A fable is a type of short story that is not real. It can be written in prose or poetry and includes animals, mythical creatures, plants, objects, or natural forces that act like humans. These stories usually teach a lesson, which is often stated clearly at the end as a short rule or saying.

Fables are different from parables because parables do not use animals, plants, objects, or natural forces as characters that speak or act like humans. In contrast, stories called "animal tales" specifically feature animals that can talk.

In the past, the difference between fables and parables was not always clear. For example, in the King James Version of the Bible, the Greek word "μῦθος" (which means "mythos") was translated as "fable" in several books, including the First Epistle to Timothy, the Second Epistle to Timothy, the Epistle to Titus, and the First Epistle of Peter.

Global history

Fables are one of the oldest and most lasting types of folk stories. Modern researchers believe these stories spread mainly through spoken word, not through books. Fables can be found in the literature of nearly every country in the world.

The collection of fables known as Aesopica includes many well-known Western fables, which are said to have been created by a man named Aesop. He was believed to be a slave in ancient Greece around 550 BCE. A writer named Babrius wrote down some of these fables in verse for a prince named Alexander. He noted that the type of "myth" Aesop used had earlier been created by people from Syria during the time of a king named Ninos and a ruler named Belos. Other early writers, such as Epicharmus of Kos and Phormis, are credited with creating comic fables. Some famous fables from Aesop include "The Crow and the Pitcher," "The Tortoise and the Hare," and "The Lion and the Mouse."

In the first century AD, a writer named Phaedrus translated Aesop's fables into Latin verse. These translations became very popular and were passed down through the Middle Ages, though they were sometimes mistakenly attributed to a legendary figure named Romulus. Meanwhile, in the second century AD, another writer named Babrius wrote fables in Greek that were also widely shared and later used in medieval times.

In ancient Greece and Rome, fables were part of educational exercises called progymnasmata. These exercises helped students learn how to write and speak by studying fables, expanding on them, creating their own, and using them in speeches. Because students needed to know many fables for these exercises, collections of fables, like those attributed to Aesop, were created.

African oral traditions have a long history of storytelling. People in Africa have always interacted with nature, including plants, animals, and natural features like rivers and mountains. Skilled storytellers, especially those who tell fables, often capture the attention of children and adults alike.

The Anansi fable comes from the tribes of Ghana. A book titled "All Stories Are Anansi's," written by Harold Courlander and Albert Kofi Prempeh, tells the story of Anansi, a spider-like creature who wants to own all the stories in the world. Anansi is known for being clever and using tricks to achieve his goals.

India has a rich tradition of fables, many of which are based on traditional stories and natural elements. These fables often teach a moral lesson. Some stories feature gods with animal forms, while others include animals that act like humans. Many fables were written in ancient India during the first millennium BCE, often as part of larger stories. Indian fables include both humans and animals, and the dialogue is often longer and more humorous than in Aesop's fables. In these stories, humans are not always shown as better than animals. Examples of Indian fables include the Panchatantra and the Jataka tales. These collections were later influential in many parts of the world. Some scholars suggest that certain stories in the Jataka tales and the Panchatantra may have been influenced by similar stories from Greece and the Near East. Earlier Indian stories, like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, also included fables within their main narratives. The most famous stories from the Near East are the "One Thousand and One Nights," also known as the Arabian Nights.

The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian collection of fables. The earliest version, written by Vishnu Sharma, dates back to around 300 BCE. These stories were likely told long before they were written down. The name "Panchatantra" comes from the words "pancha" (meaning "five") and "tantra" (meaning "weave"). This suggests the stories are woven together to teach moral lessons.

Fables continued to be popular during the Middle Ages and became part of European literature. A writer named Avianus, who lived around 400 AD, wrote Latin fables based on the work of Babrius, using few stories from Aesop. Collections of fables attributed to Aesop were often titled "Romulus," as if a real person named Romulus had written them. In reality, Romulus is considered a legendary figure. Many of these Latin versions were actually translations of Phaedrus's work from the first century AD. During the Middle Ages, many authors translated, rewrote, or adapted fables from these collections.

In the later Middle Ages, Aesop's fables were collected and edited with a short biography about Aesop. This biography, called "Life of Aesop" or "Vita Aesopi," was more of a story than a true account. It became very popular by the 15th century. The most common version of this biography was written by a scholar named Maximus Planudes. During the Renaissance, Aesop's fables were widely read and copied in beautifully decorated books, such as the "Medici Aesop" made in Florence around 1480. These fables were also printed in books, often with Planudes's biography included. A German writer named Heinrich Steinhöwel published a bilingual version of the fables in 1476, which led to many reprints. Other writers, like Burkard Waldis, adapted these fables into poetry. Even Leonardo da Vinci wrote some fables in his native language.

In the 17th century, a French writer named Jean de La Fontaine focused on the moral lessons in fables. He used Aesop's style to criticize society, including the court, the church, and the growing middle class. His work inspired writers in other countries, such as England's John Gay, Poland's Ignacy Krasicki, and Spain's Tomás de Iriarte.

Contemporary works

In modern times, fables have been used in simple children's books, but they have also been adapted for adult readers in more complex ways.

In the 1880s, Joel Chandler Harris, an Irish-American journalist and folklorist, wrote African-American fables set in the South during the time of slavery. He used the name Uncle Remus for his stories, which include characters like Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear. These stories are considered important examples of storytelling and have been praised by scholars like Louis D. Rubin Jr. However, some critics, including Rubin, have pointed out that Harris’s work may have reinforced ideas that supported racial segregation and portrayed slavery in a way that was not fully accurate.

