Aesop

(c. 620 BC - c. 564 BC)

The earliest known mention of Aesop is found in Herodotus’ The Histories, in reference to the courtesan Rhodopis: “She was by birth a Thracian, the slave of Iadmon, son of Hephaestopolis of Samos, and fellow slave of Aesop the fable writer.” Aesop’s work was known and alluded to by Plato, Aristotle, and Aristophanes; in the latter’s play The Birds one character attributes another’s ignorance to the fact that he has “a blind, uninquisitive mind, unaccustomed to poring over Aesop.”