Adagia 1901–2000

[greek] He baked the sponge cake I had already kneaded. Said of those who claim for themselves the credit of work done by someone else, and 'by cunning words unto themselves convey / The fruit of others' toil,' as Gnatho says in Terence. This sponge cake is a type of food made of milk and flour and somewhat like bread. The proverb is also recorded in the form [greek], Filching the sponge cake I had already kneaded, used when a man gets the benefit of someone else's labours. This is taken from the Knights of Aristophanes, from a passage that runs as follows:
Last year I kneaded a Laconian sponge
In Pylos, when this knave comes running up,
Seizes my sponge, the sponge of my own kneading,
And drives me off.
Demosthenes, the Athenian commander in the Peloponnesian War, with Nicias his colleague reduced the town of Pylos to desperate straits by a prolonged siege. His place was taken by Cleon, a tanner turned general, who usurped the credit earned by other men's labours, taking Pylos within a few days. So Nicias and Demosthenes in the play are complaining that Cleon has stolen the glory that was rightly theirs. Aristophanes' story is told not only in different ways but at some length, so that I do not choose to repeat it; I have indicated where it can be found.

[greek], Nauson to Naucrates. When two people exchange very similar forms of address, for example if one man is greeted as Master, and uses the same greeting in reply, or when addressed as You Rascal retorts with the same word. For Nauson and Naucrates both get their name from the word for a ship, so it is like saying Sailor to Sailor. Hesychius points out that the name Nauson is made up by Cratinus from keeping ships safe, and Naucrates from naus, a ship and kratein, to govern. The shape of the phrase is taken, as Suidas points out, from the heading used in letters, as one might say 'Pompeius to Pompilius greeting,' or 'I appeal to you as one young man to another.' A similar formation is seen in Agathon agathides, quantities of good things, and Leukônos leukoteros, Whiter than white. Something of the same sort, if I am not mistaken, is alluded to by Aristophanes in the Knights: 'Nor of Nauphanta, Nauson's child,' assuming that 'shall he be master' is supplied. But I think that in our proverb Nauson is the name not of a man but of a city, just as Naucratis too is a city in Egypt.

[greek], A dung-cake, quick quick for the dung-beetle. The first line of the Peace of Aristophanes, which scholars quote as a proverb. It may be used whenever filthy food is set before an unclean guest. Some people give their servants bread made with bran, bran being the rejected portion of the wheat. Hence by 'a sponge-cake made with bran' [Suidas] suggests food that has been rejected by the stomach; for that is both the place of origin and the food of cantharus, the dung-beetle, which in Latin is called scarabaeus. He makes this clear when he adds 'Another dung-cake, made from donkey-turds.' This cake or sponge, maza, is made of milk and flour and resembles bread. This is very much like another adage which I have put in another place, 'Luncheon for a Cyprus ox.'

[greek], Away with it! This is none of my business. When we wish to deny that we have any concern for something which does not belong to us. It is recorded by Diogenianus. Not unlike another: The good or ill that's wrought in our own halls. Or that phrase found in the Knights of Aristophanes: Reaping another's harvest. Some people adapt that to the same sense as our adage, though the writer of the play thinks of enjoying the fruit of other men's labours. Somewhere near here belongs the sentiment expressed by Pindar in the first hymn of the Nemeans: 'Because his own sorrow presses alike on every man; for other men's grief the heart is soon consoled.'

[greek], An abominable beetle, was used of the most contemptible and vile of worthless men. This word cantharis denotes a small worm equipped with deadly poison. Though in this passage it suits better to take it as a diminutive of cantharus, the dung-beetle or scarab, as one might say scarabaeolus. In Scripture too the word 'worm' has passed into a proverbial expression for contempt, as for instance in the mystical Psalms 'I am a worm and no man,' where some render the word by 'scarab.' Also those words in Isaiah 'Fear not, thou worm Jacob,' as Jerome renders it. In Suidas we [greek], A beetle for the mice, the sense of which escapes me, and I suppose there to be a fault in the text. If we were to read muse, the meaning is 'abominable'; if Muse, we get 'A Mysian beetle,' and that the Mysians in old days were objects of contempt, I have shown elsewhere. This is the suggestion I most favour.

'[greek], 'Tis hard for the wise to say much in front of fools. Nothing is harder to manage than a fool, who seizes upon anything well said and makes it mean the opposite; so that when confronted by such a person, the wise man must either keep silent or adapt his words to their understanding. Listed by Diogenianus; but the identical words are found among the moral maxims of Theognis.

[greek], May I measure by the peck. A proverbial exaggeration, for a man who hopes for some immense and massive increase in wealth; for when something is very plentiful, we measure it not by pints or quarts but by the peck. The complete phrase is thus given by Suidas: 'May I measure by the peck the silver coin I get from my father.' Although there are those who deny that the Latin modius is the same as the Greek medimnos.

[greek], Centaurs have no brains, was used of crazy foolish people, and those who attempted the impossible. The story of the Centaurs is familiar. The adage is recorded by Diogenianus, who thinks it appropriate to the quarrelsome and those who covet other men's property; because the Centaurs' undoing was their appetite for what belonged to others. I suppose this was in the mind of the poet Plato, cited in the tenth book of Athenaeus: 'Just as the proverb says, you have no mind / In the bottle-shop - or so it seems to me.' He speaks of women who drink too much wine. Aristophanes in the Knights: 'No mind under that mane' uses 'mane' to indicate the Centaurs, with a side-glance at the mania for breeding horses, which have manes.

Εν μέλιτι σαυτὸν καταπάττεις, You roll in honey and smear yourself with honey, means that you live a sweetly comfortable life, as though it did not suffice to batten on honey without being honey all over. Found in Diogenianus.

Ἑρμῆς ἀμύθητος, that is, Mercury tongue-tied, voiceless or illiterate. An ironical proverb, used of those who pretend to know nothing of an art in which they are experts, for Mercury is the parent of eloquence and the liberal arts. I should not, I think, conceal the fact, that the current texts read Ἑρμῆς ἀμύητος, that is, Mercury the outsider, the uninitiate; and if anyone prefers this, I do not dislike it either. For who in fact is more expert in the Mysteries than Mercury, the interpreter of the gods, who belongs equally to the upper and the nether worlds, and is himself chief mystagogue or leader of the Mysteries? It corresponds to the phrase used by Aristides in his Pericles: The Cretan and the sea.'

[greek], Beggars' wallets are always empty. Used of people who are always begging and are insatiable; related to one I have recorded elsewhere, The beggar's wallet is never filled. Both are in Suidas, though I do not find oulai in the sense of 'wallets'; I do find oulades for 'flour-jars,' though the word is sometimes used to mean 'stomachs' on account of their softness.

[greek], A Melian vessel, seems to have been used of one that was worthless and, in Terence's phrase, 'full of chinks and leaking all over the place.' They trace the proverb back to an incident which ran as follows. A man called Aristotle of Melia was appointed head of an expedition to found a new colony. Many who wished to escape the long voyage produced a variety of excuses, some saying their wives were sick and others that their ships were leaky, and using these as pretexts to remain at home. Aristotle lost patience, and pronounced a curse on them: that they should never have sound ships, and always do as their wives told them. So this would clearly be suitable when anyone invents reasons to avoid doing his duty. Melia, according to Stephanus, is a city in Caria. Suidas tells us that melia is also a kind of tree, producing an example from the Birds of Aristophanes: 'In leafy melia perching.' It may be that the wood of this tree is useless for shipbuilding; in any case, though the story about the people of Melia may be true, there is certainly an allusion to the tree.

[greek], As chaste as Melanion, was applied to a man who showed the greatest abhorrence of female society. It is said that a certain Melanion from hatred of women departed for the wilderness, and there with the dog which was his only companion hunted wild beasts through pathless mountains and forests, and could never be persuaded to return home. The adage is mentioned by Aristophanes in the Lysistrata. This is not to be found among the published plays, but I have read it in manuscript. The same image will be used in As chaste as Hippolytus, for he had the same passion for hunting and the same hatred of women.

[greek], that is, He's called after his mother like a she-goat, was apparently used of bastards, whose paternity is uncertain, so that they get their names from their mothers. Taken from kids in the goat-pen, which are known from the mother, since it is quite impossible to tell from the father. One can also make a joke of the proverb: for instance, if a man were to say humorously that he does not recognize his father but knows who his mother is - 'I take my name from my mother, like a she-goat.' Even in our own day a humorous saying is current, that 'It's a wise child that knows its own father.' Clearly this comes from Homer, for in the first book of the Odyssey, when Telemachus is asked whether he is Ulysses' son, he replies as follows: 'My mother says I am his, but I myself know not; for no man, I take it, has ever known his own parentage.'

