Phaedrus (redirected from Phædrus)

Phaedrus (fē`drəs), fl. 1st cent. A.D., Latin writer, a Thracian slave, possibly a freedman of Augustus. He wrote fables in verse based largely on those of Aesop. The prose collections of fables that were popular throughout Western Europe in the Middle Ages were probably derived from Phaedrus.

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Phaedrus

(born c. 15 BC, Thrace—died c. AD 50, Italy) Roman fabulist. A slave by birth, Phaedrus became a freedman in Augustus's household. He was the first writer to Latinize whole books of fables, producing free versions in iambic metre of Greek prose fables that were then circulating under the name of Aesop. Phaedrus's renderings, noted for their charm, brevity, and didacticism, became very popular in medieval Europe; they include such favourites as “The Fox and the Sour Grapes” and “The Wolf and the Lamb.”

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Phaedrus

?15 bc--?50 ad, Roman author of five books of Latin verse fables, based chiefly on Aesop

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Phaedrus 

Born circa 15 B.C. in Macedonia; died circa A.D. 70 in Rome. Latin fabulist.

Phaedrus was a slave and later a freedman of the emperor Augustus. Of his five books of Aesopian Fables in iambic verse, 134 fables have been preserved. In the later books, Phaedrus expanded the range of the traditional genre by introducing moral judgments, anecdotes, and other new material. Phaedrus was plebeian in outlook, and he devoted much attention to social motifs. His style is rather dry and the narrative is invariably subordinate to the moral.

REFERENCES

Fedri Babrii: Basni. Translated by M. L. Gasparov. Moscow, 1962.
Gasparov, M. L. Antichnaia literaturnaia basnia (Fedr i Babrii). Moscow, 1971.