03-19-2006, 02:25 AM
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp...id=874&letter=A
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Talmudic, Indian, and Greek Fables.
Of about thirty fables found in the Talmud and in midrashic literature, twelve resemble those that are common to both Greek and Indian fable; six are parallel to those found only in Indian fable (Fablesof Kybises); and six others can be paralleled in Greek, but have not hitherto been traced to India. <b>Where similar fables exist in Greece, India, and in the Talmud, the Talmudic form approaches more nearly the Indian, whenever this differs from the Greek.</b> Thus, the well-known fable of "The Wolf and the Crane" is told in India of a lion and a crane. When Joshua ben Hananiah told that fable to the Jews, to prevent their rebelling against Rome and once more putting their heads into the lion's jaws (Gen. R. lxiv.), he spoke of the lion and not of the wolf, showing that he was familiar with some form derived from India. The Talmudic fables are, therefore, of crucial importance in distinguishing between the later Ãsop's Fablesâderived directly from Indiaâand the earlier ones, in which a direct Indian source is difficult to prove.
It is absolutely impossible for these fables to have been invented by the Talmudic sages, inasmuch as they were extant in Greece and India in their time; nevertheless there is, in the Bible, evidence of fable literature among the early Hebrews (see Fable).<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Talmudic, Indian, and Greek Fables.
Of about thirty fables found in the Talmud and in midrashic literature, twelve resemble those that are common to both Greek and Indian fable; six are parallel to those found only in Indian fable (Fablesof Kybises); and six others can be paralleled in Greek, but have not hitherto been traced to India. <b>Where similar fables exist in Greece, India, and in the Talmud, the Talmudic form approaches more nearly the Indian, whenever this differs from the Greek.</b> Thus, the well-known fable of "The Wolf and the Crane" is told in India of a lion and a crane. When Joshua ben Hananiah told that fable to the Jews, to prevent their rebelling against Rome and once more putting their heads into the lion's jaws (Gen. R. lxiv.), he spoke of the lion and not of the wolf, showing that he was familiar with some form derived from India. The Talmudic fables are, therefore, of crucial importance in distinguishing between the later Ãsop's Fablesâderived directly from Indiaâand the earlier ones, in which a direct Indian source is difficult to prove.
It is absolutely impossible for these fables to have been invented by the Talmudic sages, inasmuch as they were extant in Greece and India in their time; nevertheless there is, in the Bible, evidence of fable literature among the early Hebrews (see Fable).<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->