Aesop

According to Greek legend, Aesop was a Phrygian slave on the island of Samos in the 500s B.C.E. He was said to have earned his freedom through his cleverness and lived afterward at the court of King Croesus of Sardis. On a visit to the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, Aesop openly criticized the priests there, who murdered him in their anger.

David Sacks, Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World, rev. ed., rev. Lisa R. Brody (New York: Facts On File, 2005), 11.