# Loeb/Perseus Herodotus 2.134 names Aesop as a slave storyteller of Samos

Date: 1920

## The fact

Modern Loeb and Perseus editions of [Herodotus](/people/herodotus) 2.134 print the sentence that [Aesop](/people/aesop) was a slave of Iadmon on Samos and a fable-teller. The dated public English instrument is the printed/digital edition, not a Samian registry.

## Context

Herodotus is near-contemporary relative to a sixth-century setting and still a later prose source. The passage is identity plus a slavery frame. It does not prove any given fable’s authorship.

Aesop is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

An official or archival page and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: Herodotus 2.134 — Perseus (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt..134; Perseus Digital Library / Tufts).

## Significance

A named fable-teller is a knowledge-identity gain. The slave status is stored, not laundered into a free civic biography.

A named fable-teller is a knowledge-identity gain. The slave status is stored, not laundered into a free civic biography.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Aesop: https://factrail.ai/people/aesop

## Drivers

- Digital Learning Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access

## Sources

- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aesop
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+2.134

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/ae-herodotus-names-aesop