The goat at the knife

Explanation

proverb of those who do themselves harm, from such a story. The Corinthians, performing their yearly sacrifice to Hera — to her established by Medea and called Acraea — used to sacrifice a goat to the goddess. Some of the hired attendants who brought the goat hid the knife and pretended to have forgotten where they had laid it; but the goat, scratching with her hoofs, uncovered it, and so refuted their pretence and brought about her own slaughter. Whence the proverb.