Fable

The word fable comes from the Latin fabula, where it simply means "story."

In the English-speaking world, the word is closely associated with Æsop's Fables, a collection of stories attributed to the ancient Greek "Æsop the Slave," who lived in the sixth century BC. In 1483, William Caxton, one of the first printers in England, published an English translation. Æsop's fables are short stories, obviously fictitious, usually involving talking animals as characters, which make some point about morality or human nature. The point is sometimes stated explicitly in a final sentence, sometimes labelled as the "moral:" "Some men underrate their best blessings," or "There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth."

Two travellers, worn out by the heat of the summer's sun, laid themselves down at noon under the widespreading branches of a Plane-Tree. As they rested under its shade, one of the Travelers said to the other, "What a singularly useless tree is the Plane! It bears no fruit, and is not of the least service to man." The Plane-Tree, interrupting him, said, "You ungrateful fellows! Do you, while receiving benefits from me and resting under my shade, dare to describe me as useless, and unprofitable?'

Some men underrate their best blessings. ^[1]

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Fable is as follows:^[2]

The mountain and the squirrel
Had a quarrel;
And the former called the latter ‘Little Prig.’
Bun replied,
‘You are doubtless very big;
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together,
To make up a year
And a sphere.
And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.
If I'm not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry.
I'll not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track;
Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;
If I cannot carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut.’

• Conservative parables

1. ↑ Aesop's Fables, translated by George Fyler Townsend Project Gutenberg eText
2. ↑ https://poets.org/poem/fable