Educational Video Series
The Languages of Life
"Twas a race of just humans who lived first on the earth, the race that people call Golden. After them there came, they say, a different generation, the one of the Silver; and we are third in the descent among these, and ours is the generation of Iron. Now in the Golden age not only people but all the other living creatures had the power of “words” and were familiar with such “words” as we ourselves now use in speaking to each other. Gatherings were held by these creatures in the midst of the forests. Even the pine tree talked, and the leaves of the laurel. The fish swimming about in the sea chatted with the friendly sailor, and quite intelligibly, too, the sparrows conversed with the farmer. Everything grew from the earth, which made no demands on men, and good fellowship prevailed between gods and mortals. That this was so, you may learn from wise old Aesop, who has told us fables in the free manner of prose." (Babrius' introduction to his collection of Aesop's Fables, 1st Century CE)