There is a phrase which looks like a proverb in Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem, book 3: 'But because he came before them and made manifest the evidence of miracles before they did, that was why he secured men's convictions, like a place in the baths, and forestalled any successors.' This will be suitable for use when a place is allotted not on merit but by seniority, a principle preserved to this day among monks and canons, and theologians too, presumably to avoid disputes about precedence. In ancient times each man's value was assessed by the years of his age; so Juvenal has 'And yields to Homer only, who's a thousand years ahead.' Horace too is indignant with those who go back to the chronicles, and reckon merit in terms of years. Not far different from a saying still in common currency among my own people, and taken from the code of millers: 'He that comes first to the mill grinds first.'

[greek], To turn millet grains on a lathe, was applied to those who attempt some absurd task; for millet grains are too small for it to be possible to carve anything from them. Suidas gives the proverb in the form 'You do something more ridiculous than those who try to turn millet grains on a lathe.'

[greek], The misfortunes of the Magnesians, seems to have been used either of very great misfortunes or of those which recoil on the heads of the men responsible for them. For the misfortunes of the Magnesians are joined with those of the Termerians in these words, which are quoted with no author's name by Suidas: 'Not if I were to tell of the misfortunes of the Magnesians and the Termerians and in brief the whole sad story.' Though I think that in the Suidas we should change two letters and make it 'and those of the Termerians,' that is, The misfortunes of the Termerians, of which I have spoken elsewhere. Taken evidently from a story which told of the troubles into which the Magnesians are said to have fallen as a result of offending some deity or other. Strabo in book 14 of his Geography records that the Magnesians, who were at one time highly prosperous, were utterly destroyed by a Cimmerian tribe called the Trerians, and that then, in the following year, the site was seized by the Milesians; and he suggests that the proverb was taken from Archilochus, who is said to have spoken of the misfortunes of the Magnesians.

[greek], Countless are the male dog's bedfellows. Half of a heroic hexameter used as a proverb. It will be rightly applied to a man grossly addicted to the other sex, especially the sort that is not content with one definite union but indulges his casual fancy by wallowing in bed with other men's wives; for such is the behaviour which married men nowadays allow themselves. And then, if their own wives suffer at all from the weakness of the flesh, they confound sea and sky, their injustice and severity towards them matching their disgraceful leniency towards themselves.

Πολλὰ κενὰ τοῦ πολέμου, Many are the illusions of war. Said of the baseless rumours, or the fear that arises without reason which is called panikon in Greek. They think this proverb arose from the fact that such panic terrors usually arise in wartime, or because it was a Spartan practice to use a kind of sling or bowstrings which made a noise, in order to strike terror into the enemy. Polybius, quoted by Suidas: 'After an eclipse of the moon in the time of Perseus king of Macedon, a rumour went the rounds that this portended the king's death. This both encouraged the Romans and equally depressed the Macedonians.' And then he adds the proverb, in these words: 'So true is the common saying, Many are the illusions of war.' Cicero in book 5 of his Letters to Atticus: Meanwhile (you know there are such things as panics, and that there is a saying about the illusions of war) on the rumour of my approach' etc. Plutarch in his essay 'On listening' says 'For there are as many illusions in listening as there are in war.' Quintus Curtius refers to this in book 3: 'Wars live on rumour, and he who retires is thought to be running away.' Again in book 5: 'And in any case rumour has more influence than anything in war.' In book 8 as well: 'For rumour is the making of war, and often what is falsely believed to be true has the force of truth,' but more explicitly in book 7: This, as so often happens with the empty illusions of war, persuaded the barbarians to surrender.'

'[greek], He fought under Erasinades, was in common use as a humorous expression for those for whom things went badly at every point. Erasinades was a general who had laid siege to Arginusa. The campaign was, however, unsuccessful, for all those who held out (Thrasyllus and Pericles among them) were annihilated, including the commander himself. Another of the bad things about this Erasinades was his alleged embezzlement of funds from the Hellespont. Such, more or less, is the account in Suidas.

[greek], No female should be trusted, even dying. A proverbial exaggeration. So essential is it to put no trust in a woman that, even if you were to see her on her deathbed, you should assume she's shamming. I have mentioned elsewhere the story of the stepmother who killed her stepson even when she was dead; the pyramid that marked her grave fell on him. Recorded by Diogenianus.

[greek], Women's woes. Of those who meet an utter and pitiful end; for women are said to be the cause of almost all the calamities that befall men. Look at Pandora in Hesiod, look at the Trojan war, look at Hercules done to death by Deianira, look at the myth of the Danaids, look at the story of the women of Lemnos, look at Cleopatra, look at Eve who has such a bad name among all who are Christians. Yet it might be more sensible to ascribe all this to the folly of men, who give foolish women so much indulgence that, as though love had driven them mad, they follow them into every form of evil; though it would have been reasonable if, under man's guidance, woman, who is both more foolish and more weak-willed, were to lose some of her folly. For what the mind is to the body, man ought to be to woman. But just as uneducated people ascribe their faults to the body, though they stem from the mind, and as foolish princes make their subjects responsible for the crazy upheavals of war, of which they are themselves the cause, so do men blame women for their own mad actions.

[greek], You need great knowledge, if you would use it to impose on God himself. When someone tries to throw dust in the eyes of a man whom it is hard to deceive because he is so sharp-witted. The adage took its rise from an oracle. The maxim is differently expressed by Pindar in the third hymn of his Pythians, where he says of Apollo that 'he has no use for lies, nor does anyone deceive him, neither god nor man, neither in deed nor word.'

Mannius is said by Festus Pompeius to have consecrated a grove in honour of Diana of Aricia, which itself takes its name from the town. This Mannius of Aricia, a man of high reputation, was the ancestor of a number of distinguished men who bore the same name, so that this gave rise to the proverb Many men called Mannius at Aricia. Asinius Capito, however, strongly disagrees, thinking the proverb appropriate for those who are deformed. In any case this passage in Festus is so corrupt that nothing certain can be got out of it except what I have recorded here.

The phrase A wall of bronze is used by Horace in the Epistles to mean a precise and immutable resolution, and the formula is of course proverbial: 'Be this your wall of bronze, / A conscience clear, no guilt at which to blench.' Vegetius calls heavy armour the 'iron wall' of an army, as though it were a strong fortification that could not be taken by storm. A similar image is used by Pindar in his second Olympian, where he calls Hector 'an invincible pillar that cannot be removed.'

[greek], Many will hate you if you love yourself, is a proverb that warns us against conceit and self-love, for many people are sure to have a low opinion of one who rates himself too highly, while modesty on the other hand is a sovereign way to win popularity and support. Suidas says that the nymphs used the words I have just quoted, when they were rejected by Narcissus. There is another iambic line to the same effect: 'No friend you'll have, if you're your own best friend.' None are less adapted for mutual affection and goodwill than those who suffer severely from love of self.

[greek], A throng of misfortunes, of evils that come crowding in a stream and follow closely in their turn on one another. The word used, panegyris, was the Greek name for regular gatherings of the population to celebrate festival games, being a compound word derived from the gathering together of all the people. Pisidas, cited by Suidas: 'And all, as happens when misfortunes throng, / Suffered mishap, and each in his own way.' Homer in Iliad 19: 'How does one ill tread on another's heels!' Hipponax in Athenaeus, book 15: 'Of men there who even now make an epic of the evils of evils.' The line now limps, but it will run correctly if you delete either 'even' or 'now,' and read keithi, there, for kithi. Ausonius in one of his poems has the rather stylish expression 'links in a chain of toils,' for the way in which one trouble in the life of mortals succeeds another.

'[greek], As wicked as Hippomenes. He was a leading figure in Athens, and when his daughter was corrupted by one of the citizens, he shut her up in a dwelling-house in company with a ferocious stallion, giving neither the girl nor the horse anything to eat. The stallion, driven to frenzy by lack of food, attacked and devoured the girl, and then itself also died, presumably of starvation. After this the father pulled the house down, but the place was called The Horse and the Maiden.' The adage is recorded by Diogenianus.

[greek], With fetters that gnaw the arm. The expression was used by someone to describe the sleeves of dresses worn in Pontus because they handicap and rub the hands. It is the same as the taunt thrown at the Trojans in Virgil: 'Their tunics have sleeves, their bonnets strings to tie.' Recorded by Zenodotus.

