by NIKOS RAPTIS
Aesop
Aesop is supposed to be a man who lived 600 years before Christ and who created the famous Greek fables. Scholars still debate about whether he was an actual person or “a name invented to provide an author for the fables”. The story of the life of Aesop, whether actual or invented, is interesting, especially if it was really invented by ordinary people. In any event, we find references about Aesop in the works of the historian Herodotus (484 – 420 BC), the comedy writer Aristophanes (450 – 388 BC), the philosopher Aristotle (384 – 322 BC), etc. Also, the German Martin Luther of the Christians was very much interested in Aesop.
According to the story of his life, Aesop was born in Phrygia, the west central part of Turkey. Phrygia was famous for its trade of exporting slaves. Aesop is described as rather ugly, dark skinned, and a stutterer. In classical Greece his name was supposed to be a compound of the words “aetho” (burn) and “ops” (face), that is his face was black as if burned. As a matter of fact, the classical Greeks characterized him as black as an Ethiopian. [Once more, that damned place, black Africa, that insists to claim that it is the root of humanity, even for blond, blue-eyed Westerners from Berlin, Boston, Oslo, etc.]
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