These words all denote a story told about fictional persons and events to teach or illustrate a moral principle. In an allegory or parable the moral is not stated, but is left to the hearer to discover. An allegory is usually long and elaborate, with many characters and incidents; a parable is brief, and typically shows the application of a moral precept to a familiar situation. A fable usually states the moral at the end, and is told in terms of animals that speak and reflect the nature of human beings.

• Dante’s Divine Comedy is an allegory based on the struggle between the city-states of what is now Italy; The fable of the tortoise and the hare drives home the moral that steady, persistent application is more rewarding in the end than arrogant, unstable brilliance; The parables of the New Testament make abstract moral principles concrete and vivid.