Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson, which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying.
Anthropomorphic cat guarding geese, Egypt, c. 1120 BCE
Printed image of the fable of the blacksmith and the dog from the sixteenth century
Aesop, by Velázquez
Valmiki
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions, and natural forces, such as seasons and weather. Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters. People have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioral traits to wild as well as domesticated animals.
In this illustration by Milo Winter of Aesop's fable, "The North Wind and the Sun", a personified North Wind tries to strip the cloak off a traveler.
Personification of Music by Antonio Franchi, c. 1650
The 35,000 to 40,000 year-old Löwenmensch figurine
Anthropomorphic "pebble" figures from the 7th millennium BC
