Aesop (e'-sop), a celebrated fabulist, said to have been born at Phrygia, about 620 B.C. He was as deformed in body as accomplished in mind, and was originally a slave at Athens and at Samos. Having gained freedom by his wit, he traveled through Asia Minor and Egypt, and attached himself to the court of Croesus, King of Lydia. Sent by that monarch upon an embassy to Delphi, he so offended the inhabitants by the keenness of his sarcasms, that they hurled him from a rock into the sea about 564 B.C. His history appears to be altogether legendary.

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