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Much of the richness of our language and moral education is owed to a Greek slave who was executed over two thousand years ago. Literally hundreds of metaphors, axioms, and ideas that are woven into the very fabric of Western culture--from "sour grapes" and "crying wolf" to "actions speak louder than words" and "honesty is the best policy"--all came from Aesop's Fables.

An extraordinary storyteller who used cunning foxes, surly dogs, clever mice, and foolish humans to describe the reality of a harsh world, Aesop created narratives that are appealing, funny, politically astute, and profoundly true. And Aesop's truth--often summed up in the pithy "moral of the story"--retains an awesome power to affect us, reaching us through both our intellects and our hearts.

Included here are such fables as "The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse," "The Wind and the Sun," "The Farmer and the Stork," "The Lioness," "The Brash Candlelight," "The Old Woman and the Physician," "The Mole and Her Mother," "The Swallow and the Crow," "The Man Bitten by a Dog," "The Fox and the Grapes," "The Monkey and the Dolphin," "The Hares and the Frogs," and many, many more.

Mary Woods began her career in Washington, DC, where she performed at Ford's Theater, the Folger Theater, Round House, and Washington Stage Guild. She spent several seasons at New Playwrights' Theater developing new American plays. She is a veteran narrator of Talking Books for the Library of Congress, and received the Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Award for fiction in 1996. Formerly a radio news director, she now hosts a daily local affairs interview program on Catholic Radio, for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. She lives in Albuquerque, where she continues to act on stage and in film. She received her BA at the Catholic University of America in Fine Arts and Drama.

Jack Zipes is a preeminent fairy tale scholar who has written, translated, or edited dozens of books, including The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. He is a professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota.

Aesop has been known in history and in legend since the sixth century BC, or earlier, as a gifted Greek storyteller and the author of the world's best-known collection of fables. A Phrygian slave, there is speculation that he was freed as a result of his wit. Though little is known about his life, his remarkable wisdom regarding human nature, conveyed through his fables, has brought him great renown.