Μῆλον ἡρακλῆς, Hercules and the apple, may be used when someone accepts presents, however trifling, with a good grace. Apollodorus, cited by Zenodotus, told in his book On the Gods how it was the custom at Athens to sacrifice a special kind of victim to Hercules 'Alexicacus' (which means 'the averter of evil'). It happened on one occasion that the bull intended for sacrifice made its escape; so they snatched up an apple, and fitting it with four sticks by way of legs and two more for the horns produced a kind of toy bull. This absurd imitation they sacrificed to Hercules instead of the bull; and the thing gave rise to a current proverb. It is the same as Hercules eating apples, which I have already recorded, except that the change of one syllable has somewhat altered the application of the proverb; for we use that form ['eating apples'] when an offering is rejected, and this one ['and the apple'] when it is taken in good part.

To have one's hands in one's pockets [literally, 'under one's cloak'] is used of people who are lazy and spiritless. Quintilian in book 12 has a bad word for those who never work themselves up while making a speech and, as the saying goes, keep their hands in their pockets. 'And so' he says T think those people make a great mistake who suppose that no one has a good Attic style unless he not only is terse, clear, and expressive, but also is content to husband his eloquence and keep his hands permanently in his pockets.' So Quintilian; it is derived from the use of gesture in speaking. A spiritless speaker keeps his hands in his pockets, one who works himself up uses his hands, and matter which needed a little more emphasis was delivered with free gestures of hand and arm. Aeschines points towards the same thing in his attack on Timarchus, when he says, with reference to the sober style of orators in former times, 'So that to speak, as we all do now as a matter of course, with one's hands free was in those days thought to show undue confidence, and people were afraid to do it.' He adds that at Salamis there was a well-known statue of Solon with his hand under his cloak.

"They keep their hand in their bosom' says Theocritus of tight-fisted men who are slow to give anything away. As he puts it in his poem The Graces: Vanquished by greed, each keeps his hand shut tight Within his bosom, on one thing intent, What makes his money grow. At the same time, Scaevola's expression in book 22 of the Pandects, in the title De probationibus, 'I have kept it in my own bosom,' in the sense of 'I have kept it privately under my own control,' belongs more with the phrase I have discussed elsewhere, 'To rejoice in one's own bosom.' John Doe is made to say 'To Richard Roe I give and bequeath the hundred that he made over to me, for which I gave him no security with this in mind, that all and any the property and assets which he had inherited from his mother I have kept in my own bosom without giving any security.'

Cicero in book 2 of his De oratore uses 'spoonfeeding' as a proverbial expression for teaching a subject in excessive detail and one scrap at a time. This is a habit of some people who, as though they distrusted the intelligence of their listeners, leave nothing to chance, dwelling on the smallest and most trifling points. The image is derived from nursemaids who, before children have cut their teeth, will soften their food into pap and put it into their mouths. Cicero's words are: 'For my part, if it were a complete ignoramus whom I wished to be taught the art of speaking, I should prefer to hand him over to those industrious people who hammer incessantly night and day on the same anvil, who will cram only the smallest pieces into his infant mouth, nice spoonfuls of pap, as they say in the nursery.' Similarly Aulus Gellius in his Attic Nights, in book 4 chapter 1 (but the text is corrupt, for the current codices have Sed si item praemandare, [but if, furthermore, to recommend beforehand] and I think we ought to read Sed si idem me tibi praemandere [but if... to spoonfeed you on this]): 'For that every definition consists in genus and species, is common knowledge. But if you want me to spoonfeed you, as they say, on this, I will do that too to oblige you.' He uses 'to spoonfeed' for the crude explanation of something not in itself difficult except for a mere child. This adage is still in daily use, when they say 'Isn't it enough to have given you your chance? Do you insist on being spoonfed as well?' There is a phrase not unlike this which Cicero also uses in a letter to Atticus: 'But enough of this, or you will think I am making a fuss over trifles, peri mikra; though I find these things far from trifles at the moment.' And mikrologein is used in Greek for anxiety over very small details.

[greek], Treason without reason. When a man does not get his agreed reward, because he has put forward some dishonourable stipulation. Derived from some historical event, but the commentators give no hint what it was. There is a well-known saying, 'I like the treason, but do not like the traitor.' Although therefore treachery in itself is something dishonourable, there are times none the less when it is profitable both to the man for whose benefit the deed is done and for the doer. When it fails, however, or when the traitor is cheated of his reward, it is called Treason without reason. Recorded by Diogenianus.

[greek], Bad is the worm, bad also is the grub. Used by custom of a double evil, where it makes little difference which one you have chosen. The thrips in Greek is a small worm which hatches out in wood and destroys timber; the ips is also destructive, to corn and to vines. This too is found in Diogenianus.

Κακοὶ πίνουσι πονηρίας τὴν ὀμίχλην Evil men drink the dregs of their wickedness. The Greek line is clearly corrupt because words have changed places, a thing I have not seldom observed elsewhere. It will scan in this fashion: Πίνουσ᾽ ὀμίχλην τῆς πονηρίας κακοὶ, sive οἱ κακοὶ πονηρίας. Used normally when wrongdoers had paid a penalty worthy of what they deserved. The image derives evidently from those who have drunk clear wine to the last drop and at length reach the dregs. So does the pain of punishment follow pleasure that results from crime.

[greek], In Lydian custom, or In the Lydian mode. Appropriate when a man turns soothsayer and becomes a slave of augury and divination; for the Lydians are said to have suffered from superstition of this kind. There is an allusion to the style of music called Lydian; for the litanies of magicians too are called enchantments and songs. Mentioned by Diogenianus (and also by Hesychius), who thinks that 'in the Lydian style' means the same as 'in the Mysian style,' because the Lydians are descended from the Mysians, who themselves were most devoted to various forms of divination. He adds another reason, that it is a Lydian custom for men to wrap their heads in veils as women do, which makes the phrase clearly suitable for effeminates. And yet, if I may be allowed a little divination on my own, The Lydians are said to have been very strong in chariots and cavalry, and so the 'Lydian style' in flute music will be the same as what Suidas calls the 'chariot-style' or 'chariot song,' so named because it was first invented to sing of Hector, who was dragged by a chariot in the story in Homer.

[greek], / [greek], Lydians are rascals, and Egyptians second; / Carians the wickedest of all are reckoned. We shall use this aptly if we ever have to compare one set of villains with another, and if, when compared with greater rascals, a man is not as bad as he is painted. Antiphanes, for example, in Athenaeus, after calling fish-mongers the most villainous of men, makes an exception of moneylenders, who are even greater criminals than they are. Diogenianus.

Theodorus of Gadara, tutor of the emperor Tiberius in the art of rhetoric, who perceived in his pupil while still a youth a strain of cruelty blended with stupidity by nature, used sometimes when rebuking him to call him 'Clay kneaded with blood,' the clay representing his slowness of wit and the blood his brutality. Our authority is Suetonius. This is not wholly unlike the taunt that some joker at Athens cast at Sulla: 'Sulla' he said 'is a mulberry sprinkled with meal.' (Plutarch uses sykaminon, which the translator renders by 'mulberry.') He was criticizing Sulla's appearance, whose face was pale for the most part, with an underlying flush which was not continuous but appeared in some sort of spots.

'[greek], She-goats are quit of the plough. The half of a hexameter line, used as a proverb in Antiquity by those who rejoiced to think that they were freed from some burden or interference. A parasite, for instance, might boast of his good fortune in not being summoned to hold any public office, since he was unsuited to perform any useful function. Zenodotus is the authority.

[greek],, But quarrel quarrel breeds. This is the half of a hexameter line. Wrongs done to us should be cut off at the root, not returned in kind; otherwise, what limit will there be to the exchange of evil-doing, if each offence is to be matched by another in return? The line survives among the maxims of Phocylides: 'Persuasion's good, but quarrel quarrel breeds.' Related to one I have recorded in another place: Quarrel will quarrel breed, and hurt breed hurt.

Ξύλον ἀγκύλον, οὐδέποτ᾽ ὀρθόν, A twisted branch, never straight. This too is half of a hexameter line. Twisted and distorted characters can hardly ever be brought to bear good fruit. When a man has once grown old in wrongdoing, it seldom happens that he returns to a right mind. Also expressed in the form [greek], that is, A crooked branch, never straight. Galen uses it in book 4 of his De differentiis pulsuum: 'Giving them no reply, but repeating to ourselves that saying in the comedy, that neither can the crooked branch be straightened nor will an old tree, if transplanted, send up new shoots.' (In this passage [greek] is printed for [greek] and [greek] for [greek]; this seemed worth a mention, to prevent any corruption of the reading given here.) This latter proverb I have treated of already. Horace makes clear the image from which it derives, when he writes "Though you cast out nature with a fork, it still returns,' for he shows that it comes from those who try to correct the defect of a twisted tree by supplying it with a prop. This is further confirmed by the proverbial maxim 'To change a twisted nature is not easy.'

