towards reconstructing the metrical original of the prose fables.
In 1842 the Greek Minoides Mynas, the discoverer of the
Philosophoumena of
HippolytusFor places named after the saint, see Saint-HippolyteSaint Hippolytus of Rome was one of the most prolific writers of the early Church. Hippolytus was born during the second half of the 2nd century, probably in Rome. Photius describes him in his Bibliotheca For places named after the saint, see...
, came upon a manuscript of Babrius in the convent of St Laura on
Mount AthosMount Athos is a mountain on the peninsula of the same name in Macedonia, of northern Greece, called in Greek Agion Oros , or in English, "Holy Mountain". In Classical times, the peninsula was called Aktí...
, now in the
British MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
. This manuscript contained 123 fables out of the supposed original number, 160. They are arranged alphabetically, but break off at the letter O. The fables are written in
choliambCholiambic verse is a form of meter in poetry. It is found in both Greek and Latin poetry in the classical period. Choliambic verse is sometimes called scazon, or "lame iambic", because it brings the reader down on the wrong "foot" by reversing the stresses of the last few beats...
ic, i.e. limping or imperfect
iambAn iamb or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. Originally the term referred to one of the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a short syllable followed by a long syllable...
ic verse, having a
spondeeIn poetry, a spondee is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables, as determined by syllable weight in classical meters, or two stressed syllables, as determined by stress in modern meters. This makes it unique in English verse as all other feet contain at least one unstressed syllable...
as the last foot, a metre originally appropriated to
satireSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
. The style is extremely good, the expression being terse and pointed, the versification correct and elegant, and the construction of the stories is fully equal to that in the prose versions. The genuineness of this collection of the fables was generally admitted by scholars. In 1857 Minas professed to have discovered at Mount Athos another manuscript containing 94 fables and a preface. As the monks refused to sell this manuscript, he made a copy of it, which was sold to the British Museum, and was published in 1859 by
Sir G Cornewall LewisSir George Cornewall Lewis, 2nd Baronet PC was a British statesman and man of letters.-Family:He was born in London, the son of Thomas Frankland Lewis of Harpton Court, Radnorshire and his wife Harriet Cornewall...
. This, however, was soon proved to be a forgery. Six more fables were brought to light by P Knoll from a Vatican manuscript (edited by A Eberhard,
Analecta Babriana, 1879).
Editions
- Boissonade
Jean François Boissonade de Fontarabie was a French classical scholar.He was born at Paris. In 1792 he entered the public service during the administration of General Dumouriez. Driven out in 1795, he was restored by Lucien Bonaparte, during whose time of office he served as secretary to the...
(1844)
- Lachmann (1845)
- Schneider (1853)
- Johann Adam Hartung (1858, edition and German translation)
- Eberhard (1876)
- Gitlbauer (1882)
- Rutherford
William Gunion Rutherford was a Scottish scholar.-Life:He was born in Peeblesshire on 17 July 1853 and educated at St Andrews and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in natural science. His intention to enter medical profession was abandoned in favour of a scholastic career...
(1883)
- Knoll, Fabularum Babrianarum Paraphrasis Bodleiana (1877)
- Feuillet (1890)
- Desrousseaux (1890)
- Passerat (1892)
- Croiset (1892)
- Crusius
Christian August Crusius was a German philosopher and theologian.-Biography:Crusius was born at Leuna near Merseburg in Saxony...
(1897).
- Mantels, Über die Fabeln des B. (1840)
- Crusius, De Babrii Aetate (1879)
- Ficus, De Babrii Vita (1889)
- J Weiner, Quaestiones Babrianae (1891)
- Conington
John Conington was an English classical scholar.He was born at Boston in Lincolnshire, and is said to have learned the alphabet at fourteen months, and to have been reading well at three and a half...
, Miscellaneous Writings, ii. 460-491
- Marchiano, Babrio (1899)
- Fusci, Babrio (1901)
- Christoffersson, Studia de Fabvlis Babrianis (1901).
Early translations in English were made by Davies (1860) and in French by Levêque (1890), and in many other languages. More contemporary translations are by Denison B. Hull (University of Chicago Press) and Ben E. Perry (Harvard University Press).
In 1941, Heritage Press produced a "fine book" edition of Aesop, translated and adapted by Munro Leaf as juvenalia and lavishly illustrated by Robert Lawson.
In 1998, Penguin Classics released a new translation by Olivia and Robert Temple entitled,
Aesop: The Complete Fables in reference to the fact that some previous translations were partial. Working from the Chambry text published in 1927, the Temple translation includes 358 fables; Robert Temple acknowledges on page xxiv that scholars will in all likelihood challenge the "Aesopian" origin of some of them.