Status Updates From Aesop's Fables

VI: Aesop" functioned more as a legendary archetype—traditionally depicted as a clever, marginalized slave—than a verified historical writer. (an 'archetype' means a classic, universal symbol or "type" of person rather than a specific, concrete historical figure.

VI: The stories come from a mix of older Near Eastern, Sumerian, Egyptian, and Mediterranean oral traditions that were gathered, retold, and written down by various writers (such as Demetrius of Phalareus, Phaedrus, and Babrius) centuries later.