Adagia 3101–3200

[greek], A wooden horse. This expression was used of secret conspiracies, or when a large number of people suddenly appeared who were not visible before. It originated with the horse in Homer in which the leaders of the Greeks hid and from which they suddenly leaped out to capture Troy. This horse Homer described as durateus 'wooden,' as in the Odyssey book 8, because it was constructed of timbers:
For it was the city's destiny to perish at the entry
Of the lofty wooden horse that enclosed all
The leaders of Greeks who would bring grief and death to the Trojans.
In his life of Themistocles Plutarch relates that Themistocles once asked for a horse as a gift from the horse-breeder Philides. When the latter refused he threatened he would soon turn Philides' own house into a wooden horse, meaning that he would bring to light accusations against Philides and his household. It would be an ingenious use to call some learned person's school a 'wooden horse' because over a short period a number of the best men were produced by it. Men of reputation who have come all at once from some establishment are often said by scholars to have come from that house 'as if from the Trojan horse.' Marcus Tullius in the second Philippic used it to mean a company engaged in an extraordinary enterprise: T am not unwilling to be included with the leaders in being part of this plan, in a Trojan horse as it were.' In the Birds Aristophanes shifts the meaning of the adage towards the idea of strength and size: 'Drawn by horses as bulky as [greek] "the wooden one."' The scholiast tells us this is an allusion to the bronze horse of wonderful size which stood on the Acropolis, and was consecrated by Charidemus to Pallas, as the inscription itself declared. This horse, however, was in its form a copy of the Trojan horse. In the sixth speech against Gaius Verres, Marcus Tullius uses 'Trojan horse' to mean a terrible disaster: 'Picture to yourselves the hurrying to and fro in the town, the cries of grief, and the wailing of the women, too; anyone looking on would have thought that the Trojan horse had been admitted and that the city was in its enemies' hands.' The gates through which the wooden horse was brought in are called by Homer in book 3 of the Iliad [greek] 'Scaean' or 'ill-omened,' because it was foolish of the Trojans to bring the horse into the city. Cicero also says in the speech in defence of Murena that the Trojan horse is within when he feels that there is a danger to the state from civil discord: 'The Trojan horse is within, within the city, I say. It will never overwhelm you in your sleep while I am consul.' The same author in the speech in defence of Caelio: 'Was it ... a Trojan horse, which received and protected so many invincible warriors waging war for a woman?'

[greek], When the road is before you, you look for a track. This is cited by Eustathius in his commentary on Odyssey book 13. [greek] is a 'track,' which is different from the vehicular road called a 'royal' road. The adage will be applicable to shufflers who, to evade an immediate affair, look for diversions.

Eustathius explains this line from book 14 of the Odyssey which we have quoted in another place: 'Yet I think you can tell, if you do but look at the stubble.' He shows that Ulysses was alluding to the proverb which, in full, goes like this: '[greek] 'From the stalk you can envisage the grain that was harvested.' Even in an old man there are signs of what he was like as a youth. Aristotle mentions this passage in his book on Rhetoric and says 'the stalk' is a metaphor for 'old age.'

[greek]. This occurs frequently in Horner and has the appearance of a proverb. It means to plan something deep in one's heart and to set an ambush secretly in one's mind. It is a figure drawn from the foundation of buildings that are laid very deep. In the Odyssey book 17: 'Who spoke fair, but pondered evil in their minds.' And the same author elsewhere: Turning over deceit deep in his mind.'

'[greek], Evil brought on oneself. Said of something of which you yourself have been the cause. Homer in the Odyssey book 18: 'Assuredly dissolute Irus will soon experience the harm that he seeks / Of his own accord.'

[greek], Eurymnus, was formerly a proverbial name for someone who tried to use false accusations to create strife among good friends. This man plotted to sow discord between Castor and Pollux laying blame with each against the other, and when he was subsequently caught was heavily punished by both. This is the common lot of those who seek by wicked means to divide people joined by some unbreakable natural link, such as husband and wife, parent and child, or brothers. For what happens is that, when the victims return to harmony, they both seek punishment from the author for past animosity. This happened at Athens to Hyperbolus who tried to create enmity between Nicias and Alcibiades.

[greek], Born of the Furies. This used to be an expression for someone of foul and hideous appearance, who 'looked mad,' as Aristophanes says. Anything harmful and destructive is also said to have 'come from the Furies,' as Ajax says in the tragedy: 'Was this sword-point not forged by a Fury from hell?'

'[greek], They look to me like the Spartan captives from Pylos. This is in the Clouds of Aristophanes. It was said of people of pitiable appearance, pale, dirty, and thin. Pylos was a city in Laconia, besieged and defeated by Cleon. Those who escaped death he took away to Athens, weak, exhausted, pale, disfigured, as must have happened both because of the length of the siege, especially on a deserted island which could offer a poor supply of the necessary provisions, and because after the fall of the city they were kept for many days in chains. This is all in Zenodotus. Of Pylos I have talked elsewhere in the proverb 'Pylos there is before Pylos.'

[greek], You're blowing away the stocks, a phrase tossed at someone who is mad and shouts vainly. The gyrgathos was the couch to which the paralytic, the mad, and anyone said to be possessed are chained and on which they thrash about; they shout numerous threats but all in vain. It will be suitable therefore to describe a terrible but ineffectual rage. Hesychius mentions that a gyrgathos is also the container in which a baker placed cooked loaves. The Greek word appears to be derived from the word for 'to turn.'

[greek], You should worship yourself. A proverbial joke against someone who behaves too grandiosely. [greek] is 'to reverence' and 'to honour.'

[greek], The freedom of Byzenus. Said when someone speaks too boldly and too freely. Derived from Byzenus, apparently a son of Neptune, who was in the habit of taking extraordinary liberties in his speech. Stephanus mentions a Byzya, a city in Scythia, whence came the Byzyeni. It was a characteristic of this people to speak without fear.

[greek], a proverbial neologism for a 'trifler' and anyone who takes pleasure in absurdities; [greek] means exactly the same as 'laughing for no reason,' an aberration that is a sign of foolishness or madness.

