Possible Clues:

• Greek fabulist (Tortoise and the Hare)
• See 103-Across
• Writer of comic operas? Not right
• The work of Russell was fabulous (5)
• Great Greek teller of animal fables
• A bluff retiring moralist
• Suggest a rise for the storyteller
• The work of Russell was simply fabulous
• Tale teller
• 'No, no, go not to --, neither twist / Wolf's-bane ...' (Keats)