[greek], Fit for Lesbians, was applied to things vain and foolish, the reason being, I take it, that the people of Lesbos were commonly reputed very silly. Perhaps too it may not be unsuitable for sordid and indecent characters, for this is another stigma that in old days was inflicted on them, whence comes the word lesbiein for to corrupt and defile. Aristophanes: "They're ready now to play a Lesbian trick on their fellow-drinkers.'

[greek], With Lemnian hand, was used to convey the sense of wicked, impious, and cruel. The proverb arose from the story which I have related elsewhere under A Lemnian evil.

[greek], A hare across your way will make you rue the day. It is a popular belief even in our own day that to meet a hare when setting out on a journey is a bad omen. It can be adapted to fit the unexpected appearance of someone who looks like he is bringing bad news. Recorded by Suidas.

[greek], The threshold of old age, was a name used in Antiquity for what might be described as the late autumn of human life, when the winter of old age and decrepitude is already approaching. It is taken from Homer, who uses the phrase very commonly, for instance in Iliad 22: 'Whom it may be that the son of Cronos, father of all, will bring to perdition by some cruel fate on the threshold of old age.' Homer again in Iliad 24: 'Very much of my own years, upon the gloomy threshold of old age,' and again in Odyssey 23: 'And reach the threshold of old age.' It is employed also by Plato as a poetical proverb, and again by Hesiod in the Works and Days: 'Who might upbraid his aged father on the sad threshold of old age.'

[greek], To fight with the tongue, describes the actions of those who hurl abuse on the grand scale and threaten their enemy, but only when it is safe to do so. For thus Menelaus accuses the Greeks of cowardice in Ilad 7: 'Out on your threatening boasts, Achaean women and no longer men!' Virgil too alludes to this in the Aeneid: 'Will your strength in war / Lie always in that windy tongue, those nimble feet?' For that is how Turnus addresses Drances, who is a mighty man in counsel with his tongue, but otherwise no fighter. And he presents the Rutulians as abusive: True Phrygian women, Phrygian men no longer, / Whose tunics have sleeves, whose bonnets strings to tie!' Hector uses the same language, also in Homer, in Iliad 20: 'I too could fight even against the immortals, were it in words; but to fight with the spear is hard, for they are so much stronger.' What is more, true courage uses neither abuse nor threats, as Homer suggests in Wad 5: 'To him Hector of the shining helm answered not a word, but eagerly darted past him.' And in book 3 of the same work he represents the Greeks as advancing to battle silently: 'But on the Achaeans went, breathing as brave men breathe, / Each one at heart determined to stand by his neighbour.' And Aristophanes in the Clouds: 'Intriguing, and plotting, and using the tongue as a weapon.' Livy has a neat phrase for such people in book 7 of his Rome from the Foundation: 'Bold in camp, fearful in the battle-line.' Apuleius has verbigerari, a humorous invention, for verbis digladiari, to fight in words. Hesychius also shows that glôssaspides, with tongues for shields, was a name for those who used the tongue as a weapon; it could equally denote men who bear in their tongues the poison of an asp. Heraclitus, writing to Hermodotus: 'On your tongues you have your weapons, now that you have carried off the money.' It is characteristic of legal counsel and teachers of rhetoric to fight and do battle with the tongue.

[greek], A cormorant open-mouthed, was applied to someone who had an excessive appetite for spoils; for the cormorant is a greedy and voracious bird, the same as the Greek kepphos. Aristophanes in the Knights: 'A cormorant open-mouthed upon a rock, playing the demagogue.' In Latin at least there is no satisfactory translation for this; for he calls Cleon a cormorant on account of his rapacity because, like the bird, haunting the rocks in hopes of catching a fish, he spent his time in managing public affairs while keeping an eye open all the time for his own advantage. Plutarch in book 3 of Athenaeus' Dinner-talk: 'And he stood when he came to the threshold, and by him stood Chaerephon, a parasite, like a bird, a ravening cormorant.' And in book 8 of the same work he records the iambic line 'So that all the fish-eating cormorants become Syrians.' Larus is rendered gavia by Theodore Gaza, - a bird mentioned by Pliny, book 10 chapter 32, among sea-birds with the halcyon and the gull.

Laconic is a quasi-proverbial epithet for the use of few words, either because the Spartans in Laconia excelled in deeds rather than words or because pithy aphorisms were a Spartan speciality. But the particular appeal of such aphorisms is that they should contain a great quantity of meaning in the fewest possible words. Well-known examples of this are 'If,' the reply to a long speech by an envoy; 'No,' one word filling a whole letter; and 'Either this or on this.' Cicero sometimes comments humorously on Brutus' laconic style, and lakonikos legein, to speak laconically, is the Greek expression for speaking briefly and in few words, lakônizein, laconizing, for adopting an economical style. Gregory the Theologian in one of his letters: 'To write laconically is not what you think it is, to use few words, but into your few words to put a great deal of meaning.' Thus Homer too credits Menelaus as a Spartan with a pointed economy of language: 'Few words, but flowing clear.' Besides which, the frugality and honesty of the Spartans, in comparison with all the other parts of Greece, were so great that those who lived a strictly disciplined life were said to live in Spartan fashion. Cimon, whenever he found something he did not like in the behaviour of the Athenians, his fellow-citizens, used to say 'The Spartans at least are not like that.' In the same way the honesty of the people of Massilia became proverbial, a fact I have reported elsewhere. Brevity of speech and honesty are inter-related. It was with this in mind that Charillus, when asked why Lycurgus had issued so few laws, replied that those who use few words do not need many laws, which was a sidelong criticism of the Athenians, who in their garrulity could never have enough laws. The saying also appears, as is well known, among the maxims of Thales in Laertius. Pindar in the fifth hymn of the Isthmians: 'In Argive style it shall be told, even in fewest words.' The scholiast there tells us that it was an Ionian characteristic to be voluble, but that in any case to use few words was a habit not only in Sparta but in Argos too; and he cites a line from Sophocles' Madness of Ulysses: 'In Argos speech is brief and cuts things short.' Laertius records, on the authority of Aristagoras of Miletus, that the use of few words was characteristic of Chilon also, and hence calls this style of speaking 'Chilonian.' Here belongs that line recorded as though proverbial by Athenaeus: 'If you speak well, you'll soon convince the wise.'

Λαβύρϊνθον, Live a hidden life. The lesson of the adage is that for those in humble station life is happier if they live in obscurity and remote from public business, so that when their life comes to an end, no one is conscious that they ever existed. For the Greek cannot conveniently be rendered word for word; its meaning is something like 'Let no one be aware that you ever lived.' This adage, and the question whether or no it is good advice, is the subject of an essay by Plutarch, if the ascription is to be trusted; when I was translating it, the actual style struck me as somewhat at variance with the name of the author in the title. Horace alludes to it: 'Nor could his life be blamed, whose birth and death attracted no attention,' that is, whom no one noticed either when he came into this life or his going from it. Ovid alludes to this, if I am not mistaken, in the Tristia: Take my advice: he who lives hid, lives best. / Let each man with his lot contented rest.' Listed by Suidas specifically as a proverb.

[greek], A labyrinth, was a name in old days for any speech or course of action which was excessively complicated and hard to unravel, as for instance if one were to call the study of philosophy 'a labyrinth' because those who have once entered can never find the way out, or were to apply 'labyrinth' to the pursuit of pleasure, because the way thither is downhill but the way out very difficult. Taken from the labyrinth made by Daedalus, which according to the story was a cave in Crete so full of windings and insoluble complications that it was inextricable; there the Minotaur was confined. Suidas thinks it got its name from me labein, fail to obtain, and thyran, exit, because it had no exit, and shows that it also suits chatterboxes and people who talk a lot of nonsense, who once they are launched in their chattering can find no way out. Gregory the; Theologian in a letter to Eusebius of Caesarea twists it to be applicable to a cunning man: 'Since I have to do with a man who is no lover of falsehood himself, and is as quick as anyone to detect it in others, however much it is wrapped up in different cunning labyrinths.' Not unlike this is the use of meander. A meander was a kind of painted pattern derived from the idea of the labyrinth, such as we still see even to-day in some pavements. Prudentius uses it in a poem, of which the first words are Cultor Dei: Serpent in sinuous coilings rolled, Who by your web of treacherous arts And through meanders thousandfold Destroy the peace of quiet hearts. Hence too the river Maeander in Lydia got its name, from its wandering sinuous course.

