Sour Grapes - Greek Expression
The expression sour grapes is used when someone wants something, finds he can't attain it, and then decides it must not be worth it, anyway. Aesop has a fable about a fox who wanted to eat some grapes hanging from a lofty vine. When he found he couldn't reach them, he said they must have been sour, anyway; hence, sour grapes.
Who is Aesop?
Aesop or Esop known for the genre of fables ascribed to him, was by tradition born a slave and was a contemporary of Croesus and Solon in the mid-6th century BC in ancient Greece. Aesop's existence remains uncertain, and no writings by Aesop survive, but numerous fables attributed to him were gathered and set down in writing across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day; various collections under the rubric Aesop's Fables are currently available. In many of these stories animals speak and have human characteristics for example the Tortoise and the Hare or the Ant and the Grasshopper.
While the Aesopic fables today are often cast as stories for children, for the early Greeks the fable was a technique of criticism and persuasion, which by its indirectness might avoid giving offense, while at the same time making a powerful impression by its artistry. It was especially valuable to the weak as a weapon against the powerful. As the legendary creator of fables, quoted by Socrates, Aristophanes, and others, Aesop was highly regarded by the Greeks, despite his origin as a slave.
The earliest Greek sources, including Aristotle, indicate that Aesop was born around 620 BC in Thrace at a site on the Black Sea coast which would later become the city Mesambria; a number of later writers from the Roman imperial period (including Phaedrus, who adapted the fables into Latin), say that he was born in Phrygia. The 3rd-century BC poet Callimachus called him "Aesop of Sardis," and the later writer Maximus of Tyre called him "the sage of Lydia."
From Aristotle and Herodotus we learn that Aesop was a slave in Samos and that his masters were first a man named Xanthus and then a man named Iadmon; that he must eventually have been freed, because he argued as an advocate for a wealthy Samian; and that he met his end in the city of Delphi. Plutarch tells us that Aesop had come to Delphi on a diplomatic mission from King Croesus of Lydia, that he insulted the Delphians, was sentenced to death on a trumped-up charge of temple theft, and was thrown from a cliff (after which the Delphians suffered pestilence and famine); before this fatal episode, Aesop met with Periander of Corinth, where Plutarch has him dining with the Seven Sages of Greece, sitting beside his friend Solon, whom he had met in Sardis.
you can find more in detail online :)
"A famished fox saw some clusters of ripe black grapes hanging from a trellised vine. She resorted to all her tricks to get at them, but wearied herself in vain, for she could not reach them. At last she turned away, hiding her disappointment and saying: 'The Grapes are sour, and not ripe as I thought.'"
The Fox and the Grapes, by Aesop, translated by George Fyler Townsend
Sour Grapes. From The Aesop for Children, by Aesop, illustrated by Milo Winter
Who is Aesop?
Aesop or Esop known for the genre of fables ascribed to him, was by tradition born a slave and was a contemporary of Croesus and Solon in the mid-6th century BC in ancient Greece. Aesop's existence remains uncertain, and no writings by Aesop survive, but numerous fables attributed to him were gathered and set down in writing across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day; various collections under the rubric Aesop's Fables are currently available. In many of these stories animals speak and have human characteristics for example the Tortoise and the Hare or the Ant and the Grasshopper.
While the Aesopic fables today are often cast as stories for children, for the early Greeks the fable was a technique of criticism and persuasion, which by its indirectness might avoid giving offense, while at the same time making a powerful impression by its artistry. It was especially valuable to the weak as a weapon against the powerful. As the legendary creator of fables, quoted by Socrates, Aristophanes, and others, Aesop was highly regarded by the Greeks, despite his origin as a slave.
The earliest Greek sources, including Aristotle, indicate that Aesop was born around 620 BC in Thrace at a site on the Black Sea coast which would later become the city Mesambria; a number of later writers from the Roman imperial period (including Phaedrus, who adapted the fables into Latin), say that he was born in Phrygia. The 3rd-century BC poet Callimachus called him "Aesop of Sardis," and the later writer Maximus of Tyre called him "the sage of Lydia."
From Aristotle and Herodotus we learn that Aesop was a slave in Samos and that his masters were first a man named Xanthus and then a man named Iadmon; that he must eventually have been freed, because he argued as an advocate for a wealthy Samian; and that he met his end in the city of Delphi. Plutarch tells us that Aesop had come to Delphi on a diplomatic mission from King Croesus of Lydia, that he insulted the Delphians, was sentenced to death on a trumped-up charge of temple theft, and was thrown from a cliff (after which the Delphians suffered pestilence and famine); before this fatal episode, Aesop met with Periander of Corinth, where Plutarch has him dining with the Seven Sages of Greece, sitting beside his friend Solon, whom he had met in Sardis.
you can find more in detail online :)
In Egypt,
ReplyDeleteThere is an Egyptian fable of a Legendry character called "Goha", he is a wiseman who had different stories that teach others from