History Literature / AesopsFables

* NeverMyFault: "The Young Thief and His Mother"; in the story, a thief is condemned to die for stealing and as a final request he wanted to see his mother. He tricked his mother by wanting to whisper something in her ear and when she leaned in close, he tried to bite off her ear. His reason was that he blamed her for his predicament as she had never disciplined him when he was a child after he started stealing. [[ValuesDissonance Due to the values of the era]], the priest takes his side and blames her as well.

* NeverMyFault: "The Young Thief and His Mother"; in the story, a thief is condemned to die for stealing and as a final request he wanted to see his mother. He tricked his mother by wanting to whisper something in her ear and when she leaned in close, he tried to bite off her ear. His reason was that he blamed her for his predicament as she had never disciplined him when he was a child after he started stealing. Due to the values of the era, the priest takes his side and blames her as well.

* JerkassGods: Jupiter could sometimes come off as this for example in one story where he judged the animals' children, to find out which one was most beautiful, and coldly laughed at an ape's attempt. The ape's reaction was to say that Jupiter could have his judgement but [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments to her, her offspring was the most beautiful of all. ]]

* LastSecondShowoff: "The Tortoise and the Hare" is the TropeCodifier. The Hare has such a massive lead over the Tortoise that the Hare takes a nap under a tree. By the time the Hare wakes up, the Tortoise has almost crossed the finish line. Despite a frantic scramble from the Hare, the Tortoise ultimately wins the race thanks to the Hare's hubris.

* LastSecondShowoff: "The Tortoise and the Hare" is the TropeCodifier.

** An alternative to this story is that the Hare doesn't stop for a nap, but in his rush to get to the finish line as quickly as possible, he ends up exhausting himself and collapses just before he crosses the finish line, allowing the tortoise, who had simply been walking along at his own pace, to come along and win the race. In this case, the moral is similar, but more along the lines of "progress at a steady pace gets farther than spending all your energy at once."

* CleverCrows: One tale involves a crow, dying of thirst, finding a pitcher of water with the water level just out of reach of the bird's beak. So, it uses several pebbles to raise the water level and save itself.

** In "Zeus and the Bee", Zeus offers to grant a wish for Melissa the bee after she presents him with a gift of honey, and Melissa tells him how she is constantly having her honey stolen by the other animals and asks for a weapon so that no one will steal from her again. Zeus is displeased by the self-pitying nature of the wish, but being obliged to grant it, he gives her a barbed spear... which he implants directly into her abdomen, so that it will tear out her insides and kill her if she ever uses it.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In "The Frogs Pick a King", a community of frogs prays to Jupiter to send them a king. In order to quiet them, he drops a log into their pond. The frogs were frightened of the log at first, but before long, they started using it as a platform. They grew dissatisfied with their "sovereign" and asked Jupiter for a different king. His response was to send a stork to eat them.

* TheCityVsTheCountry: The CountryMouse visits her friend the CityMouse. While at first impressed by his lavish lifestyle, she soon changes her mind once she learns about the cat living in the same house.

* CatsAreMean / KingOfBeasts: Lions are the king of beasts, and in Aesop's Fables they won't let you forget it.

* ConsummateLiar: One of the two travellers in "The Apes and the Two Travellers", the other traveller [[CannotTellALie is an inversion]] of this.

* LiminalBeing: The bat, in one fable, tried to be a bird or a beast according to what it brought it. The birds and beasts unite in the end to agree that it's expelled from both.

'''Aesopos''' (Greek Αἴσωπος, shortened to Aesop in modern English) was a slave, later freedman, living somewhere in Asia Minor in the sixth century BC. If, that is, he existed at all.

* UnpleasableFanbase: "The Man, the Boy, and the Ass" illustrate it ''perfectly.'' A man and a boy are taking their donkey to market, but various people on the side of the road all have suggestions about what should be done (Do you walk with the donkey or ride it? Is it better for the man or the child to be riding it, or both?). Eventually, the man and the boy end up trying to carry the donkey, who kicks free and drowns. The lesson is phrased as "please all, please none," but the pun in the English translation can be stated "trying to please everyone will make you lose your ass."

* JerkassGods: Jupiter could sometimes come off as this for example in one story where he judged the animals' children, to find out which one was most beautiful, and coldly laughed at an ape's attempt. The ape's reaction was to say that Jupiter could have his judgement but [[HeartwarmingMoments to her, her offspring was the most beautiful of all. ]]

* [[ViewersAreMorons Readers Are Morons]]: Some of the fables (usually the more famous ones) outright stated the {{aesop}} of the story in the form of a sentence at the end of the story.

* CatsAreMean/KingOfBeasts: Lions are the king of beasts, and in Aesop's Fables they won't let you forget it.

* CatsAreMean: Those lions you see at the zoo are apparently very evil.