Αἴσωπος εὗρε τοῖς μύθοις πρᾶξιν βίου: The Paraphrasis Bodleiana of Babrius as a Moralistic Collection?

The paper deals with the Paraphrasis Bodleiana of Babrius and its peculiarities as a moralistic collection in the Medieval transmission of Aesopic materials. The Paraphrasis Bodleiana gives major attention to the epimythia or promythia, the moral of the fable, as a particular interest of the collector of this corpus. For example, in one manuscript of the Paraphrasis Bodleiana (Vat. Pal. Gr. 367), a monk-copyist added two other epimythia for two fables with a specific moralistic purpose. The paraphrases of Babrius’ fables in the Bodleiana, as well as Aesopic fables tout court, therefore illustrate a process of moralization that fables underwent in the course of their transmission over the centuries.