[greek], In labour laborious. The shape of the phrase, to go no further, conveys an exaggerated idea of unrelenting toil. Suidas records it as a proverb. Theophilus, as cited by Athenaeus in book 13 used this formula of an outstandingly tall and lovely girl: 'In beauty beautiful, in stature stately, in art clever,' or maybe 'in wisdom wise.' There is a similar turn of speech in Hebrew, used for exaggeration or emphasis: 'In pity I will pity,' 'In toil I laboured.' It is also found in Aristophanes, in the Lysistrata. A further touch of humour underlies our proverb thanks to the double sense of the word; for poneros can mean not only laborious and miserable but criminal and crafty.

[greek], O the Laciadae! A current term of abuse for adulterers. There was a clan in Attica called the Laciadae, belonging to the Oeneid tribe, and they grew an enormous quantity of radishes. And radishes were used in a humiliating form of punishment applied to men caught in adultery. Recorded in Suidas.

[greek], To sow hard work, was commonly applied to those who laboured in vain, the idea being that they got no return from their work beyond the work itself. Diogenianus is the authority.

[greek], A Milesian bass, was applied to a stupid, greedy person; for the bass is a fish with a wide gaping mouth, so that it seizes the entire bait in its jaws, hook and all, and thus is easily caught, and hence Labrax, Bass, is the name of a brothel-keeper in Plautus. Aristotle numbers it among the fishes that live by plunder and rapine; its tongue is bony and attached, and its heart triangular. Aristophanes, quoted by Athenaeus, book seven, calls the bass the cleverest of fishes: 'Of all fishes bass the cleverest.' At Miletus, a city in Asia Minor, bass are said to be exceptionally large and very plentiful, on account of a marsh that drains into the sea; for this fish enjoys fresh water. Aristophanes in the Knights: 'Nor when you have gobbled up Milesian wolves, / Shall you go roystering.' For some think this is the fish called in Latin lupus, the wolf.

[greek], You would give Pelias a bath. Clearly this is used when someone promises recovery and delivers disaster, or when a man tries to help and makes the trouble infinitely worse. Derived from the very familiar fable of Pelias, whose daughters were persuaded by Medea to try and restore his youth, and in the process they plunged him in a boiling cauldron and killed him. It will perhaps be used not inappropriately when someone is deluded by false hopes and undertakes a fruitless task; for example, if he relies on the so-called art of alchemy and promises himself that he will turn tin into silver and bronze into gold. Recorded in the collection of adages which passes under the name of Plutarch.

[greek], Over and over again the road to Pytho, used of those who become tedious by asking questions on the same topic again and again, as men do who do not know their way and ask everyone they meet. The city of Pytho was sacred to Apollo, and most people paid it a visit. Clearly taken from some comedy, for it is half an iambic line; but from which play, is not recorded by Diogenianus, nor does my memory serve me. Close to the adage: Corinthus son of Jove.

Plutarch in the seventh book of his Table-talk' cites as proverbial this iambic line: [greek], After sacrificing at Delphi he himself eats the meat, and shows that this was normally applied to those who invited guests and then themselves eat the food that is set before them, so that the guests can watch but cannot eat. For in sacrifices at Delphi, the man who sacrificed the victim had the eating of it; the opposite happened at those offered to Hecate, at which the man who made the offering got nothing but smoke and tumult. Though it can also be taken in the opposite sense, if we understand it to mean that the priest at Delphi offered no share in the victim to the man who gave it. It does sometimes happen that a greedy guest, or one who has brought with him a number of greedy 'shadows,' like Harpies, devours the whole dinner, while the host who invited them all goes hungry. The adage can also be adapted to apply to men who enjoy themselves what they appear to have given to someone else; thus there are bishops who sometimes confer splendid benefices on their nephews, but the boys get the title only, and the bishops get the revenues.

'[greek], To visit the Isthmian games, was in old days a way of describing those who lived an uncomfortable and unhealthy life, because the season of the Isthmian games was favourable to sickness on account of the large crowds who attended. Mentioned by Suidas and Hesychius. It will perhaps not be absurd to apply it to men engaged in some hopeless undertaking, when we think of the unsuccessful efforts of so many people to cut through the Isthmus, of which I have spoken more fully elsewhere.

[greek], It's his own business, but into the house. Zenodotus says that a mention of this adage occurs in the Farmers of Aristophanes, and besides that in Plato the grammarian, and that it arose from certain very large dwellings, which were hired out to those who wished to rent them. Thus it seems suitable (if one may be allowed to follow guesswork when Greek authors provide one with nothing to follow) to those who make an unduly free use of other people's belongings, as they often do who live in rented property.

'[greek], Hyperberetaean, was a word in old days for things which were much belated and came about with difficulty in the long run. In Macedonia the last month of the year was called Hyperberetaeus; and so what was long postponed was said to be Hyperberetaean, as one might say 'Decembrian' in Latin, and people given to postponement had the same name. Suidas thinks that in Macedonia it was the month which we call October, because summer is then at its latest stage and things which appear then are thought to appear out of due time.

Worthless men devoted to a life of pleasure are called by Horace in his Epistles a 'Ulysses' crew,' the expression being no doubt proverbial: 'Vice-ridden crew of Ithacan Ulysses,' for they did not abstain from Circe's drinks, they could not be torn away from the Lotus-eaters, they would not keep their hands off the oxen of the Sun. Hence Homer in book 1 of the Odyssey: 'Fools! Their own reckless folly was their undoing.' Horace uses a rather similar figure when he calls devotees of pleasure with no thought for virtue 'Penelope's suitors and Alcinouses,' and in another passage applies 'Phaeacian' to a well-groomed dandy: 'A sleek Phaeacian I on my return.' On the Phaeacians Homer in Odyssey book 8: 'But feasting was ever dear to us and the music of strings and dancing and changes of raiment and hot baths and bed.' Again, on Penelope's suitors in Odyssey book 1: 'This is all they care for - the music of strings and song, since with impunity they eat another's sustenance.'

[greek], A law of Zaleucus, was applied to an officially published rule of excessive severity and too little concern for human life. A man called Zaleucus among the so-called Epizephyrian Locrians passed very harsh laws, resembling the code introduced, according to tradition, by Draco in Athens which was, as has been well said, the product of a dragon rather than a man. This bears some resemblance to Manlian orders, and To rule like Phalaris. The story is mentioned by Valerius Maximus, book 6 chapter 5: 'For when Zaleucus' son, in accordance with a law which he had introduced, was convicted of adultery and due to lose both eyes, the whole city, out of respect for his father, was willing to remit the young man's penalty. Zaleucus resisted this for some time; but yielding at length to popular demand, he modified the severity of the punishment by losing first one of his own eyes and then one of his son's, thus safeguarding the law.'

[greek], The talents of Zopyrus, of heroic actions which are of great value. Zopyrus was a friend of king Darius, who cut off his own nose and ears and had himself scourged until his whole body was covered with blood, as evidence to persuade the Babylonians that he must have a grievance against Darius, who was supposed to have treated him so brutally. So, having entered the city of Babylon, he betrayed it to Darius; which led Darius to declare, according to the story, that he would rather have one Zopyrus safe and sound than capture a hundred Babylons, and, when he was given a pomegranate, wished he had as many Zopyruses as there were seeds in the fruit, as Herodotus tells us in book 3, and Plutarch mentions in his 'Apophthegms.' The adage is listed by Zenodotus.

[greek], One whip drives them all. The second half of a hexameter, applied to a piece of business that was easily completed, everyone working readily because they were running with a will. It will perhaps be suitable also for those who are driven by the same motive, it may be hope of gain or a shared ambition or the same love or hate. Derived from those who drive a team. Suidas is the authority. Plutarch uses it in his life of Lycurgus, when he says that the city of Sparta 'with one staff and cloak enjoyed the glad and willing obedience of the whole of Greece.'

[greek], My wife breeds like a woman of Chalcis, was used of the mother of a very large family. The tradition is that there was a semi-divine figure called Combe, who also bore the name Chalcis, because she was the first to make weapons of bronze. When she married, she is said to have borne her husband a hundred children, according to the annals of Euboea, as attested by Aristus of Salamis. Some refer this to the city of Chalcis in Euboea, from the immense quantity of weapons and four-horse chariots of bronze produced by Chalcidian workshops; for Stephanus thinks the city got its name from its bronze-foundries. It will be possible to use this when we wish to convey that some source has given rise to a quantity of disputes, wars or anxieties.

