An infographic of Aesop's Fables. For over two millennia, the fables have remained among the most influential moral tales in world literature. Traditionally dated to the 6th century BCE, likely during the reign of Croesus of Lydia (reign c. 560-546 BCE), Aesop was remembered in Hellenic tradition as a storyteller and former slave whose short animal tales explored power, justice, greed, deception, pride, and human behavior. Although no original writings by Aesop survive, the stories became deeply embedded in the oral culture of the ancient Mediterranean and were already widely known in Classical Greece by the 5th century BCE. The Aesopic tradition was later preserved and expanded through Greek and Roman antiquity by authors such as Phaedrus (1st century CE) and Babrius (1st-2nd century CE), whose collections helped transmit the fables across the medieval and early modern worlds.
