apologue

Etymology

Borrowed from French apologue, from Latin apologus from Ancient Greek ἀπόλογος (apólogos, “story, tale, fable”) from ἀπό- (apó-, “off, away from”) + λόγος (lógos, “speech”).

noun

1. A short story with a moral, often involving talking animals or objects; a fable.
   […] but though the mythic hero may thus be made to figure in a moral apologue, an imagination so little in keeping with his unethic nature jars upon the reader's mind. 1891, Edward Burnett Tylor, Primitive Culture, page 409
2. (rhetoric) The use of fable to persuade the audience.