[greek], The Persians shall not cherish these. When Xerxes was preparing to take his army into Greece, as we learn from Dicaearchus cited by Zenodotus, the Greeks, who despaired of the outcome, used up all their stores for fear of leaving much that the enemy could remove, saying The Persians shall not cherish these'; and the saying became an adage, applicable to those who dissipate their resources to prevent their falling into the hand of strangers. If a man, for instance, were to distribute his money to his friends to keep it out of the hands of his children, who would make a scandalous use of it, he could rightly say 'The Persians shall not cherish this,' or if a rich citizen were to spend all his resources on building, to keep them safe from a greedy prince who was a menace to every man of fortune.

[greek], May you fall into Orcus' anus. The words are those of a man wishing someone destruction and a final end. Listed by Diogenianus, it is related to Off with you to the crows, and To blessedness.

[greek], Jupiter has no wish to know. When a man makes a promise, but reluctantly. In some texts I find the reading 'Like Jupiter, he has no wish to know.' I think it will also be suitable when wrongdoers pay the penalty belatedly, which makes it similar to one I record elsewhere, Jupiter was slow looking into his records. For he who pays late, or punishes late, clearly does so with reluctance.

[greek], One must keep watch or be rich, was used of those who spent lavishly at other men's expense. Rich men with plenty of their own money spend generously, and soldiers in the same way do not spare other men's wealth but squander it busily, and waste even more criminally the proceeds of crime. The Athenians used to hire men from the islands for high wages to keep watch. This is not unlike A horse to carry me, a king to feed me.

[greek], Before the seventh (understand, day of the month). It was the law in Athens that no army might be put in the field before the seventh day of the month. We shall use this adage correctly, maybe, when we advise that some piece of business should be approached judiciously and at the appropriate moment. Mentioned by Zenodotus, Suidas and Hesychius, but with nothing further added. We should consider whether there may be an allusion to one I have recorded in another place, The seventh ox, 'That seventh ox the clever proverb tells of,' because it was the custom, when children were six months old, to make an ox of dough to represent the Moon's horns when she first appears.

'[greek], You are carried piggy-back. I suspect that this was used of those who were at someone else's mercy and were carried this way or that just as he might please, or when someone was treated with more indulgence than usual. The adage is taken from a kind of children's game called 'in a cotylê.' This is mentioned by Julius Pollux in book 9 of his On the Names of Things. It went like this. One of the players put his hands behind his back and clasped them tightly together. The second player then knelt on his hands and was lifted by him from the ground, while at the same time he put his hands over the eyes of the boy who was carrying him; and when supported in this fashion he was said to be 'carried in a cotylê,' because his support was the joined hands, and cotyle in Greek means among many other things the hollow of the hand. This game (so Julius Pollux tells us) has other names as well, for instance hippadan and kybesindan.

[greek], You have gone dancing into a bees' nest, was used when someone unexpectedly is plunged in a great army, a swarm we might say, of troubles, as commonly happens to those who without noticing it have trodden on a bees' nest: they fly all round the man who has trodden on them and attack him from every quarter, and even pursue him as he runs away, so that he does not easily escape unscathed. It is common for young men who have been drinking to break into a party being given by their peers, as Alcibiades in Plato breaks into Agathon's party. And Syrus in the Adelphoe says of Demea, who has rushed off to go to his son's party, 'He's off! My word, he won't be welcome at the feast, especially to Ctesiphon.'

[greek], The helmet of Orcus, was a current expression, used of those who by some cunning art concealed themselves. The proverb is traced back to the following story. When Acrisius consulted an oracle on the question whether he should raise children of the male sex, the reply was that his daughter Danae would have a son, by whom he himself would be killed. Terrified by this, he constructed an underground chamber of bronze, in which he kept his daughter imprisoned so that she could have no carnal connection with any man. Jupiter however, who was in love with the girl, turned himself into a shower of gold, and thus descending into Danae's lap through an opening in the roof, got her with child. Her son was Perseus; and as soon as her father heard the news, he shut up mother and child together in a chest, and threw them into the sea. Then the chest was washed up by pure chance on the island of Seriphus, and Perseus was taken to Dictys, who brought him up. However, Dictys' brother Polydectes, ruler of the Seriphians, fell in love with Danae, but could not have his way with her, because Perseus was already grown up. So he called his friends together, Perseus among them, and said he wished to announce a contest in connection with the wedding of Oenomaus' daughter Hippodameia. Perseus, thinking that if he fought with a Gorgon's head as a weapon he would be invincible, asked for horses and other equipment and, under the guidance of Mercury and Pallas, made his way to the daughters of Phorcys, Memphede, Ennyo, and Deino. These are said to have been old women from birth, and to have had only one eye and one tooth between the three of them, which they used in turn. Perseus stole the eye and the tooth, and when they demanded their return, said he would only give them back if he was first shown the way which would take him to the Nymphs. These Nymphs possessed winged sandals, and something called a kibisis, which is supposed to have been a small pouch or a wallet. They had also the helmet of Pluto, which enabled the wearer to see anyone he pleased, while remaining himself invisible to every one. So Perseus equipped himself with these, and being now able to fly, thanks to the sandals, as I have said, set off for the Gorgons. These Gorgons were three sisters, Euryale, Stheno, and Medusa; their heads were set thick with scaly serpents, and besides them they had enormous teeth, like wild boars' tusks, as well as hands and wings which enabled them to travel through the air. On top of these they possessed the power of turning anyone who looked upon them to stone. Medusa, furthermore, was the only one of the three who was mortal. It was she therefore whom Perseus attacked, and keeping his eyes fixed on his brazen shield, in which all the same he could see the Gorgon reflected, he stretched out his hand and Pallas guided it towards Medusa. Thus he cut off Medusa's head. The other two sisters flew to the rescue and pursued Perseus; but, as thanks to Pluto's helmet they could not see him, they made their way back again. Perseus thus returned to Seriphus and attacked Polydectes, who appealed to his friends for help; but when they gathered round the palace, Perseus displayed the Gorgon's head, and turned to stone all those who set eyes on it. Polydectes being thus removed, and Dictys installed in his brother's place, Perseus gave the Gorgon's head to Pallas and the helmet to Mercury, to which he added the wallet and the winged sandals; and Mercury gave these back to the Nymphs. The rest of the story, which Zenodotus tells at considerable length, does not concern the explanation of the adage, and so I omit it. This is used by Plato in book 10 of the Republic, where he says one ought always to pursue what is right for its own sake, even were one equipped with Gyges' ring or the helmet of Pluto. From these words it can be inferred that the purport of this proverb was the same as that of The ring of Gyges, for both are derived from very similar fables. And so it will rightly be applied to those people as well who accomplish whatever they wish with exceptional success, which puts it in the same class as The magic wand. It is also used by Origen in book 1 of his Against Celsus the heretic, where he declares that it was more suitable for Christ to escape from the madness of Herod by flight into Egypt than if he had outwitted him by hiding under some 'Pluto's helmet.' The adage appears to have come down from Homer, in whom, in the fifth Iliad, Pallas covers herself with the helmet of Orcus to avoid being seen by Mars: 'Him murderous Mars did slay, but Pallas put on Orcus' helmet, that mighty Mars might not see her.' The scholiast tells us that 'to put on Orcus' helmet' was a proverbial expression for a man who tries to do harm in treacherous and hidden ways. Aristophanes in the Acharnians: Take from Hieronymus, for all I care, His thickset-shaggy-darkling Orcus' helm, And open all the arts of Sisyphus.

'[greek], The origin of the war. When one party takes the initiative in an attack, whether with injury or abuse. Clearly taken from the historians, whose custom is to start by explaining the reasons which led to the outbreak of war. Lucian alludes to this, when he writes in the False Prophet: 'And, as Thucydides puts it, this was already the start of the war.' Hence a man is said to take the offensive apolemos, without war, who actively pursues a quarrel when he has suffered no wrong.

Ἐν τῇ ζύμῃ κεῖσθαι, To lie in the leaven, was applied to those who were much upset in mind and were swollen with rage. Plautus in the Mercator: 'Your wife lies in the leaven,' to mean that she is in a ferment of anger, and again in the Casina: 'Now she's all in a ferment, she's so angry with me.' It is a familiar metaphor; for leaven or yeast has a touch of bitterness and it also swells up. Hence in Scripture too leaven carries a sense of malice and bitterness.

Chrysalus, the slave in Plautus' Bacchides, making fun of the old man whom he was defrauding of his money, says 'O foolish man, you do not see you're now being sold; yet you stand on the block where the cryer cries his wares.' This will be appropriate when someone, though present and with his eyes and ears open, is none the less deceived; for even nowadays people are said to be sold colloquially, when they're imposed upon. When he mentions the block, this comes from a certain raised stone, which we know from the evidence of many authorities to have existed in Rome, from which auctioneers at sales cried their wares. Hence Cicero calls the most worthless of men 'bought from the block.' Of the farm workman I have spoken elsewhere.

