[3] Some of these fables had, no doubt, in the first instance, a
primary and private interpretation. On the first occasion of
their being composed they were intended to refer to some passing
event, or to some individual acts of wrong-doing. Thus, the
fables of the "Eagle and the Fox" and of the "Fox and Monkey' are
supposed to have been written by Archilochus, to avenge the
injuries done him by Lycambes. So also the fables of the
"Swollen Fox" and of the "Frogs asking a King" were spoken by
Aesop for the immediate purpose of reconciling the inhabitants of
Samos and Athens to their respective rulers, Periander and
Pisistratus; while the fable of the "Horse and Stag" was composed
to caution the inhabitants of Himera against granting a bodyguard
to Phalaris. In a similar manner, the fable from Phaedrus, the
"Marriage of the Sun," is supposed to have reference to the
contemplated union of Livia, the daughter of Drusus, with Sejanus
the favourite, and minister of Trajan. These fables, however,
though thus originating in special events, and designed at first
to meet special circumstances, are so admirably constructed as to
be fraught with lessons of general utility, and of universal
application.

[4] Hesiod. Opera et Dies, verse 202.

[5] Aeschylus. Fragment of the Myrmidons. Aeschylus speaks of
this fable as existing before his day. See Scholiast on the Aves
of Aristophanes, line 808.

[6] Fragment. 38, ed. Gaisford. See also Mueller's History of
the Literature of Ancient Greece, vol. i. pp. 190-193.