Reading the Chunksters discussion
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The Brothers Karamazov
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Brothers Karamazov (A) 03: Book III - Chapters 2-9
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Loretta
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Jun 10, 2012 03:24PM
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Is AEsop Fyodor? It seems like they continue to refer to him as AEsop, but why?
Yes, they are calling him Aesop, as in "Aesop's Fables."I don't think the P/V translation has a footnote about this, but my older copy does. Here is what it says:
Aesopus, Phrygian mythologist and philosopher who, originally a slave, procured his liberty by the sallies of his genius. He is best known for his fables. His acerbic wit proved to be his undoing. While consulting the oracle at Delphi, he had made some disparaging remarks about the Delphians, who were so incensed by his witticisms that they cast him from a rock to his death in 561 BC. His biographer, Maximus Planudes, represents him as a clownish figure, short of stature and deformed.
So, I guess in both his physical and mental characteristics he resembles the historic figure...short, clownish, and too clever for his own good. I understand why Dmitri uses the name originally, but it is a little odd that Ivan does it as well in the same chapter.
Thanks Adam, mine does not have the footnote. I gathered it had something to do with the tales he told, but Aesop always struck me as telling moralistic tales, where Fyodor seems to like to tell tales that embarass people. But your footnote makes it more understandable.
Yeah, I didn't understand it either before reading the footnote. I had a book of Aesop's fables as a child and I had always been under the impression that Aesop must have been a great, wise man. Apparently he was just an annoying buffoon who liked to make up stories. :)
I wish I had a copy with footnotes!
Write things down as you read and ask all your questions here, we could use more discussion. :)
Adam wrote: "Write things down as you read and ask all your questions here, we could use more discussion. :)"Okay. I remember reading something in the next section and wondering whether or not you had footnotes on it. I don't know if I'll find what it was, but I'll start keeping track now.
Adam wrote: "Yeah, I didn't understand it either before reading the footnote. I had a book of Aesop's fables as a child and I had always been under the impression that Aesop must have been a great, wise man. ..."He still could have been a wise man. After all, the athenians thought socrates was "just an annoying buffoon"! (And they put him to death, same as Aesop.)
