What comes to mind when you hear the name Cinderella?
Whether you've read, watched, or listened to a variation of the fairy tale,
the classic Cinderella story has become a part of our collective consciousness.
But how has this folktale evolved over the centuries?
Let’s take a look at the earliest recorded versions of the Cinderella story.
As with most folktales that are expanded by storytellers over time,
each retelling of Cinderella reflects universal values and themes.
While folktales are known for changing
as they are passed down from one generation to the next,
several elements remain relatively constant.
First, you have the goodhearted, oftentimes orphaned, heroine who is unjustly oppressed,
the helpful character or being that gives a makeover,
a royal personage who falls in love with the Cinderella character,
and lastly, an identifying element that serves to reunite them.
The first known story featuring a Cinderella-like figure is thought to be the tale of "Rhodopis".
Strabo, a historian and geographer in the first century,
briefly mentions hearing the story of a Greek courtesan living in Egypt who becomes the king's wife.
The account was perhaps loosely based on a real person as mentioned by other historians,
but Strabo is the first to mention her footwear,
namely that her sandal was snatched by an eagle,
carried to Memphis, and flung into the king’s lap.
As the story goes, the king, struck by
“the beautiful shape of the sandal and by the strangeness of the occurrence,
sent men in all directions into the country in quest of the woman who wore the sandal.”
After Rhodopis was found, she was brought to Memphis and becomes wife to the king.
Centuries later, other writers re-imagined Strabo's account,
adding a backstory in which the main character is a virtuous slave girl
who is mistreated by fellow slaves but befriended by animals.
The tale of Rhodopis and Her Little Gilded Sandals
has since become known as the ancient Egyptian Cinderella.
The first complete Cinderella story that we have in writing is from eighth century China.
Duàn Chéngshì, a Tang Dynasty poet,
tells of a young girl named Yè Xiàn, the daughter of a village chieftain.
Beautiful, clever, and kind, she is beloved by her father but despised by her stepmother.
After her father dies, her stepmother and stepsister treat her as a servant.
Her only friend is a magical fish who lives in a nearby lake.
When her stepmother finds out, she captures the fish, kills it, and serves it for dinner.
Ye Xian is devastated but then, a heavenly fairy creature appears
and tells her that the buried fish bones can grant her wishes.
When the New Year Festival arrives, Ye Xian is forced to stay behind.
After making a wish to the fish bones, she finds herself clothed in a magnificent gown
with golden slippers and makes her way to the festival on foot.
However, when her sister starts to recognize her,
she runs home and loses a slipper in the process.
The slipper makes its way to the king of a powerful kingdom
who is fascinated by its beauty.
In his search for the slipper's owner, he finds Ye Xian and marries her,
while her wicked stepmother and stepsister are killed by a cave-in of stones.
The first European version appears in the 1600s
with an account written by Italian author Giambattista Basile.
This tale is about Zezolla, the daughter of a prince who remarries after her mother dies.
Her stepmother is a cruel woman, so the governess is able to convince Zezolla
to murder her stepmother and have her father marry the governess instead.
All goes according to plan and Zezolla is treated well at first.
That is, until her new stepmother's six daughters take up all of their father’s attention.
In time, he completely forgets about his own daughter.
Zezolla is banished to the kitchen and renamed Cenerentola.
One day, when the prince has to go away, he asks his daughters
what presents they would like upon his return.
While her stepsisters demand expensive gifts,
Zezolla merely asks for him to commend her to the Dove of the Fairies.
When he does so, the fairies give him a date tree that Zezolla waters and cares for.
As the tree grows, a fairy appears to grant her wishes.
Fast-forward to Zezolla attending the ball, where the king tries to find out who she is.
After she loses one of her slippers,
the king holds a banquet for all of the women in the country to try it on.
When Zezolla is finally brought forward, the slipper flies to her foot like a magnet,
after which she is immediately made queen.
In 1697, Charles Perrault published his collection of fairy tales
with the version of the Cinderella story that has influenced most subsequent accounts.
Perrault is the one to introduce the fairy godmother with the midnight curfew,
the pumpkin carriage, and of course, the iconic glass slippers.
Most famously adapted by Disney,
the 1950 animated film and the corresponding live-action film from 2015
are largely true to Perrault's version.
His fairy tale concludes with a two part moral,
namely that graciousness is of more importance than beauty,
and also that talents do not always guarantee success,
at least without some help from a godparent.
In 1812, the Brothers Grimm present a darker and gruesome version of Cinderella
in their collection of folk tales.
In this version, when her father asks what she would like as a gift,
Cinderella asks for the first tree branch that brushes against his hat on his way home.
She then plants the branch on her mother's grave.
As it is watered by her tears, it grows into a large tree on which a bird lands
and begins to grant her wishes.
The king holds a three-day festival for his son
and invites all of the maidens in the land to attend.
Upon seeing Cinderella, the prince falls in love but each day,
she decides to leave at sunset.
On the third day, the prince has the entire stairway smeared with pitch
to prevent her from running away.
She leaves behind a golden slipper, which her stepsisters take drastic measures to fit into.
At the end of the story, the birds punish the stepmother and stepsisters
for their wickedness.
With an estimated 1,500 variations around the world,
the Cinderella story's enduring appeal is shown by its influence
on a variety of artistic mediums as well as popular culture.
Not just for children, fairy tales like Cinderella help us to understand culture, history and society.
After all, Cinderella is a story of overcoming oppression and rising above one's social station.
It also highlights how dependent women were on men to determine their place in the world,
that a woman could make a better life for herself only through marriage.
It is often stated that the prince, or the king,
falls in love with Cinderella upon seeing her beauty, or her footwear,
but there's no mention of whether Cinderella feels the same way.
Although it seems obvious that marriage is the ultimate objective of attending the ball or festival,
Cinderella doesn't seem to have any intention to ensnare the prince.
Rather, she tries to prevent the prince from discovering her true identity,
which makes him more determined to find her and eventually marry her despite her class status.
So why is it that we love hearing the Cinderella story
retold again and again, in different ways?
Is it due to its tale of comeuppance,
the theme of rags-to-riches, or even the idea of love at first sight?
Or maybe because, at its core,
the fairy tale illustrates how one can overcome tragedy and mistreatment
with kindness, courage, and the help of friends in unexpected places.