'[greek], Straightaway it is apparent which plant will give fruit. Even in children their future character is clear. Future progress can be foreseen immediately in the pupil.

'[greek], My pig has gone, and my money, and my marriage. This used to be said when someone was cheated and lost a costly investment. Derives from someone who had prepared everything for his marriage but did not achieve it. Very close to 'I have wasted both oil and toil.'

'[greek], Love blossoming on both sides. This used to be said whenever two persons were complete in each other and loved each other equally. For we say we are 'divided' whenever a friend is taken away, as if he were a part of us. The expression is to be found in Aristophanes' Birds at the end of the play. And this is the sort of love that Phaedria wishes for in the Eunuchus: 'If only you loved me / As much as I love you.' Matching this is the line in Pindar's Pythian Odes: 'Loving him who loves, and joyfully offering my hand to him who offers his.'

'[greek], You have drunk from the amphithetos. Used to be said as a criticism of someone who drank too much undiluted wine. An amphithetos was a sort of cup so fashioned that it would stand whichever way you put it down, having no clearly defined bottom. It is more likely, as Hesychius adds among various facts, that an amphithetos was a cup that was picked up and put down with both hands because of its size, what Dutch sailors call a busa.

[greek], Pronomus' beard was an expression for a very long beard. Aristophanes in the Women in Parliament:
So up till now it was not known that Argyrrhius was [a woman]
Wearing Pronomus' beard.
Pronomus was some flute-player with a very long beard, not a very suitable appurtenance for his profession, but proverbs do sometimes mention the effeminacy of flute-players. Argyrrhius was a general, effeminate and homosexual, with no manly qualities but a beard. In the same play there is criticism of the beard of a certain orator Epicrates who, for this reason, was given the nickname [greek] 'beard-bearer' by way of a popular joke; this is shown by the verse that the scholiast of Aristophanes quotes from Plato the writer of comedies: "The king with the beard, O Epicrates the shield-bearer.' He calls a beard a shield because of their similar shape, and elsewhere we find: 'And loath upon your chins to wear that monstrous equipage of hair.' Of the same person Aristophanes says: 'My beard is much more fine than even Epicrates'.' So it will be appropriate for certain men who are effeminate in other respects but who by the severity of their countenance and garments give the appearance of a continent life. There are frequent jokes in Lucian about philosophers' beards. Likewise in Horace: 'And bade me grow a wise man's beard.' Martial too makes fun of such a person.

[greek], To investigate every trace, is said of someone who traces an affair with the greatest of care and thoroughness. The metaphor is borrowed from hunters. Marcus Tullius in the fourth speech against Verres: 'You are sure you can escape even from these nets? - for we are following you, not by means of doubtful conjecture, but by your own traces which you left, and recently too, in the public records.' Again in the same speech: 'So that every mortal can see not just the traces of this greed, but its very lairs.' Again in the sixth speech: 'I believe the real prosecutors were those who pursued the thefts of such men by no more than their scent or some faintly traced footprints to guide them. For what are we doing in the case of Verres, who we know has been wallowing in the mire by the traces of his whole body?' In the speech defending Cluentius: 'What? Is the trail of Albius' money to be sniffed out by us, or can we not, following your lead, come straight to his very lair?' And shortly afterwards: 'No trace is to be found of any money of Cluentius given to a magistrate.' In the speech against Piso: 'But do you think I have made insufficient investigation of the disgraces of your rule and the ruins of the province? These I have tracked in fact not by scenting the trail of your comings and goings, but by all the wallowings of your body and your lairs.'

Someone who brings on or wishes for himself what will cause him harm will be aptly described by this phrase of Virgil: 'I have let in boars to my crystal springs.' And it is obvious this is said with a proverbial sense. Boars do not just drink from a pool with their feet in the water but even wallow in it.

'[greek], Out of a dog's anus. It seems Lucian used this to mean worrying, tight situations because the organ is rather firmly contracted in this animal so that they excrete with some difficulty. He ends his story the Ass with these words: 'Then I sacrificed to my tutelary gods and offered gifts, now that after so long and with such difficulty I reached home in safety, certainly not "out of a dog's bottom" as the popular saying has it, but rather "out of an ass's curiosity."' It was popularly said of Zeno too, as Laertius tells us, that he had written the whole of On the Republic on a dog's bottom, either because the work was too difficult to understand or too silly. But I have mentioned this proverb elsewhere.

This too is reported by certain people, even if I have not yet found it in authors where I would expect it: 'The bird can be told by its song,' which in any case is not unworthy of being classed as a proverb. The meaning matches that of 'As the man is, so is his talk.' A popular saying very similar to this is 'The bird is known from its feathers,' the way of life and the mind of a man are seen from his appearance.

[greek], A dog taking offence at the stone. This fits those who attribute the cause of their misfortune not to its source but to something else; for example when someone attributes the vice of anger to youthfulness, not to the stupidity from which it really arises. In book 5 of the Republic Plato condemns those who plunder the bodies of the slain and declares they do exactly what dogs do when they get angry with the stone and ignore the person who threw it. And there is Pacuvius in his Judgment of Arms quoted in Nonius: 'For when a dog has been struck by a stone he tends to seek not the person who threw it but the stone itself with which he was struck.'

[greek], A deep furrow. This too is recorded in the Collected Proverbs. The comment there is that it was said of people who weigh up a matter with profound thoughts that they keep deep within their hearts. It is taken from the tragedy of Aeschylus called Seven against Thebes. In this the following verses are spoken about Amphiaraos: 'Gathering the harvest from the deep furrowing of his mind, / Whence well-founded counsels grow.' This is quoted in several places by Plutarch in his Moralia and by Plato in the second book of the Republic. And there are allusions to the proverb in several places in Marcus Tullius; in a letter to Atticus, book 4: 'Lest the [greek] "careful thought," which was obvious in my action, should be less clear in my writing.' And in book 5: 'You will wonder at my [greek] "careful thought" when we come home safe, so much attention do I give to this virtue.' Again in the first letter of book 6: 'For there is nothing that I have enjoyed more than the immense pleasure in knowing that you approve my [greek] "careful thought" in the case of Appius and my generosity in that of Brutus.' It seems to me it will also fit well those who judge themselves, not by the opinion of others, but by their consciousness of things done rightly or otherwise.