Felix Salten’s book Bambi (1923) is a Bildungsroman, a type of story that follows a character’s growth and development, told as a fable. James Thurber used the style of ancient fables in his books Fables for Our Time (1940) and Further Fables for Our Time (1956), as well as in short stories like “The Princess and the Tin Box” and “The Last Clock: A Fable for the Time, Such As It Is, of Man.” Władysław Reymont’s The Revolt (1922) used animals to describe a rebellion that represents the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Similarly, George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) used an animal fable to criticize Stalinist communism and other forms of totalitarianism.

In the 21st century, the Neapolitan writer and artist Sabatino Scia has written over 100 fables. His stories feature not only animals but also objects, natural elements, and other beings that reveal aspects of human society. Scia also uses painting to share his fables, such as in his collection “Не забувати ніколи. Never forget,” which comments on the Holodomor, a historical event. In Latin America, Juan and Victor Ataucuri Garcia have helped revive the fable tradition by collecting myths, legends, and beliefs from Andean and Amazonian Peru and rewriting them as fables in their 2003 book Fábulas Peruanas.

African-American and award-winning author Octavia E. Butler, who began writing in 1971, has seen a renewed interest in her work since her death in 2006. Her stories, described by The MacArthur Foundation as “transcendent fables,” explore important social issues like climate change and racial inequality, which remain relevant to readers today.

Classic

• Aesop (mid-6th century BCE), author of Aesop's Fables
• Vishnu Sarma (around 200 BCE), author of the anthropomorphic political treatise and fable collection, the Panchatantra
• Bidpai (around 200 BCE), author of Sanskrit (Hindu) and Pali (Buddhist) animal fables in verse and prose, sometimes based on Jataka tales
• Syntipas (around 100 BCE), Indian philosopher, believed to be the author of a collection of tales known in Europe as The Story of the Seven Wise Masters
• Gaius Julius Hyginus (Latin author, native of Spain or Alexandria, around 64 BCE–17 CE), author of the Fabulae
• Phaedrus (15 BCE–50 CE), Roman fabulist, born in Macedonia
• Nizami Ganjavi (Persian, 1141–1209)
• Walter of England (12th century), Anglo-Norman poet, published Aesop's Fables in distichs around 1175
• Marie de France (12th century)
• Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (Persian, 1207–1273)
• Vardan Aygektsi (died 1250), Armenian priest and fabulist
• Berechiah ha-Nakdan (13th century), author of Jewish fables adapted from Aesop's Fables
• Robert Henryson (Scottish, 15th century), author of The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian
• Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519)
• Biernat of Lublin (Polish, 1465?–after 1529)
• Jean de La Fontaine (French, 1621–1695)
• Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani (Georgian, 1658–1725), author of The Book of Wisdom and Lies
• Bernard de Mandeville (English, 1670–1733), author of The Fable of the Bees
• John Gay (English, 1685–1732)

Modern

• Leo Tolstoy (born 1828, died 1910)
• Rafael Pombo (born 1833, died 1912), Colombian storyteller, poet, and writer
• Ambrose Bierce (born 1842, died 1914)
• Joel Chandler Harris (born 1848, died 1908)
• Sholem Aleichem (born 1859, died 1916)
• George Ade (born 1866, died 1944), author of Fables in Slang and other works
• Władysław Reymont (born 1868, died 1925)
• Felix Salten (born 1869, died 1945)
• Don Marquis (born 1878, died 1937), author of the fables Archy and Mehitabel
• Franz Kafka (born 1883, died 1924)
• Damon Runyon (born 1884, died 1946)
• James Thurber (born 1894, died 1961), author of Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
• George Orwell (born 1903, died 1950)
• Dr. Seuss (born 1904, died 1991)
• Isaac Bashevis Singer (born 1904, died 1991)
• Nankichi Niimi (born 1913, died 1943), Japanese author and poet
• Sergey Mikhalkov (born 1913, died 2009), Soviet writer of children’s books
• Pierre Gamarra (born 1919, died 2009)
• Richard Adams (born 1920, died 2016), author of Watership Down
• José Saramago (born 1922, died 2010), Portuguese writer, author of Ensaio sobre a cegueira
• Italo Calvino (born 1923, died 1985), author of Cosmicomics and other works
• Arnold Lobel (born 1933, died 1987), author of Fables, winner of the 1981 Caldecott Medal
• Ramsay Wood (born 1943), author of Kalila and Dimna: Fables of Friendship and Betrayal
• Bill Willingham (born 1956), author of Fables graphic novels
• David Sedaris (born 1956), author of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk
• Hayao Miyazaki (born 1941), Japanese filmmaker, director of Spirited Away
• Guillermo del Toro (born 1964), Mexican filmmaker, director of Pan’s Labyrinth
• Pendleton Ward (born 1982), American animator, creator of Adventure Time

Notable fable collections

• Aesop's Fables by Aesop
• Jataka tales
• Panchatantra by Vishnu Sarma
• Baital Pachisi (also called Vikram and The Vampire)
• Hitopadesha
• Kalīla wa-Dimna
• A Book of Wisdom and Lies by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani
• Seven Wise Masters by Syntipas
• One Thousand and One Nights (also known as Arabian Nights, around 800 to 900)
• Fables (1668–1694) by Jean de La Fontaine
• Fables and Parables (1779) by Ignacy Krasicki
• Fairy Tales (1837) by Hans Christian Andersen
• Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (1881) by Joel Chandler Harris
• Fantastic Fables (1899) by Ambrose Bierce
• Fables for Our Time (1940) by James Thurber
• 99 Fables (1960) by William March
• Collected Fables (2000) by Ambrose Bierce, edited by S. T. Joshi

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