Centuria 1
Entries 1.1-1.100
1.1
An Abydene dessert
said of unpleasant things. Eudoxus mentions it in his Hypobolimaeus. They say the Abydenes had the custom, after the dinner and libations, of bringing in their children with t...
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1.2
An Agathonian flute-tune
a soft melody, neither shrill nor slack, but well-tempered and most sweet. Said from Agathon the flute-player, who was lampooned in comedy for his softness.
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1.3
The Goods of Cillicon
supply "he has." For this Cillicon, a Milesian by birth, was a traitor who grew rich by betraying Miletus.
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1.4
The life of Habron
said of the extravagant. There was a certain Habron who was rich and luxurious. The name may also be derived from habros ("dainty"). [Pun: Habrōn / habros "luxurious."]
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1.5
A Cercopes' market
said of the wicked and ill-natured. The Cercopes were certain swindlers who tried to deceive Zeus.
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1.6
Wells of Agamemnon
of great works. They say Agamemnon dug wells around Aulis and in many places throughout Greece.
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1.7
The Mirthless Rock
said of things that bring grief. This rock is in Attica, on which Demeter sat down when she was searching for her daughter. For Pluto, having fallen in love with Persephone, car...
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1.8
You have eaten of a wild beast
as if of a wild animal. Those who have eaten are wont to yawn. [Pun: those who have feasted on game gape, like the beast itself.]
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1.9
A sea of good things
said of an abundance of blessings.
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1.10
A heap of good things
said of great prosperity.
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1.11
An anthill of good things
of abundant good fortune.
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1.12
Even barley-cake is good after bread
said of those who give some persons second place.
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1.13
An Agamemnon's sacrifice
of the stubborn and intractable. For when Agamemnon was sacrificing at Troy the bull ran off and could barely be caught and brought back.
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1.14
The good are quick to tears
of those much inclined to pity.
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1.15
Despise not a rustic orator
the proverb advises us not to despise even those of mean station.
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1.16
Most unbending is a dry bramble
said of one harsh and self-willed in temper.
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1.17
God is in want of nothing
a proverb, inasmuch as God needs no man.
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1.18
An Admetus song
the song sung to Admetus, a song of mourning. This Admetus was king of Pherae, whom Apollo served as a labourer for the following reason. Asclepius son of Apollo, having been ta...
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1.19
To sing to the myrtle-branch
it was the custom that one who could not sing at a banquet, taking a sprig of laurel or myrtle, should sing to that.
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1.20
The beetle midwifes the eagle
proverb. For the beetles destroy the eagles' eggs by rolling them away, since the eagles pick up and devour the beetles.
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1.21
Bread already ground, dough already kneaded
of what is ready, at hand, and effortless.
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1.22
Another life, another way of living
of those who have changed to a better life.
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1.23
You sleep though carrying salt
of those who sleep and take their ease in the midst of great peril. For when a certain merchant had filled his ship with salt and was sleeping, the bilge-water rose and dissolve...
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1.24
Be at one time one thing, at another another, and follow the country
that each man should make himself like to those among whom he finds himself; from the metaphor of the octopus.
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1.25
Salt and bean
of those who pretend to know something but do not. Since seers were accustomed to set salt and a bean before those consulting the oracle; whence also they used to set a bean bef...
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1.26
The heavenly goat
Cratinus says: just as Amalthea is the goat of Zeus, so the "heavenly goat" is of those who take bribes. They are wont, in comic mockery, so to call those who furnish to others...
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1.27
The goat at the knife
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...
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1.28
A tearless war
of those who succeed in their affairs most easily and beyond hope, free from any danger.
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1.29
You hunt the impossible
of one undertaking things beyond his strength.
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1.30
Adrastean Nemesis
from Adrastus; applied to those once prosperous and afterwards unfortunate. For Eteocles and Polynices, after the destruction of their father Oedipus, having received the kingsh...
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1.31
The Looting of Cinnaras
Callimachus mentions this in his iambics; and Timaeus said that Cinnaras was a brothel-keeper of Selinus. Having grown extremely rich from his trade, while alive he kept proclai...
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1.32
A Scyrian sovereignty
proverb of cheap things bringing no profit, inasmuch as Scyros is rocky and barren.
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1.33
A burning robe
of those who kindle, ruin, and stir up slanders. Said because Deianira sent Heracles a robe by which he was burnt up and destroyed. For when Heracles had defeated the Centaurs,...
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1.34
To weep blood
by hyperbole, weeping not tears but blood.
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1.35
We took, and were taken
of those who hoped to overcome certain men but were themselves caught by them.
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1.36
The Graces are naked
either because one ought to bestow favours unstintingly and openly; or because the ungrateful have stripped themselves of their proper adornment.
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1.37
The cranes of Ibycus
said of those who, beyond expectation, are punished for their crimes. For Ibycus, while being murdered by robbers, saw cranes flying overhead and called them to witness. Some ti...
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1.38
You speak to the shore
of the unhearing. Like the saying, "You converse with the wind."
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1.39
To row the windless air
of those who toil in vain.
