THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE illustration from the first edition of the fables of Jean de La Fontaine (1621 - 1695); inspired by those moral tales written by Aesop in the sixth century BC; also Zeno of Elea (489 BC - 431 BC); a philosopher and mathematician greek of the Eleatic school; was inspired by this Aesop's fable to illustrate one of his paradoxes on the relative velocity: that of Achilles and the tortoise. Colored version from the first collection; France; 1668.