Ursula Gärtner

• ‘Tradition’ and ‘example’ are key concepts of the ancient fable. The fable has not only developed a literary tradition of its own, but from the beginning, it was also used as a rhetorical device, the exemplum. A diachronic overview of the genre and especially the use of the fable as exemplum reveals that Phaedrus adapts these terms in a new and ingenious way. In a case study of fable 3.9 this paper demonstrates how the fable finds its place in the literary tradition of the motif, how Socrates is presented as a model for the poet’s persona and how an intricate network of inter- and intratextual references is established between Socrates, Aesop, Phaedrus, and his potential successors. The subtle irony of the poet is particularly evident in the gradual development of the poet’s persona into a caricature, but the message of the fable itself remains unaffected: the value of true friendship.