Aesop's Fables

Much of the richness of our language and moral education is owed to a Greek slave who was executed over two thousand years ago. Literally hundreds of metaphors, axioms, and ideas that are woven into the very fabric of Western culture-from “sour grapes” and “crying wolf” to “actions speak louder than words” and “honesty is the best policy”-all came from Aesop's Fables.

An extraordinary storyteller who used cunning foxes, surly dogs, clever mice, and foolish humans to describe the reality of a...