'[greek], The sorrows of Ino. Ino, daughter of Cadmus, had two sons by Athamas, Learchus and Melicertes, besides a daughter Eurycleia. Athamas, however, went mad, shot his other children with bow and arrow and killed them; so Ino threw herself with Melicertes into the sea. Ino herself was swept by the waves to Megara, where the Megarians received her with great respect and paid her funeral honours under the new name of Leucothoe; Melicertes was carried away to Corinth, and there the Corinthians buried him and instituted the Isthmian games in his honour, changing his name to Palaemon. Hence arose the adage, so that they called intolerable suffering, which almost put an end to life, sorrows like Ino's. For achos in Greek, properly speaking, means pain which absolutely stupefies and deprives a man of consciousness. Melicrates of Tyre, also quoted by Zenodotus from whom I have drawn all this, tells the story which gave rise to the proverb in the following form. Athamas first had a wife called Nephele, and by her had two children, Helle and Phrixus. After her death, as his second wife, he married Ino. She, as stepmothers will, laid a plot against Nephele's children, and persuaded the women of the country to kill the seed that was to be sown in the ground by boiling it in a pot. Then, when things turned out very badly and there was no harvest that year, Athamas in the emergency sent to Delphi to consult the oracle. Ino however bribed the members of the mission to give when they returned home as the god's answer that the shortage of grain could be averted only if Helle and Phrixus were put to death. So Athamas, believing this, took Phrixus and Helle to the altar to sacrifice them; but the gods had pity on them and lifted them away through the air on a ram with a golden fleece. Helle, not holding on tightly enough to the ram's back, fell off into the sea, which in memory of her is called the Hellespont; but Phrixus was carried safely to the land of Colchis. Athamas, driven to frenzy by the anger of the gods, attacked Ino's children, as I have shown above.

'[greek], In every story there is also a curse on Daedalus, is suitable for those who have committed monstrous crimes or brought about great disasters, such that their names are often mentioned, but never without disgust. They say it arose from the following story. Pasiphae, queen of Crete, conceived a passion for a bull, and besought Daedalus to make her a wooden cow, as much like a real cow as he could. Shut up in this, the woman conceived a child by the bull, and brought forth that abominable monster, the Minotaur. Then Minos, having certain reasons to be angry with the Athenians, ordered them to send seven maidens every year and the same number of young men, to be fed to the Minotaur. Of all this Daedalus was thought to be the cause, so that he was commonly loaded with curses, and thus the thing became proverbial.

'[greek], Let each man steal the fire too in his turn. Suidas tells us that this was used of those who make an inadequate contribution to the common stock; for when what is common property has been entrusted to the management of one man or a few, the greater part remains in the hands of those who make the division. For what would a man not steal who is capable of stealing fire, a thing so much common property by nature that you yourself possess just as much after you have given a share to other people. Friendship makes all things common property; yet when it comes to a share-out, everyone tries hard to seize as much as he can. I rather suspect that the scribe by mistake has written styleuetô, let him steal, instead of skaleuetô, let him stir (the fire), so that this belongs with a riddle of Pythagoras.

Sophocles in his Ajax with the Scourge puts into the mouth of Ajax, who had by this time recovered from his fit of madness, 'Insensibility's the sweetest life; / He who's insensible is free from pain.' This aphorism is cited by scholars as a proverb. It is common knowledge, however, that it was in wide circulation, as is shown by, among other things, the story Horace tells of a certain Argive who thought madness a more blessed state 'than good sense with a snarling face': Dear friends, you've killed me and not saved my life: You tear my comfort from me, and by force Destroy the dear delusions of my mind. With this chimes in that saying in Ecclesiastes: 'For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.' Heracleides of Pontus, cited by Athenaeus, is our authority for the story of Thrasylaus the son of Pythodorus of Axon. This man was seized with a form of insanity which made him think that all the ships which put into the Piraeus were his property. He greeted their arrival with the greatest delight, and when they departed bade them farewell and watched them sailing away. In a word, he was thoroughly happy, just as though he were really the owner of such great resources. If a ship was lost he did not miss it; if one arrived safe, he was full of glee and boasted of his good fortune to other people, until his brother Crito, returning from Sicily, took hold of him and handed him over to a physician. All the same, on returning to his senses, he maintained that he had never lived so pleasant a life as when he was in the grip of his delusion; for while enjoying so much happiness, he said, he had never suffered a moment's uneasiness.

[greek], Fire on the hand, was commonly used when a person understood something straightaway; if for instance someone made a joke, and the man felt instantly that it was directed against himself. This is apparently taken from those who by way of a game bring something burning close to other people's hands; aroused by the sudden sensation, they normally jump back, and make the bystanders laugh.

To be left under the knife is used of someone who is abandoned in a position of immediate danger. Related to Between the shrine and the stone and to Between the hammer and the anvil. Horace in the Satires: The selfish brute makes off, and left me under the knife.' There is a line in Aristophanes not very far from this: 'I'll gladly say my say with my head on a chopping-block.' (The epixenon is the large wooden block on which cooks chop up meat.) In the same play there is then much humorous talk about the chopping-block. It is appropriate for those who make a serious statement even at the risk of their lives.

[greek], He has a door as much frequented as are shepherds' cottages. A proverbial expression, used ironically of men who are inhospitable and hard to approach, who live for themselves alone and keep their doors always shut, because shepherds who live far from converse with their fellow-men are rarely visited by anyone. Mentioned by Diogenianus.

[greek], It's celery he needs. These words they used to convey that someone's illness was mortal, and that his life was in danger; for in ancient times celery was used to make garlands for the monuments of the dead. Plutarch in his 'Table-talk': 'And those who are dangerously ill need, we say, celery.' He also mentions the proverb and adds a reason for it in his life of Timoleon. The adage also conceals a humorous allusion to the garlands worn by victors which were made of celery, especially at the Isthmian games, as Diphilus bears witness in Athenaeus book 4: 'We fight for celery, as they do at the Isthmian games.'

'[greek], As tedious as a dirge, will rightly be used of music, prose style, argument, humour and anything else of that sort which is tedious beyond bearing. Some say that this Greek word for dirge, ialemos, was the sound uttered by mourners; for ialemizein is Greek for to lament. Euripides in the Troades takes ialemos to mean cries of sorrow and lamentation: 'What dirges and what grief are in our house, what rain of tears on tears.' And Aristophanes cited by Athenaeus (the grammarian, I take it) says in his Attic Glossary 'The hymenaeus was sung at weddings, the ialemus in time of mourning.' Others record a tradition that Ialemus was a son of Calliope, an unfortunate character with no good qualities, and in particular intolerably tedious in the sphere of music, whence the phrase 'A song by Ialemus' for something tedious and pitiable. Likewise Martial, in a humorous attack on a frigid and tedious speaker, says that he is the only man capable of cooling the Baths of Nero. Hesychius tells us that the proverb was also current in the form As pitiful as Ialemus, and also that ialemus was used to indicate something worthless, in the same way that neniae in Latin is used to mean rubbish, though the proper sense of the word is songs of mourning.

[greek], You draw water from dry ground, was applied to those who laboured in vain; for there is nothing that you can draw from dry ground, when that means the bottom of a well that has no water in it. This can clearly be used when supplies are exhausted, and there is not much left on which you can draw. Mentioned by Zenodotus.

A literary style 'crawls on the ground' when it is duller and meaner than style ought to be, as though it were always prostrate and never rose to any elevation. Horace: 'Nor would I rather write / Plain stuff that ever crawls along the ground / Than treat in epic style of noble deeds.' And again in the Art of Poetry: 'Too set on safety on the ground it crawls, / And fears the storm.' This is a metaphor taken either from a sea-voyage or from those who are bent to the ground and crawl along in that position, for fear that, if they stand up, a storm of wind may sweep them away. Gregory of Nazianzus in his speech Against the Eunomians turned it to apply to people, pointing out that discussion of topics in divinity was not within every man's reach: 'It is not for everyone, not an article so low in price, not for those who crawl upon the ground.' Though nothing prevents us, here too, from understanding it of things or actions which are common and mean. It is very much like, perhaps identical with, that phrase in Pindar, in the Olympians: 'With words that crawl along the ground may you have no contact,' and in the Pythians: 'He did not utter a lowly word.' He seems to have taken his image from birds flying not far above the ground, for Pindar also has the same idea of jackdaws: 'Jackdaws' he says 'that range in lowly places.' Thus the correlative of this is An eagle in the clouds.

