Social injustice in Phaedrus’s fables: origin and tradition

Abstract

Phaedrus’s have long considered the defense of the poor and the attack on the rich and powerful as distinguishing features of his fables. After presenting the texts where this social perspective is expressed and showing the coherence of his way of thinking, I will demonstrate the originality of his ideas within fable tradition, by contrasting them to those we find in Babrius, la Augustana or Avianus. Phaedrus’s remarkable and coherent thoughts have nothing to do with the criticism against power that we find in some fables in the Aesopian tradition and which is commonly associated with the influence of the Cynics. My claim is that this way of thinking is influenced, as well as by his difficult life circumstances, by the most progressive strand of stoical thinking, as represented by philosophers such as Espherus, Antipatrus or Blosius. The analysis of some of the most relevant medieval and modern collections of texts clearly shows that Phaedrus’s ideas were not taken on by his followers.