Aesop

Pronunciation pronunciation key
eesop

Definition 
A teller of simple tales with a moral. The allusion is to the deformed Phrygian slave Aesop (c. 620–560 B.C.), who is traditionally identified as the author of a collection of animal fables illustrating a variety of morals. In reality, many of these tales seem to predate his era by hundreds of years. Nonetheless, several later writers have been dubbed Aesops of their age, including the English writer John Gay (1685–1732), called the Aesop of England, and the French fabulist Jean de la Fontaine (1621–95), known as the Aesop of France. "But how moral you've become all of a sudden, at twelve o'clock at night! Instead of being Mrs. Radcliffe, I shall think you're Mr. Aesop'" (Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne, 1858).