[greek], Circumcised right up to the neck. This is suitable for someone who is severely injured. There is a verse in Aristophanes' Knights: 'You must be circumcised up to the neck.' The scholiast of Aristophanes indicates that the expression was also in Diphilus.

[greek], He is as kindly as a cunning fox. Said of one who pretends to be kind for his own advantage. Plato mentions the fox of Archilochus in his Republic book 2:
And so, as men endowed with wisdom declare, since appearance masters even
truth itself and is the key to happiness, I must bow to it wholeheartedly; each
man must surround himself with a sort of forecourt and shadow-outline of
virtue, but such that behind his back he may lead the fox of the all-wise Archilochus.
He says these things at that point to Glaucus, praising injustice so that he can provoke Socrates to commend justice. Archilochus' fox is also remembered by St Basil in several places including the book addressed to his grandsons, and by Philostratus in his Pictures. There are many fables about the fox's cunning, but which of these is by Archilochus is not at all clear.

This senarius is quoted by some as from Menander's Olynthia and by others as from the Thersites of Chaeremon: 'I would not willingly be the first to provoke violence, / But I shall repay violence already done with violence.' It matches this one from Terence: 'Let him reflect that this is an answer [in self-defence], not something said [as an attack].'

[greek]. This is how I myself have found it written in published versions, but from these words I do not see what meaning can be extracted. I shall say therefore what seems to me to be closest to the truth, not because I should like others to yield immediately to my powers of divination, but to provide scholars with some chance of conjecturing the true reading. Try reading 'We are not sailing to the abundant Hippolaitas' - as if it were a warning to use what you have more sparingly, and that you are not on a voyage to this place where an abundance of such things is to be had so that you can easily make good what you have rashly spent. In the Greek collections I find only this note: 'About those who possess little.' Hippola was a very ancient Laconian city, not far from the sea, which because of the convenience of its port probably flourished formerly as a trading centre. Pausanias mentions it in his Laconia in these words: 'And by the sea there is a temple of Venus with a standing statue in stone. If you go thirty stadia from here, you find the high gates of Taenarum and the ruins of the city of Hippola, and among these a sanctuary of Minerva Hippolaitis.' Stephanus mentions this city too. And so as not to omit any conjecture, consider too, dear reader, whether instead of 'Hippolaitas' we should read 'Hippobotas.' This is a tribe in Chalcidia mentioned by Plutarch in his life of Pericles and ranked among the greatest in earlier times for their wealth and fame. Their name was given them for the fertility of their lands, 'nursery of horses,' as you might say. The natives of this region were driven out, a colony was introduced, and it was occupied by the Athenians. This affair is recorded by Herodotus too in the Terpsichore.'

This senarius too, from the comedy of Aristophanes called the Frogs, is counted among proverbs: 'These things are small grapes and pure bombast.' It is said to be fitting for smooth talkers and those who make a better show of words than of distinguished deeds. Epiphyllides is the Greek word for the smaller grapes forming part of the bunch with the larger ones. Callistratus writes that all very small bunches are called epiphyllidae because they are hidden under the leaves. The term comes from the fact that they lie close under the leaves. And indeed this is proof of the fruitfulness of the plant. Theocritus reminds us in the Aita that it is used of pustules formed on the nose which are evidence of a liar. This will be dealt with in its proper place.

[greek], Straight from the bellows, was a proverbial expression for anything that had been produced recently in a workshop, as if straight from the bellows and bronze furnace, for this is where the metaphor is taken from. Aristophanes says: 'Using splendid turns of phrase and jokes, all [greek] "originals" and straight from the bellows.' Cinnabeuma, I may add, is the word for an archetype, an image that painters and sculptors reproduce in order to create and represent emblematic signs. Hence anything recently created is said to come [greek] 'from the archetypes.'

'[greek], The whole load on your back, Lepargus. A heroic hemistich, which was said of someone who is not allowed to take breath even after finishing his work. The figure is derived from oxen who, having already endured the labour of ploughing, have still to perform the labour of carrying home the plough and other tools. These are usually loaded on to whichever of the two is the stronger. The bull is called Lepargus because of the whiteness of its coat. These could well be the words of the ass to the ox as he collapsed under his load; the ox was asked to take part of the load but refused, and when the ass died shortly after, the ox was obliged to carry the whole load together with the hide of the ass.

'[greek], The snare, it seems, did some good. This was said customarily whenever some misfortune turned out to someone's advantage. For example, if some Turk, captured in the war, worked among Christians and were converted by this opportunity to the rites of our religion. Or if a rich man, reduced to poverty, were changed by this opportunity from a dissolute character to a sober one, and from an unbeliever to a believer. This is what the philosopher, Zeno if I am not mistaken, was saying when he remarked that he had made a good voyage only after he had been shipwrecked.

'[greek], To drink at one draught, is said of people who gulp a drink, greedily, without taking a breath as they drink, but tipping it into their bellies as if into a barrel. The word [greek] means the same as 'without swallowing.' It could be used figuratively of people who take what is said too eagerly, without discrimination; or of those who cram their minds with excessive reading when they would do better to mingle reading and thinking together. Such drinking is called [greek] by the Greeks because during the drinking the lips are not closed.

