Aisopou Mythoi / Aesop's Fables 1

Abstract

"The cover and title-page set "hellenike" and "agglika" on the sides of ""diglosso," (bilingual). The very first pages, Greek on the right and English on the left, tell of "Dia" creating man (8-9). A clever friend has written in "Ho Theos," God, over the first use of "Ho Dias" to help those of us more accustomed to ancient Greek. When man complains of not being as strong as any of the animals, God replies that thought is the greatest gift of all and adds point to his statement by saying "But perhaps you are not so clever. You must be very stupid if you think that the animals are better than you." Some reflection helps man to concur with God's wisdom. The book's pattern seems to be that a simple English text, titled, is set against the beginning of a titled Greek text, and these facing pages are complemented with several one-color designs pertinent to the fable. The next pages then include more Greek (the rest of the fable or further comment?) and a full multicolor page. A strong sample of this last element is on 23: the fox has learned how to divide prey from the dead ass. "The Two Dogs" (46) provides another example of this rhythm, with a strong picture on 49 contrasting the two dogs. The moral of this story of the hunting dog versus the "home dog" is curious: "It is not always good to blame lazy and useless children. We should see how their parents brought them up." WS makes good use of the one-color illustrations on 56-57 to contrast the traveler's reaction to wind and sun. In the end he takes off all his clothes! "The Man and the Lion" is one of the strongest illustrations (61). It is right that it is repeated on the front cover. 78 pages, originally with an audio cassette."