Aesop's Fables

Character Guide

Spoiler-free — fuller detail (with spoilers, if you want them) lives in the reader's Guide tab.

The Fox

A clever, quick-witted animal who repeatedly uses flattery, trickery, or cunning to get what he wants, though his schemes sometimes backfire.

The Wolf

A predatory figure who often manufactures excuses to justify preying on weaker animals, symbolizing brute power dressed up as reason.

The Lion (King of the Beasts)

The strongest animal in the fables, often treated as ruler of the animal kingdom, sometimes generous, sometimes tyrannical in dividing spoils.

The Ass

A humble beast of burden, often used to represent foolishness, poor judgment, or being taken advantage of by cleverer animals.

The Crow

A bird easily flattered, most famous for losing a piece of cheese to a fox's praise.

The Grasshopper

A carefree singer who spends the summer chirping rather than preparing for winter, appearing in more than one fable with slightly different fates.

The Ants

Industrious, principled workers who store food for winter and refuse to reward idleness.

The Mouse

A small, seemingly insignificant creature whose size belies its usefulness, as shown in its dealings with a much larger lion.

The Dog

Often represents loyalty and domestication, sometimes contrasted with wild animals like the wolf to comment on freedom versus security.

Jupiter

The chief god who appears as an arbiter or dispenser of fates to various animals and creatures, including the Ant and the Snake.

Glossary

Fuller

A tradesman who cleans and whitens cloth, appearing in 'The Charcoal-Burner and the Fuller' as a foil to a soot-covered charcoal-maker.

Tow

Coarse, fibrous material (from flax or hemp) used here as kindling tied to a fox's tail as punishment.

Rooks

A type of crow-like bird that raids farmers' fields, featured in 'The Farmer, His Boy, and the Rooks.'

Jackdaw

A small crow-family bird, symbolizing a creature that overreaches its station by adorning itself or seeking freedom, as in 'The Escaped Jackdaw.'

Phrygian

Referring to Phrygia, an ancient region in Asia Minor; Aesop is traditionally said to have been a Phrygian slave.

Filberts

Hazelnuts, referenced in fable titles as an object of desire or greed (e.g., 'The Boy and the Filberts').

Groom

A servant who tends and feeds horses, as in 'The Horse and the Groom,' where he steals the horse's oats.

Fowler

A hunter of birds, who uses nets, decoys, or snares, as depicted in 'The Fowler, the Partridge, and the Cock.'

Minerva

Roman goddess of wisdom, invoked in fables such as 'Hercules and Minerva' and referenced as a source of 'nectar' in 'The Grasshopper and the Owl.'

Coursing/Sling

A hand-thrown weapon using a strap to hurl stones, used by the farmer's boy to scare off grain-stealing birds.

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