1. A short story with an objective of pointing out good behavior; especially, one in which the characters are animals: "Usually a fable was told to teach a moral lesson for people to achieve."

"The teacher told her students the fable about the fox and the grapes."

2. A story about supernatural, mythological, or legendary characters and events: "Aesop's fables have given us such useful expressions and sayings as sour grapes, and one good turn deserves another good turn.
3. A false or improbable account of something: "Ervin's story about his pirate ancestor is probably another one of his fables."
4. Myths and legends (fables) collectively.
5. Etymology: from Old French fable, from Latin fabula, "story, play, fable"; literally, "that which is told", from fari, "to speak, to tell"; related to Latin fama, "talk, rumor, report, reputation."

Greek phama, "fame", and phanai, "to speak", are also related to Latin fari.

Fables, a collection of stories attributed to Greek writer Aesop (c. 6th century B.C.). Many of the tales feature animals as characters and each one illustrates a specific moral. It is traditionally said to be the origin of the literary fable (although earlier examples have been found), they were used by the ancient Greeks for both educational and rhetorical purposes.

We should distinguish between the fable and the myth. A fable is a story, like “The Fox and the Grapes”, in which characters and plot, neither pretending to be real nor demanding believability, are fabricated as the vehicle of moral or didactic instruction.

Myths, on the other hand, are stories of anonymous origin, prevalent among primitive peoples and by them accepted as true, concerning supernatural beings and events, or natural beings and events influenced by supernatural agencies.

Fables are made by individuals; they may be told in any stage of a nation’s history. They are vessels made to order into which a lesson may be poured. Myths are born, not made. They are born in the infancy of a people and their culture.