ISOPE. Aesopus, fl. sixth century B.C., was a Thracian. He lived at Samos during the reign of Pharoah Amasis, c. 569-525 B.C. Herodotus says that he was a slave of Iadmon, a Samian (Histories II.134) and a contemporary of Sappho. Many fables are attributed to him.

Aesop's name is mentioned only once: Dame Prudence quotes him on the wisdom of not trusting new friends who were once enemies, Mel 1184. Neither Albertanus Brixiensis nor Chaucer himself is here quoting Aesop. The quotation is the last couplet from the tale "De bubonis et corvus" ("The Owl and the Crow"), Fable XI of the Italian fabulist Baldo, who flourished in the last half of the thirteenth century. At the beginning of his tales he had written Incipit novus Esopus (Here begins the New Aesop) and at the end, Explicit novus Esopus (Here ends the New Aesop). The medieval collection bearing Aesop's name was composed mainly of the fables of Romulus, dated between A.D. 350 and 600 and based on the fables of Phaedrus (c. 15 B.C.-A.D. 50), a freedman of the Emperor Augustus. There are references to stories found also in Aesop, although the exact sources have not been identified. The fables of the Lion and the Bear, and the Lion, the Tiger, and the Fox, occur in KnT 1177-1180. J. Helterman points out that although Arcite knows the moral of the fables, he ignores their lessons. The Pear-Tree episode, without the elaborate incident concerning Pluto and Proserpina, MerchT 2149-2411, is based on an Aesopian fable.

The form is a pronunciation variant.