We hoped our Aesop's Fables episode would be a family-friendly romp just in time for the holidays. We could not have been more wrong. Compiled after 450 BCE, the hundreds of stories known to us as Aesop's Fables were not the children's morality tales we read today. They represent the earliest examples we have of Greek popular culture, and they started out mostly as bawdy or mean-spirited comedy bits you could memorize to deliver at a drinking party or even in a court of law.

In this episode, Rose talks about the historical context of Aesop, including when (and whether) he lived, how other writers thought about him, and then gives a summary of several of the most popular fables, along with some of the ones that shocked her most. We recommend that you do not listen with younger children around (unless you want to traumatize them); there's one rude word included in a title that Rose mentions in passing.

Want to read the transcript? Here you go!

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