Αμφιδρομΐαν ἄγεις, You are celebrating the Amphidromia. This adage could be adapted to various uses: for example to those who show off their children and carry them around, or those who seek gifts and go around soliciting. It is derived from the ancient custom whereby the women who were present at a birth and who helped at the delivery cleansed their hands five days later and ran around the hearth carrying the child. On the same day little gifts, most often cuttlefish and octopuses, were sent by relatives. On the tenth day after the birth the child was given its name. This sort of small gift is recalled by Terence in the first scene of his Phormio. And Plautus in the Truculentus, where the prostitute Phronesium orders Dinarchus, who wants to go to bed with her when she was going to sacrifice 'on behalf of her adopted baby,' to do instead what was usually done on the fifth day. However Hesychius writes that the Amphidromia was usually celebrated on the seventh day. In the Theaetetus Plato calls the ritual [greek], in the neuter gender, and Ephippus does the same in Athenaeus' Doctors at Dinner book 9.

[greek], Singing brief life away with nothing but dill on the table. Said of a frugal man who gets through life on scant, slender resources and yet thinks he lives magnificently. This is visibly the habit of certain people who put nothing that can be eaten on the table, but, so that the meal should not seem to be a complete fast, tell a variety of stories or sing songs to persuade their guests to forget food.

St Jerome cites this phrase as being a proverbial saying: 'If he has no disputes, he's a bachelor.' The adage tells us that every marriage is full of strife and that the only way to live peacefully is in celibacy. Juvenal:
There is endless strife and quarrels one after the other
In the bed where a wife lies; there is no sleep to be had there.
There is support for this aphorism in several proverbial verses: 'A woman in the home means a bad time for the man.' And this: 'A woman's jealousy sets light to any house.' And this: 'There is nothing worse than a woman, even a good one.' But Hesiod, more moderately and so more truthfully I think:
A better fate never befell any man than a good woman;
Contrariwise nothing is ever worse than a bad one.

In the Women in Parliament Aristophanes uses the following proverbial senarius: '[greek] 'It is better to be entangled in one evil than two.' Whenever it is impossible to avoid one or the other of two evils we should strive to ward off one and meet face-to-face the one that brings the least disadvantage.

The scholiast of Apollonius quotes this line from Callimachus: 'It is both: a goad for the oxen and a measure for the land.' This may be used of anything that can be adapted to a different use, as I have shown earlier in the case of the Delphic sword. Callimachus means the stick that the Greeks call an [greek] and the Romans, if I am not mistaken, a decempeda. This is said to be an invention of the Thessalians, and is ten feet long. It is the same as shepherds used to use as a crook.

[greek], A Chian shitting. The scholiast of Aristophanes' Peace shows that this was a proverbial rebuke uttered against those who polluted the city and made it dirty. Any such occasion was used to invent slurs against the Chians. Whence it will be fittingly adapted to those who seize an opportunity to slander someone. Like the wolf in Aesop who accuses the lamb of muddying the water he was drinking. Aristophanes in the play I have just quoted: 'The city of the Chians will incur a fine because of your bowels.' The adage was probably derived from an incident that Plutarch relates in his 'Sayings of Spartans.' Some Chians, travelling in Laconia, vomited after a meal in the Assembly of the Ephors, the highest dignitaries among the Spartans, and emptied their bowels on the seats where the Ephors were accustomed to sit. At first a strict inquiry was made as to who had perpetrated this offence with the intention of dealing severely with any citizen who was responsible. When they discovered that the Chians had done it, they had an edict proclaimed which said, 'Permission is given to the Chians to behave like drunks.'

Someone is said 'to steal the sands of the sea-shore' if he takes what no one wants or guards. Ovid in the Amoves: 'Who would make love with the wife of a fool / Could steal the sands from a deserted shore.' A good match for this will be the one from Aristotle I noted elsewhere: 'The water-jar on the door-step.' It will be better if the adage is used with a negative implication: 'Who would steal the sands of the sea-shore?'

Οφιν ἐν τῷ κόλπῳ θάλπειν, Nourishing a serpent in one's bosom is said of someone who embraces an ungrateful person with affection and zealous attention when he is likely to seize some opportunity to do harm. It comes from a fable which is told under the name of Aesop and which a certain Gabrias put into iambic verse thus:
A certain farmer was nursing in his lap a viper
Which was stiff with cold, but the viper felt the warmth
And bit its nurse, who soon died of the wound.
This is how the ungrateful treat those who deserve well of them.
There is another fable too about a hen that was incubating a snake's eggs; she was warned by a swallow not to hatch it lest it brought her own destruction.

St Jerome makes fun of the style of Jovinian as confused and obscure and notes that it is aptly described by an expression used about writing in Plautus: 'No one but the Sibyl could read this.' The passage is in Plautus' Pseudolus where someone laughs at the handwriting of a woman friend, little marks badly formed, typical of women's writing:
These characters are after children, the way
They climb on top of each other.
The Sibyl may be able to read this, but I don't believe
Anyone else can make it out.
Lord save us! Have hens got any hands?
For it surely was a hen wrote this.

In the second book of the Doctors at Dinner Athenaeus records this senarius as a proverb: 'Any one who is impotent would not be helped at all by an onion.' Martial too: 'You can do nothing but satisfy your hunger with onions.' The onion arouses lust. But we may be allowed to use the adage for a more seemly purpose to mean that study is of no benefit if intelligence is lacking.

Marcus Tullius in book 6 of his Letters to Atticus: 'When he lost them he left without an explanation, saying, "I give in. 'Twere shame to tarry long," and casting in my teeth the old proverb [greek] "Take the goods the gods provide you."' He uses the same phrase in another place too. It is not entirely clear what it means unless we may conjecture that [greek] 'What is given ...' is a line by some poet, for it is an iambic hemistich. It counsels us to accept gratefully what fortune gives us and to bear patiently what cannot be changed. In the Gorgias Plato seems to point to this proverb: 'But now I am deceived by a lie, and it is necessary, it seems, to take my present fortune in good part, as the old saying runs, and [greek] "to accept whatever you give me."' [greek] 'For any gift be grateful' is dealt with elsewhere. The same idea is contained in 'As best we can, since as we would we may not.'

Adding stars to the heavens is a proverbial figure meaning to add to what already exists in great abundance. Proof enough of this would be the way Ovid wove it together with two other proverbs in the second book of his love poems:
Why do you add leaves to the trees, stars to a full sky?
Why add pond-water to the deep seas?

