Works
The fourth book is dedicated to Particulo, who seems to have dabbled in literature. The dates of their publication are unknown, but Seneca, writing between AD 41 and 43, knows nothing of Phaedrus, and it is probable that he had not yet published anything.
His writing introduces a mannerist style, rendered in iambic trimeters, to the fables attributed to "Aesop", popular with his contemporaries. The verses are interspersed with anecdotes drawn from daily life, history and mythology.
His use of Latin is typified by a particular use of abstract concepts that belies an awareness of the literary canon, especially Augustan works. Phaedrus draws comparisons with Babrius, and directly inspired a modern imitator, La Fontaine. He is mentioned by Martial, who imitated some of his verses, and by Avianus; Prudentius must have read him, for he imitates one of his lines (Prud. Cath. VII 115; ci. Phaedrus, IV 6, 10).
Read more about this topic: Phaedrus (fabulist)
Famous quotes containing the word works:
“The appetite of workers works for them; their hunger urges them on.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Proverbs 16:26.
“Most young black females learn to be suspicious and critical of feminist thinking long before they have any clear understanding of its theory and politics.... Without rigorously engaging feminist thought, they insist that racial separatism works best. This attitude is dangerous. It not only erases the reality of common female experience as a basis for academic study; it also constructs a framework in which differences cannot be examined comparatively.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)
“We all agree now—by “we” I mean intelligent people under sixty—that a work of art is like a rose. A rose is not beautiful because it is like something else. Neither is a work of art. Roses and works of art are beautiful in themselves. Unluckily, the matter does not end there: a rose is the visible result of an infinitude of complicated goings on in the bosom of the earth and in the air above, and similarly a work of art is the product of strange activities in the human mind.”
—Clive Bell (1881–1962)