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Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Animal fables are said to have originated with Aesop, a
semilegendary Samian slave, but the earliest surviving record of
the fables comes from the Latin poet Phaedrus, who introduced the
new genre to Latin literature. This verse translation of The Fables
is the first in English in more than two hundred years.
In addition to the familiar animal fables, about a quarter of
the book includes such diverse material as prologues and epilogues,
historical anecdotes, short stories, enlarged proverbs and sayings,
comic episodes and folk wisdom, and many incidental glimpses of
Greek and Roman life in the classical period.
The Fables also sheds light on the personal history of Phaedrus,
who seems to have been an educated slave, eventually granted his
freedom by the emperor Augustus. Phaedrus' style is lively, clean,
and sparse, though not at the cost of all detail and elaboration.
It serves well as a vehicle for his two avowed purposes--to
entertain and to give wise counsel for the conduct of life. Like
all fabulists, Phaedrus was a moralist, albeit on a modest and
popular level.
An excellent introduction by P. F. Widdows provides information
about Phaedrus, the history of The Fables, the metric style of the
original and of this translation, and something of the place of
these fables in Western folklore. The translation is done in a free
version of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse, a form used by W. H.
Auden and chosen here to match the popular tone of Phaedrus' Latin
verse.
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Fables (Hardcover)
Babrius, Phaedrus; Translated by Ben Edwin Perry
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R783
Discovery Miles 7 830
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Babrius is the reputed author of a collection (discovered in the
19th century) of more than 125 fables based on those called
Aesop's, in Greek verse. He may have been a hellenised Roman living
in Asia Minor during the late 1st century of our era. The fables
are all in one metre and in very good style, humorous and pointed.
Some are original.
Phaedrus, born in Macedonia, flourished in the early half of the
1st century of our era. Apparently a slave set free by the emperor
Augustus, he lived in Italy and began to write Aesopian fables.
When he offended Sejanus, a powerful official of the emperor
Tiberius, he was punished but not silenced. The fables, in five
books, are in lively terse and simple Latin verse not lacking in
dignity. They not only amuse and teach but also satirise social and
political life in Rome.
This edition includes a comprehensive analytical Survey of
Greek and Latin fables in the Aesopic tradition, as well as a
historical introduction.
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