Παμφίλου νοσφισμὸς, Pamphilus' thievery. This Pamphilus is censured and abused in the Old Comedy because he robbed the treasury. The expression will be suitable for embezzlers who steal money from the public.

Πεγάσου ταχύτερος, As fast as Pegasus. A proverbial exaggeration describing people who can run very fast. From the well known story of the winged horse. Thus we find in Pindar Olympic Odes number 9: Faster than a noble horse or a winged ship.

Πλατάγῃ δοκιμάσεις, You will prove it by the 'pop.' Said of those who try by absurd means to find out others' intentions towards them. The origin is a common game for girls who strike the palm of one hand against a poppy leaf held between the thumb and middle finger of the other; if it makes a pop it is a proof of love, if not, it is a sign that love is absent. Suidas tells us this is done with the leaf of a poppy or anemone which is called πλαταγώνιον, from πλατάσσειν 'to crack.' Ammianus alluded to the adage in book 14: 'For when it is expressed truthfully and from the heart love shows itself by a slight sound.' So it will be a good moment for the proverb when a man's intention is clearly recognizable in his way of speaking plainly. Elsewhere I find πλαταγήν for the instrument by which we produce the sound, and πλαταγεῖν for 'to make a snapping sound.'

Πολλῶν ὁ λιμὸς γιγνεται διδάσκαλος, Hunger is the teacher of many arts. Ovid says: 'Misfortunes often stir the wits.' And Persius: 'That dispenser of genius, the belly, who has a rare skill in getting at words that are not his own.'

Πολλῶν πανηγύρεων διὸς βαλάνων ἔφαγεν, He has eaten acorns at many feasts of Jupiter. Said of a man who is old and wise through long and varied experience; it means exactly the same as 'He has lived many Olympiads.' The oak is sacred to Jupiter, whence the expression 'Jove's oak nuts.' People in my country still say nowadays, 'He has eaten many Easter eggs' as a humorous way of referring to an old man.

Προδίκου σοφώτερος, As learned as Prodicus. It is asserted that this Prodicus showed the most acute judgment in settling lawsuits and making decisions between disputing friends. Aristophanes in his Centaur, as quoted by Suidas: 'For my part, if anyone should commit an injustice, / I want Prodicus to consider the matter.' However there is an underlying allusion to the common noun; prodicus means much the same as praeiudicator, an investigating magistrate who gives an opinion on a case before it is sent before the judges. There was also a sophist of this name whom Plato mentions in several places.

Πτωχοῦ φίλοι οὐδ᾽ οἱ γεννήτορες, For a beggar not even parents are friends. Wealth attracts friends, poverty has no friends, not even those bound by Nature. We give so much importance in our lives to things that should have the least influence if we measured them by their usefulness and not by our greed.

Πυλωρὸς κακὸς, A bad gatekeeper; that is, a negligent leader or custodian. Derived from something a certain Thericyon said when he saw that Philip's troops had occupied the narrows of the Isthmus: 'The Peloponnese has bad gatekeepers in you, men of Corinth.' The Greeks call narrow places pylae 'gates.' The story is told by Plutarch in the 'Sayings of Spartans.'

Πύθου χελιδόνος, Listen to Chelidon, that is, 'Take care of your affairs in good time.' Some believe this originated with a certain diviner by the name of Chelidon. It is said it was his practice to observe portents and to infer the outcome of events from them. The source of this belief is said to be Mnaseas Patrensis in his Circumnavigation. Many prefer to think this is a reference to the swallow, because it is a bird with a screeching and mournful song, or because it announces the arrival of spring.

Σὲ δ᾽ οἰωνίσαιτ᾽ ἂν τις ἰδὼν. Anyone who saw you could take it as an omen. This was said at the expense of deformed or ugly people. The ancients used to derive an omen from the first person they encountered. To meet a handsome person was considered a fortunate omen; to meet an ugly or dark person was the opposite. One Roman emperor, Hadrian I think, being very superstitious in every way, saw it as an omen of death when he encountered a certain Moorish jester. The latter, when ordered to go away, made this rather ominous statement: 'You have conquered everything, you have achieved everything; now be a god.' For deceased emperors were included, following certain solemn rites, in the number of the gods.
Juvenal says: 'And whom you would not want to meet at midnight.'

Οὐ μάλα κυκᾷς, You are not exactly shaking everything. That is, 'You cannot do much either to benefit or to harm.' Pericles was said to have shaken the whole of Greece with his eloquence, because he changed everything to suit his own idea. And in Marcus Tullius people are said to 'shake everything' when they upset the state with their excessive power.

Ονου οὐρὰ τηλίαν οὐ ποιεῖ, An ass's tail does not make a sieve. To be used when someone is said to be unfit for this or that purpose. Sieves used to be made from horse-hair, not from the coarse hair of an ass's tail. I suspect Apostolius took this from the low language of our own age.

Αὐτῷ κρητῆρι γίνῃ κακά, Let evils fall on him, basin and all. This was often said of those who were the victims of the traps they set for others. 'Basin' is used to mean the source of evils; whence 'A basinful of evils' which is dealt with elsewhere.

Σταλαγμὸς οἴνου μυρίοις χοεύσιν ὕδατος οὐ μΐγνυται, A drop of wine is not mixed too often with water. Used when a little of what is good is mixed with too much evil. For wine is diluted and fades right away if you spoil a small amount with excessive water.

Τάυρος ὑπερκύψας τὸ ταΰγετον ἀπὸ τοῦ εὐρώτα ἔπιεν, A bull putting its head over Taygetus to drink from the Eurotas. A phrase for anything utterly absurd. Very like 'What if the sky should fall?' The source is a saying of Geradas the Spartan. When he was asked by a guest what the penalty for adulterers was among the Spartans, he denied that there were any adulterers among Spartans. When his guest insisted, saying, 'What penalty would he pay if there were any?' he said, 'He would pay for a bull big enough to stretch its neck out over Mount Taygetus and drink from the Eurotas.' The guest laughed and asked, 'Where would you get such a huge bull?' The Spartan replied, 'Where would you find an adulterer among the Spartans?' The story is told by Plutarch in his life of Lycurgus.

