The famous creator of fables who lived in 6th-century B.C. Greece has been portrayed only rarely on-screen, perhaps because there is so little actual biographical information about him. Legend has it that Aesop began life as a mute slave, malformed and ugly, but for his piety was rewarded by the gods not only with speech but with the gift of storytelling, and rose by his wit (literally) to become not only a free man but a companion of the Seven Sages of ancient Greece and the advisor of kings. Thanks to the universal appeal of fables (stories with a moral or practical lesson in which animals speak and have human characteristics), Aesop, the world's most famous creator of fables, is a household name all over the world.