[greek], A garnish of green stuff, was applied to something of no importance. Apparently taken either from a side dish of vegetables put on the table, which would of course be humble fare, or for the garnish for which poor destitute customers sometimes ask. Diogenianus is the authority.

[greek], A man of clay: soft, weak and breakable. Taken from earthenware pots, which are easily smashed. Related to Man is a bubble. In some copies I read kerameus, in some keramos, of which the last appeals to me more; for kerameus means a potter, keramos a pot. In the same way we speak of a figwood fellow or a man of iron, wax, oak, adamant. Conversely, when we want something to sound very precious, we call it golden. Hence that phrase common in the poets, 'Golden Venus'; and 'the golden countenance of Justice' and 'the golden eye of Justice' are recorded, from Pindar if I am not mistaken, by Athenaeus book 12. In our own day too we speak of 'golden words' and 'a jewelled character.' Cicero in book 2 of his Academic Problems, speaking of a book on grief written by Crantor, says 'It is not very long, but it is a golden book and, as Panaetius told Tubero, should be learnt by heart word for word.' But anything worthless is called kerameoun or kerameinon, made of clay or earthenware, in Greek. Thus Paul speaks of men as 'earthen vessels': 'But we have this treasure' he says 'in earthen vessels.' Cicero in his sixth speech against Verres: They then proceeded to tell the praetor that, on the basis of what they had heard, they had supposed that Pamphilus owned cups of some value, but the stuff was mere dirt, not good enough for Verres to have in his collection of plate.' In another passage he calls a despicable and worthless character 'a dirty fellow,' and sometimes uses simply 'dirt.'

'[greek], The hipparchs' list, will be suitable for use when we wish to convey that someone who has done wrong will by no means get off scot-free. The adage arose in Sparta, where it was the practice for the hipparchs - those, that is, who commanded the cavalry - to enter in lists the names of men who had deserted their posts. Mentioned by Zenodotus. Hesychius shows that in Sparta hipparch was the name for someone put in charge of the young men, and he used to list the names of those who had done anything improper.

' [greek], A heteromolian (that is, one-sided) case is a Greek name for one that is contended by only one of the two parties, with no one present to put the opposite view; it is derived from heteros, one of a pair, and molein, to come forward, because only one appears. It is very close to Case undefended. Will be used quite neatly if someone is condemned in his absence; when, for instance, we criticize the books of dead authors, this might well be called 'a one-sided case.' In Hesychius it takes the form' [greek], but whether the reading is correct, I do not know.

'[greek], The Harmodius song, was used of things sad and melancholy, and is very close to Admetus' dirge. Aristophanes has it in several places, among which is a line in the Acharnians: 'Nor will he ever sing in my house the Harmodius song.' The scholiast indicates that this was a form of song customarily sung at crossroads in honour of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, because they had abolished the despotism of the Peisistratids. The opening words of this were 'Dearest Harmodius, you are not yet dead.' Recorded by Suidas and Diogenianus.

[greek], He does not play the same tune as his fathers, was a catch phrase for a man who did not maintain the standards of his father. Children are normally very fond of the traditional tunes of their forbears, which they learned in their infancy. Terence in the Adelphoe: 'O Aeschines, that was not worthy of your father's son.'

[greek], This is no contest for the wild olive. Used when the point at issue was no trifling matter, no question of reputation or a victor's garland, but something serious, something financial. For in most contests the prize of victory was a garland of olive or oak, or at any rate foliage of some sort. Recorded by Diogenianus.

[greek], Spear and herald's staff, was customarily used when someone at the same time uttered both threats and proposals of peace. It arose from an oracle which is reputed to have run 'A man from Gephyra finds his home sweet.' The Gephyraeans had been told to follow the Athenian army, and when they saw they were tired, to halt for the night. When therefore the Athenians were attacked by Eumolpus, they set off for Tanagra, in this formation: their leader proffered a herald's staff while the pick of their troops followed behind under arms, so as to make it clear that at the same time they sought peace and yet were none the less ready for battle, if anyone took the offensive against them. Suidas records this, and it is mentioned by Polybius in book 4 of the Histories. 'They sent Aridices' he says 'as envoy to the Byzantines, and with him Polemocles in command of three triremes, wishing to send the Byzantines, as the saying goes, both spear and herald's staff.' It is very like a phrase stylishly used by St Jerome, 'to seek peace sword in hand.'

'[greek], To blame cocks' guts, of heavy eaters and those who wasted much of their substance in luxurious living. A cock's stomach is astonishingly hot, with the result that it instantly digests everything. Aristophanes in the Wasps: 'He said I had the stomach of a cock, for it will soon digest this sum of money.' Men of this kind are said in Greek to swallow, catapiein, their property, for that is stronger than cataphagein, to eat it up; for the most severe and speedy extravagance the word was aphanizein, to cause to disappear, to get through it, that is, so quickly that not a trace was left. All these words, but the last one especially, are used by Aeschines in his speech Against Timarchus: Tie made all vanish.'

[greek], A blazing robe, or (as it is written in other copies) [greek] , Blazing in a robe. Zenodotus tells us that this used to be said of those who stirred up civil discord and spread false accusations. And he thinks the source of the adage was the robe stained with the blood of the centaur Nessus, which was sent by Deianira to Hercules, and when he put it on, he was burnt to death by the 'sacred fire.' In fact he tells the story very much as follows. The remaining Centaurs had been defeated and destroyed by Hercules, and Nessus alone had escaped. He made his way to the river Evenus, and establishing himself on its bank, made a practice of carrying passengers across. It then so happened that, on his way to Trachis to visit Ceyx, Hercules arrived with Deianira, and having already crossed the river himself, ordered Nessus to carry Deianira across. While they were crossing, however, he began to assault her, and Hercules, alerted by her cries for help, pierced Nessus to the heart with a javelin. Feeling himself mortally wounded and facing certain death, he appealed to the woman and said: 'If you wish to provide yourself with a most efficacious love potion, with which you can kindle passion in Hercules, and make him desire you again if he ever falls in love with someone else, be sure to anoint him with my blood.' Believing what he said, Deianira carefully kept some of the blood that flowed from Nessus' wound. So after visiting Trachis, he went on to attack Oechalia, captured the city and laid waste everything else, and carried off with him as a captive the maiden Iole. Proposing to sacrifice victims to his father Jupiter in gratitude for his success, he sent to ask Deianira to let him have a robe of suitable splendour. Deianira had heard of the rape of Iole and, fearing that Hercules would value her more highly than herself, with the jealousy typical of womankind, she sent him a robe dyed and soaked in the blood of Nessus, thinking she was sending him a love potion. Hercules put on the robe and performed his sacrifice; but as the robe grew warm, the poison came to life and began to burn his flesh terribly. He tried to tear it away, but by now it clung so tightly that it would not come off without tearing his actual flesh. In torment from the anguish, Hercules was taken to Trachis, and meanwhile Deianira, realizing what had happened, hanged herself. Hercules told Hyllus, his son by Deianira, who was already of age, to marry Iole, and then built a pyre on Mount Oeta, and mounted it. Then, when in response to his orders not one of Hercules' companions had the courage to set light to it, in fear no doubt of the contagion, a local shepherd was found by chance who would ignite it, and for this service Hercules gave him his weapons as a reward. The story goes that as the pyre was burning, a cloud accompanied by thunder covered Hercules, who was thus removed to join the company of the gods. It will also be possible to refer the adage, aptly enough, to the robe which Medea steeped in poison and sent as a gift to Jason's new bride (some think it had been soaked in naphtha), so that when it was surrounded closely by torches, as was the practice at weddings, the flame jumped across and burnt to death both the bride and her father, who tried to rescue her. The story is recorded by Euripides in his tragedy Medea. As I have often testified already, I should never have added fables of this description, were I not afraid that unlettered readers might think they had been left out by inadvertence, since they appear in the popular collections.

[greek], An old lion is worth more than a fawn in the vigour of youth, is cited by Stobaeus from the poet Hippothoon. The old age of a brave and vigorous man is stronger than the green years of some cowardly and feeble youngsters. It will be more elegant if transferred to a somewhat different context: if, for instance, one were to prefer the mind of a well-taught and experienced old man to that of a youth with little education. It will not be inappropriate if applied to a forceful and green old age, still with some force of intellect, matched by that line in Euripides 'Slow now of foot, but swift in speed of mind.' Here also belongs the same poet's remark in the Andromache: 'A man of spirit, be he ne'er so old, / Is better far than many younger men.' Aristophanes in one place: I think my old age a far better thing that the curly heads of many youngsters.'

[greek], Naked as a peg, This exaggerated phrase was applied to a man in the depths of poverty, because in making a wooden peg, we remove even the bark.