Τἀπὶ κοσκίνῳ, Pronouncements according to the sieve. Anything they would want to seem true and certain would be described thus. Very like 'Straight from the tripod.' It is derived from a type of divination that was performed by raising and shaking a sieve, as I have shown elsewhere, drawing on Aristotle and Lucian.

Διὸς κώδιον, Jove's hide. An expression for something paltry in itself but kept for some purpose or other. In early times the skin of a sacrificial victim was kept to be carried in the Eleusinian processions or was laid beneath the feet of those who were under constraint to expiate some impiety.

An aphorism like this is found in the Collected Proverbs: 'Good fortune rarely comes to those who seek it, bad fortune befalls even those who do not seek it.' And low-class people commonly say, not without some truth, 'Evils come of their own accord, uncalled for.' And yet time and again it is by our own fault that we bring on ourselves war, disputes, and illnesses, as if there were not evils enough of themselves.

Εκ τῶν γειτόνων ἔχουσι τὸ παράδειγμα, They follow their neighbours' example. Said of people who do something because they have been induced by the example of others. One man infects a neighbour with his illness; we are made worse by dealings with wicked people. This is certainly what Terence was alluding to in the Andria: 'What is so surprising about that, if he follows your example?'

Ελαχες τὸ Μ, Letter M has fallen to your lot. A riddle meaning stupid people, because in Greek the word μωροὶ 'fools' has this letter as initial. When the letter M came up for Dionysius as lots were being drawn, someone said jokingly: Μωρολογεῖς, Διονύσιε 'You say foolish things, Dionysius.' But he turned it another way and said Μονομαχήσω μὲν οὖν 'No rather, I shall fight in single combat.' This is how the story is told in the Greek Collected Proverbs,' but there is an error as is apparent from Plutarch who relates that Dionysius replied Μοναρχήσωμεν οὖν, which the translators, misled by the mistake in the text, render as 'We shall be monarchs.' The reading should be Μοναρχήσω μενοῦν, vt μενοῦν 'No rather, I shall be monarch,' μενοῦν being one word and adversative rather than inferential, because he corrects someone else's interpretation and adds 'No rather, I shall be monarch.' Who indeed would say, 'We shall be monarchs'? Anyway μοναρχήσωμεν does not mean 'We shall be monarchs' but 'Let us be monarchs.' Finally, if you read μοναρχήσωμεν as indicating a deduction, not a correction, what else is Dionysius saying than that he would be monarch precisely because he is foolish?

Εν πυθίου χέσαι, To shit in the temple of Delphi. This was said of someone who committed some abominable and perilous act, for the tyrant Pisistratus, having built the temple, inscribed a notice that no one should empty his bowels in the precinct, and imprisoned a foreigner who was caught in the act.

Εν γῇ πένεσθαι μᾶλλον ἢ πλουτοῦντα πλεῖν, Better to be needy on dry land than a rich man ploughing the waves. It is preferable to possess little in security than a great deal in danger. No one was content with wealth that depended on ship's ropes, much less wealth that can be snatched away by the winds. The proverb teaches us that a secure fortune, even a modest one, is to be preferred to uncertain ones even if they are greater.

Εν παῖσι μὲν γέρων, ἐν τοῖς δὲ γέρουσι παίς, A boy among old men, but the same person is an old man among boys. This will be applicable to someone half-grown, too old to look like a boy, too young to look like a man. The expression was used by rivals against Hermogenes the rhetorician. We may use it for someone who is educated to the point where he can appear quite learned among the uneducated but among scholars is an ignoramus.

Εν σπάρτα μόνῃ λυσιτελεῖ γηράσκειν, Sparta is the only place where it pays to grow old. This was said because among the Spartans the greatest respect was accorded to old people in ancient times. It could be used figuratively of any people who place a high price on virtue. Plutarch records this in his 'Sayings of Spartans' but as by an unknown author. It was a remark made by some visitor on seeing how much respect young people accorded to their elders. In his Cato the Elder Marcus Tullius attributes a similar remark to Lysander: 'Lysander the Spartan is said to have been in the habit of remarking that the worthiest home of old age was in Sparta. Nowhere is such tribute paid to age, nowhere is age more honoured.' There is a well-known story of an old man who went into the theatre and to whom no one among the Athenians would give a place; only the Spartan ambassadors showed respect for his white hair, honoured him by standing up, and gave him the most prestigious seat in their midst. When the Athenians in the crowd applauded what had been done for him, one of the Spartans remarked that Athenian people knew very well what was right but they took no heed of it. The story is told by many authors, including Valerius Maximus book 4 chapter 5, to name one.

In his Praise of Demosthenes Lucian says: 'But perhaps you are afraid of being the butt of the proverbial joke about an ill-judged sense of proportion, namely, "Beware that your little extra bundle isn't bigger than the bag."' The thylakos was a leather saddle-bag or satchel made for carrying loads. I am aware that in published versions we find τοὐπίγραμμα 'label' not τοὐπίσαγμα 'extra bundle.' However, unless you make some change in the text no sense can be derived from it. ἐπίσαγμα is from σάττω 'load' and means 'extras to the load.' The figure is derived from muleteers, who in addition to the proper load put on a number of small containers. So we shall be right to use this proverb when a digression is longer than the matter itself. Basil expresses the same idea in other words in his book on the Holy Spirit: Tn this way moreover the accessory would be much bigger than the main part.'

Ακαρνικοὶ ἵπποι, Acarnanian horses, was a term for the largest horses. Very like the expression that Aristotle also mentions [greek] 'A Thessalian mare.' In his Georgics Virgil awards the highest praise to the horses of Epirus: Epirus [gives us] the Olympian victories of her mares. The Acarnanians are neighbours of the Epirotes, as are the Thessalians. We can use it suitably for anything outstanding or highly prized.

