Life of Aesop: Fictional biography as popular literature?

What is it about?

The Life of Aesop narrates the adventures of a crafty slave, who manages to obtain his freedom and acquire high public offices and renown. His death is far from glorious, as he dies, falsely accused of theft, at the hands of the inhabitants of Delphi. This fictional biography of the 1st c. AD was widely circulated, as is evidenced by the papyrological fragments, the great number of Byzantine manuscripts after the 10th c. AD, and the variety of adaptations in and translations into Latin and other languages, both before, during and after the Renaissance period. This wide dissemination may justify the application of the term ‘popular literature’ to this work, if the word ‘popular’ is understood in its conventional sense of ‘liked, admired or enjoyed by many people’. In the present chapter, the Life of Aesop is read not from a quantitative or a sociological viewpoint, but within the framework of ‘popular aesthetics’, which, according to Bourdieu, is inherent in popular literature. Popular aesthetics are based on the unconscious assumption of continuity between life and literature, and seem to characterize several works and types of works, such as the Life of Alexander the Great, the Life of Secundus, but also fables, gnomae and accounts of miracles. My aim is to locate and analyse the elements of popular aesthetics in the Life of Aesop, i.e. the formal elements which facilitate the audience’s immersion in the story, and its identification with the hero and his adventures. These include: language, concentration on a single plot strand, fluidity of narrative structure, various manifestations of opposition and parallelism, jokes, exaggeration, parody, use of oral tales, time and space. The judicious use of such features has rendered the Life of Aesop a well-known comic, didactic and amusing work.

Featured Image