What is Aesopian language and what is its significance in contemporary literature

We have repeatedly heard the expression "Aesopian language". What does this term mean and where does it come from? It is not known for certain whether such a person lived or is a collective image. There are many legends about him, and in the Middle Ages his biography was compiled. According to legend, he was born in the VI century BC. E. In Asia Minor and was the slave of the Lydian king Croesus, however, the quirky mind, ingenuity and cunning helped to gain his freedom and glorified him for many generations.

Naturally, it was the father-founder of this technique who first applied Aesopian language. Examples of it tells us a legend that tells us that Croesus, having drunk too much, began to assure himself that he could drink the sea, and made a bet, placing his whole kingdom on the map. The next morning, having sobered up, the king turned to his slave for help, and promised to give him freedom if he helped him out. A wise slave advised him to say: "I promised to drink only the sea, without the rivers and streams that flow into it. Close them, and I will fulfill my promise. " And since no one could fulfill this condition, Croes won the bet.

As a slave, and then a freedman, the sage wrote fables, in which he ridiculed the dullness, greed, lies and other vices of people he knew, mostly his former master and his slave-owning friends. But since he was a servant, he clothed his narrative in allegory, paraphrases, resorted to allegory, and derived his characters under the names of animals - foxes, wolves, crows, etc. This is the language of Aesop. Images in amusing stories were easily recognizable, but the "prototypes" could not do anything, except how silently to rage. In the end, the detractors laid Aesop's stolen vessel out of the temple, and the priests of Delphy accused him of theft and sacrilege. The sage was given the choice to publicize himself as a slave - in that case his master had to pay only a fine. But Aesop chose to remain free and accept the execution. According to legend, he was dropped from a cliff in Delphi.

Thus, thanks to his ironic, but allegorical syllable, Aesop became the ancestor of such a literary genre as a fable. In subsequent epochs of dictatorships and infringement of freedom of utterances, the fable genre enjoyed great popularity, and its creator remained a true hero in the memory of generations. It can be said that Aesopian language has much outlived its creator. Thus, in the Vatican Museum, there is an antique bowl with a hunchback pattern (according to legend, Aesop had an ugly appearance and was a hunchback) and foxes who say something - art critics believe that the ancestor of the fable is depicted on the bowl. Historians argue that in the sculptural series of the "Seven Sages" in Athens there was once a statue of Aesop's cutter Lysippus. At the same time a collection of writer's fables was compiled, compiled by an anonymous author.

In the Middle Ages, Aesopian language was extremely popular: the famous "The Tale of the Fox" was composed just such an allegorical syllable, and in the images of the fox, wolf, rooster, donkey and other animals, the entire ruling elite and clergy of the Roman Church are derided. This manner of speaking out vaguely, but aptly and caustically, enjoyed by Lafontaine, Saltykov-Shchedrin, the well-known fables climber Krylov, Ukrainian fabulist Glibov. The parables of Aesop were translated into many languages, they were composed in rhyme. Many of us from the school bench probably know the fable about the crow and the fox, the fox and the grapes - the story of these short moralizing stories was invented by an ancient sage.

It can not be said that Aesopian language, the significance of which in times of regimes where the rules of the ball of censorship, today is irrelevant. The allegorical style, which does not directly call the target of satire, its "letter" seems to refer to a hard censor, and "spirit" - to the reader. Since the latter lives in realities that are subject to veiled criticism, he easily recognizes it. And even more: a quirky manner of ridicule, full of secret hints, requiring a solution, hidden symbols and images are much more interesting to readers than a direct and undisguised accusation of the authorities of any offenses, therefore even writers and journalists resort to the elements of the Aesopian language, which have nothing To be afraid. We see its use in journalism, in journalism, and in pamphlets on topical political and social issues.