Γεννητὸς γεγονὼς τήρει τὴν τάξιν, When you become a member of the tribe, keep your place; that is, after you are admitted to some body, perform your duty as the others do. The origin is the tribes of Athens. The population of Athens was divided into twelve tribes, following the number of months, and each tribe into thirty gene, according to the number of days. Hence , as they were called, were not people joined by close blood relationship, but those enrolled in the same division of a tribe.

Γλαῦκος ἄλλος ἱππόβρωτος, Another Glaucus, devoured by horses. This will fit a man who exhausts his resources in keeping horses. The origin is a legend, like the one that is told of Actaeon.

Γόργονα περσεὺς ἐχειρείσατο, Perseus has attacked the Gorgon. Said when someone undertakes some extraordinary deed. The legend is very well known. This is a proverb I would not have included if I had not found it in the Greek Collected Proverbs?

Δεσμοὶ τυῤῥηνοὶ, Tyrrhenian bonds, was an expression for irksome affairs that overwhelmed a person. Derived from the heavy, fatiguing fetters with which the Tyrrhenians chained their captives.

Δηρὸν βουλείει, Take a long time to think. A deal is not to be undertaken hastily. The complete line of verse is recorded thus:
Reflect at length so that you may prevail by far.
You should take time to think slowly, but when you have decided then you should do what is necessary in good time. Those who do otherwise usually find what happens is, as Plato says, that they begin in a hurry and finish too late.

Επιμενίδειον δέρμα, The hide of Epimenides. Used of something stored and preserved as a miraculous object. In some manuscripts I encountered the spelling 'Epimelidium,' but this is a corruption if I am not mistaken. It was noted there that this man's skin was concealed and preserved in Sparta as a sacred object. However Eudemus informs us that the source is Epimenides the Cretan, who is recorded as having slept continuously for forty-seven years, or if we believe Laertius, fifty-seven, and to have lived on for many years after that. Hence it is likely that his remains were preserved as the memorial of a miracle.

Ταχυβάμονες ὅρκοι, Fleeting oaths. This is what they used to call an empty oath that faded and flew away as soon as it was uttered, like those of lovers. This meaning is the one favoured by Suidas, but Aristarchus, quoted by Eudemus, understands it by antiphrasis, as meaning that an oath should be made with deliberation and not uttered rashly, for if you do swear an oath it should not immediately evaporate.

Ηττήθης τινὸς ἀλεκτρυονος, You have been beaten by some gamecock. A proverbial joke against slaves who walk behind their masters, supplicating and humble, like cocks who have been beaten in a fight. When defeated this bird is silent, but when it wins it crows, as Cicero tells us in On Divination. It is also said that a cock defeated in a fight will follow behind the victor of its own accord. The source is Aristophanes, if my memory does not deceive me. It is recorded by Eudemus.

Βατακάρας is an expression used of dull people who lack energy. Eudemus mentions it, adding that it should be read as one word [greek] 'joined together.' What the words may mean is still not very clear unless he has understood that it is a reproach for dullness of mind. For a lively mind makes us keep our head up; to have the head bowed is usually a sign of a rather dull, slow mind. And this is the source of the Greek word, for in the Tarentine dialect βατάς, as Hesychius tells us, means 'inclined forward' and κάρα means 'head.' From this comes Βάτταραι used by the Thracians for Bacchantes inspired by the spirit of Bacchus, who are also called Bassarides, as the Etymologist shows. On a lower level the term is used of a prostitute who submits to all and sundry. In Athenaeus book 4 καρηβαροῦντες is a word for people whose heads are fuddled with intoxication. It will be suitable for a drunk or sleepy person, which is how St Basil used it in one of his letters.

Εξίσου δίδου πᾶσιν, Give equally to all. A figure borrowed from those who share a banquet or an inheritance. It will be suitable for a judge or prince who must administer justice fairly.

Επαύλια δῶρα was an expression meaning splendid gifts. The Greeks used it for the gifts that the father of the bride brought in a sort of procession to the bride and groom the day after the marriage. In front walked a boy in a white toga carrying a burning torch. After him came one carrying a basket of flowers, and after him a long line of bearers of gold, basins, cleaning instruments, litters, combs, couches, caskets, sandals, cylinders, perfume vases, and sometimes the dowry itself. It is also said that the day itself following the wedding was the ἐπαυλιας, because that was when the bride was led to the marriage bed. The adage could be adapted to those who flaunt their good deeds. I believe these gifts are what the lawyers call παράφερνα 'goods that a bride brings over and above her dowry.'

Επὶ πόδα ἀναχωρεῖ, He's backing down, is an expression for someone who gives way through fear to a stronger person and withdraws to safety; it seems to be derived from wrestlers or gladiators. It is the same as the Latin referre pedem 'to retreat.' It will be applicable too to people changing their mind.

Επὶ τοῖς ὅπλοις ἀκκιζεται, Looking coy in his armour. Directed against a man who is pleased with himself and as it were admires his own figure dressed in armour. Suitable for someone who is foolishly self-satisfied. Recorded with others by the Etymologist. Acco, the woman who paid herself silly compliments in her mirror, is described elsewhere in the adage 'To feign indifference.'

Επι λειψυδρίῳ μάχῃ, You fight in Lypsidrium. Lypsidrium was a place not far from Mt Parnes, which tyrants fleeing from the city had surrounded with a rampart; the Alcmaeonid family was the first to establish itself there, but when they were besieged and defeated by the forces of Pisistratus, a satirical song began to be sung about them, which went like this:
Alas, alas Lypsidrium! betrayer of friends.
What men you have ruined, illustrious and brave fighters,
For they showed what ancestors they were descended from.
The proverb was directed against turbulent, belligerent men. The name of the place is due to its lack of water.

ἔρημον ἐμβλέπειν, Staring at a desert, was an expression describing someone who was looking with a fixed, thunder-struck gaze. It is a metaphor borrowed from people who gaze silently at a boundless sea or an empty place. A lot of people have trouble with their eyes in that, when they look at things that are a little too far away, they cannot see clearly. We could say sometimes to these people in a crowd that, because they do not focus their eyes on anyone in particular, they seem to be looking at a desert. This is Aristophanes, quoted from his Polyidus.

