ABSTRACT
It should be clear from the foregoing chapters that a substantial number of the folk-and fairytales that have been recognised since the Renaissance as the basis of the modern repertoire were long in evidence in antiquity. About such favourites as Cupid and Psyche, Alcestis, the Cyclops story or the slipper-test in Cinderella there has never been any doubt; and wherever there are traces of medieval examples, there is the reasonable presumption that the history of the tale is one of normal transmission and diffusion, and not a matter of polygenesis from a series of entirely separate ‘reinventions’. To such a core of ancient popular tales, however, we should now seriously consider adding an ancient (and in some ways disturbing) tradition of Snow White, an Innocent Slandered Maid, and even the makings of a Red Riding Hood.
