Gaius Julius Phaedrus

"This book presents a dozen entertaining short stories, in easy-going classical Latin, together with new translations and discussion by John Henderson. Their author, Phaedrus, was a freedman of Augustus who turned Aesop's Fables into verse in the reign of Tiberius; along with them, he included a string of tales and anecdotes set in Rome, the Greek past, or everyday ancient life. These stories take their reader straight to the heart of Rome under its first emperors, and they poke into odd and unexpected corners of classical culture. Cameos showcase Tiberius in private and Augustus in court, with Pompey the Great on campaign and Phaedrus himself struggling against prejudice and persecution, and tales feature all sorts - a toadying slave, wicked servant, vain musician, effeminate soldier, sexy poet, and rogue quack. These forgotten tales tell short and clear Roman parables of power and powerlessness. Humorous and acute, they explain, and protest at, the Caesars, and they sit perfectly among Aesop's sadistic lions, murderous wolves, and apes in purple."--Jacket.

BABRIUS is the reputed author of a collection (discovered in the 19th century) of more than 125 fables based on 'Aesop's', in Greek verse. He may have been a 'Hellenised' Roman living in Asia Minor during the late 1st century after Christ. The fables are all in one metre and in very good style, terse, humorous and pointed. Some are original. PHAEDRUS, born in Macedonia, flourished in the early half of the 1st century after Christ. Apparently a slave set free by the Emperor Augustus (died A.D. 14) he lived in Italy and began to write 'Aesopian' fables. When he offended Sejanus the powerful official of the Emperor Tiberius, he was punished, but not silenced. The fables, in 5 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. In the later Middle Ages he was forgotten except in prose-versions of the fables.

Una colección concebida para abrir el apetito lector hacia los grandes escritores clásicos y modernos de Colombia, de América y del mundo. Cuentos, fábulas, leyendas, relatos costumbristas, poesía, humorismo, textos estimulantes... Una visión crítica y desapasionada de la gran literatura de hoy y de siempre. Una invitación a conocer y a explorar la obra total de los escritores antologizados.

Book digitized by Google from the library of the New York Public Library and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

Book digitized by Google from the library of University of Michigan and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

An adaptation by the Latin fabulist Phaedrus of the Greek fables of Aesop.

"In Aesop's Human Zoo, the Cambridge classicist John Henderson puts together a set of up-front translations - fifty sharp, raw, and sometimes bawdy, fables by Phaedrus rendered in the tersest colloquial English verse." "Providing unusual insights into the heart of Roman culture, these clever poems open up odd avenues of ancient lore and life as they explore social types and physical aspects of the body, regularly mocking the limitations of human nature and offering vulgar or promiscuous interpretations of the stuff of social life." "Beginning to advanced classicists and Latin scholars will appreciate the original Latin text provided in this bilingual edition. The splash of classic Thomas Bewick wood engravings to accompany the fables renders the collection complete."--BOOK JACKET.