Aesop, e'sop (620-564 B. C.), a Greek writer of fables. The accounts of his life and writings rest on a slender foundation. Various regions contended for the honor of his birth. According to some accounts, while still young he was brought to Athens as a slave. On obtaining his freedom, he took up his residence at the court of Croesus, by whom he was employed as an ambassador at Delphi. According to one account, Aesop was entrusted by Croesus with the duty of distributing a sum of money at Delphi. Failing to do this satisfactorily, he was thrown headlong over a precipice. As a punishment a pestilence fell upon the city. No manuscript or other evidence of Aesop's writings has been preserved. He may have been merely a story teller. He may not have lived at all. During the brilliant period of Athenian literature, however, a collection of pithy anecdotes was known as "Aesop's Fables." These fables were well known to the Romans. They have been translated into many languages. A scholarly edition published in 1810 in Germany contains two hundred thirty-one fables. Many of them seem to be mere variations of similar fables extant among the Arabians, Hindus, Persians, and even Chinese. "Eastern Fables" would be quite as appropriate a name. "What a dust I do raise,' said the fly as he sat on the axletree of the chariot," is one of the sayings attributed to Aesop. See LOKMAN; GRIMM; LA FONTAINE; ANDERSEN.