ἔστω ταμΐας, τἄλλα δ᾽ ει βούλει κύων, Do your job as intendant; in everything else you're free to be a dog. The sources say this is a jibe against someone to whom good fortune comes when he does not deserve it, and especially against eunuchs. Suidas tells us that in Athens [the tamies] was a magistrate appointed to the Decemvirate who guarded the monies that were designated sacred and public, and deposited in the temple of Pallas, along with the statue of Pallas itself and the rest of the temple ornaments. There were also tamiae triremium 'intendants of triremes,' who accompanied trireme captains as custodians. Though it was essential that uncorrupted men of complete trustworthiness should be appointed to the office, this magistracy was sometimes entrusted to thieves, as if it did not matter what sort of person you were to undertake the responsibility as long as it was assigned. As an irony the expression may be addressed to someone who enters on an office without worrying about what education or what morals the office requires, as if you were to say, 'Be a bishop by your office, and be a dog in your morals if you like.' Kings usually entrust their treasures and their wives to eunuchs.

Εφημέρου ζωή, To live as long as Ephemerus. An expression used of those who die or perish very suddenly. Derived from creatures called 'ephemerids' because they do not live longer than a day. In book 5 of his Natural history Aristotle has the following statement about ephemerids: 'In the summer the Hypanis, a river flowing into the Cimmerian Bosphorus, carries little pods rather bigger than grapes from which four-footed winged creatures emerge. This species of creature lives and flies about until the evening, but as soon as the sun starts to go down it wastes away, becomes weak, and dies as the sun sets; its life lasts no longer than one day, and this is why it is called an "ephemerid." ' Pliny has similar things to say in book 11 chapter 36, except that he calls the creature hemerobius. Aristotle is quoted by Cicero in his Tusculan Disputations book 1, where he adds that the Hypanis flows into the Black Sea from the European side.

Κύων τῷ πτωχῶ βοηθῶν, A dog helping a beggar. Used when we are faced by an enemy and the one whose help we were relying on supports the other side. For dogs are the enemies of beggars, being ὁμοτέχνοι 'practitioners of the same craft,' except when they are bribed with a bit of bread.

Ζεὺς ἀετὸν εἵλετο, Jupiter chose the eagle. Said when someone takes into his service distinguished people who are suited to his purposes. The poets have invented the idea that the eagle places the thunderbolt in Jupiter's hand because this bird flies higher than all others and cannot be harmed by a lightning strike. He used the services of the same bird in abducting his catamite Ganymede.

Η φρονεῖν ἔλασσον ἢ δύνασθαι δεῖ μεῖζον, You must be either less ambitious or more capable. Suitable for high-spirited people whose pride is not matched by their strength. Or for someone who is not afraid to provoke people whom he may not be able to defeat. [greek] can be taken to mean 'to be sensitive': people who are of humble station have to be silent about many things because they cannot prevent the wrongs they see being done, and they cannot do what they feel should be done. In the 'Sayings of Spartans' Plutarch attributes this saying to Archidamus the son of Zeuxidamus, seeing his son rushing too hastily and thoughtlessly to fight the Athenians: 'Either add to your strength or subtract from your courage.'

Θεοῦ δὲ δῶρον ἐστιν εὐτυχεῖν βροτούς, Success comes to mortals as a gift of the gods. The happy outcome of our affairs is not in us to determine, but depends on the will of the One above. It is for men to propose, but God disposes.

Θρὶξ ὕστριχος, A porcupine's bristle. This could be used to mean a biting sarcasm directed against someone. The expression derives from the animal that has the habit when provoked of shooting the sharp-pointed spines bristling on its back like darts even to some distance, and it does this by drawing its skin tight. With these spines it transfixes the mouths of dogs that pursue it. The porcupine belongs to the same genus as hedgehogs though it has longer spines. India and Africa are the main places where porcupines breed, as Pliny tells us in book 8 chapter 35.

Ιάνος ἄλλος, Another Janus. This will be suitable either for someone who is prudent and cautious or for someone who is two-faced and untrustworthy. Persius: 'O Janus, whom no stork ever pecked / From behind.' The origin is the two-headed figure of Janus; the legend is too well known to be recounted here.

[greek], You are putting a cloak round a fire. Used when something is thought to be absurd, or when someone promotes his own misfortune by favouring a prostitute or a flatterer or a false friend.

[greek], A Fury from tragedy. A term for detestable old women. It comes from Aristophanes' Plutus where it is said of the figure of Poverty: 'But perhaps she is a Fury out of tragedy.' In book 4 of his Geography Strabo reports that there are ten islands in the Gaditan ocean called the Cassiteridae, of which one is completely uninhabited, on the others live people who are dark in colour, wear tunics that come down to their heels and a sword belt across their chests, and carry a staff in their hands - in short, are very like the Furies of tragedy. From this it is clear this is the garb in which the Furies appeared in tragedies.

ἶσα πόλεμον οὐ ποιεῖ, Equality never gives rise to war. By equality we ensure peace; it is inequality that is the mother of discord. This is a maxim of Solon, as Plutarch writes in his life of Solon, informing us this saying was very popular: 'Equality never gives rise to war.'

[greek], The head of a fish begins to stink first. Used of bad rulers, whose contagion poisons the rest of the people. The expression seems to derive from the language of common people.

[greek], You would swallow even the baetylus. Used of a voracious person who puts everything into his stomach at once. The baetylus was the stone wrapped in swaddling clothes that Saturn swallowed, believing it to be Jupiter, as Hesychius tells us.

[greek], A cheap jar is never broken. The inferior man is often the longer lived and safer in dangerous situations. A similar figure is used commonly nowadays: 'Weeds do not die.'

[greek], Even the oak became a Maenad. An expression used of those who are not easily won over. It comes from the legend of Orpheus who charmed oak trees with his lute. Maenads are women inspired by Bacchus.