Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/44

xxxii Æsop himself is several times mentioned in classical literature, and always as the teller of stories or fables. Thus Plato says that Socrates in his imprisonment occupied himself by turning the stories (literally myths) of Æsop into verse: Aristophanes four times refers to his tales: and Aristotle quotes in one form a fable of his, which Lucian quotes in another. In accordance with these references, classical historians fix the date of Æsop in the sixth century B.C.; but some modern critics, relying on the vagueness and inconsistency of the traditions, have denied his existence altogether. This is, perhaps, pushing scepticism too far; but it may be admitted that he left no written works, and it is quite certain that if he did, they have been irretrievably lost.

Notwithstanding this, a learned monk of Constantinople, named, and the author also of numerous other works, did not hesitate, in the first half of the fourteenth century, to write a work which he called a collection of Æsop's Fables. This was first printed at Milan at the end of the fifteenth century;