Fable

A fable is a fictitious story that tells a proverbial truth.
In ancient times, long before they were written
down, fables were transmitted by word-of-mouth. More
than two thousand five hundred years ago, on the island
of Samos, an African slave named Aesop was known as
a cunning storyteller, though he could not read or write.
In fact, he used a fable to teach his master that he, too,
had rights to human dignity. Upon hearing the fable,
Aesop’s master freed him. Afterward, the storyteller
appeared before the learned scholars of ancient Greece,
where he became an ambassador for the king. For
generations thereafter, the morals such as self-discipline,
honesty, compassion, tolerance, and justice, taught in fables,
have been essential to the march of human progress.
The fable, by teaching these basic universal principles,
has served other generations well. It continues to serve
in the twenty-first century and beyond.