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1.40
Beginning from Hestia
transferred from rites at the altar. For it was the custom to make first-offerings to Hestia.
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1.41
The cap of Hades
against those who hide themselves by sundry contrivances. Such was the cap of Hades, by use of which Perseus cut off the head of the Gorgon. The story is as follows. When Acrisi...
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1.42
The goat hasn't yet given birth, but the kid plays on the housetop
of things not yet born of which men nevertheless speak.
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1.43
Ajax's laughter
of those who laugh madly. For Ajax fell sick of madness when Odysseus was preferred to him for the arms of Achilles, and rushed sword in hand against the Greeks; turned, by the...
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1.44
To satiety
there was a proverb, "That man is insensible to satiety"; and "He was a fraudster to the limit."
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1.45
Sing the songs of Tellen
set down for jesters. Tellen was a flute-player and lyric poet, who left behind playful pieces of the most rhythmical and graceful sort, and the most polished jokes.
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1.46
Scrubbing an Ethiopian
of those who labour in vain at an unaccomplishable task.
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1.47
The blood of Aesop
of those held fast by reproaches and ills hard to wash off; since the divine power was angry with the Delphians for unjustly killing Aesop, and on account of this they say the P...
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1.48
The Aegieans, neither third nor fourth
of cheap, worthless men. The Aegieans of Achaea, having defeated the Aetolians, asked the Pythia which of the Greeks were the best; she answered, "But you Aegieans are neither t...
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1.49
More fruitless than the gardens of Adonis
said of those incapable of producing anything noble; Plato mentions it in the Phaedrus. These gardens of Adonis are sown in earthen pots and grow only as far as a green shoot;...
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1.50
Untimely goodwill differs nothing from enmity
they say Hippolytus said this to Phaedra when she declared that she loved and cherished him beyond all men.
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1.51
An Acanthian cicada
said of the voiceless and unmusical, since the cicadas of Acanthus do not sing.
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1.52
Acesias healed it
of those who make a thing worse by healing it. Aristophanes gives the whole in tetrameters: "Acesias healed his backside." For there was a certain Acesias, an inept physician, w...
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1.53
Acco
of fools. Acco was a woman notorious for foolishness, who, they say, used to look in a mirror and address her reflection as if it were another person; whence the verb "to acco-i...
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1.54
Hearken to him who has four ears
of the disobedient. An oracle was given to Entimus the Cretan and Antiphemus the Rhodian, to beware of "the four-eared one"; this was a Phoenician pirate; they neglected the ora...
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1.55
To stir what should not be stirred
by hyperbole; that one ought not to disturb either altars, tombs, or shrines of heroes.
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1.56
The works of Aceseus and Helicon
of things worthy of wonder. These two were the first to weave the robe of Athena Polias — Aceseus by birth a Patarean, and Helicon a Carystian.
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1.57
Take the tip and you will have the middle
of obscure and hard-to-understand sayings. The colonists who settled Aegina, having been driven by war from their country, consulted the god, who delivered to them the above res...
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1.58
To feed a whetstone
of those who eat much yet add nothing to their bodies.
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1.59
A headless tale
of those who tell incomplete things. Plato: "If I should willingly leave my tale headless."
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1.60
More fruitless than a wild olive
said of those wholly destitute. The Laconians call the wild olive agrippos.
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1.61
To touch with the fingertip
of those who are not properly trained; e.g., "Not, as the proverb has it, having so much as touched it with a fingertip."
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1.62
Not to transgress salt and table
since one must treat as friends those who have shared these with us.
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1.63
There's no salt in him
said ironically of the brackish [tasteless] and unpleasant person. [Pun: "salt" = wit; the man has neither flavour nor wit.]
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1.64
But like a hero on his shield I wish to entertain you
said of those who benefit their friends by means of their own works or crafts; inasmuch as the heroes of old were entertained as guests in their armour.
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1.65
Some toiled, others enjoyed
of those who, contrary to expectation, inherit what belongs to others.
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1.66
You needn't deliberate at the very altar
that one ought not to take counsel in the midst of affairs themselves but before them; inasmuch as those who bring victims for sacrifice deliberate before performing the offering.
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1.67
But not a second time will the fox
supply: "be caught in snares"; inasmuch as having once escaped the snares, she will not fall in a second time. The proverb is said of those who have escaped a wicked sycophant.
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1.68
To find fault with a cock's gizzard
of those luxurious and dainty in their manner of life.
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1.69
The owl says one thing, the crow another
of those who quarrel with their betters; or of those who do not agree with one another.
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1.70
To play the fox against another fox
of those who try to deceive their like.
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1.71
The fox is not bribed
of those not easily caught by gifts.
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1.72
You sing in vain
of those who labour to no purpose.
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1.73
Some have a tongue, others have molars
inasmuch as some are talkers, others gluttons.
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1.74
Leuco says one thing, but Leuco's ass carries another
said of those whose words do not agree with their deeds. Leuco was a certain farmer who put skins of honey into baskets and conveyed them to Athens. He had also put barley into...
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1.75
We baled out one batch, and another keeps flowing in
of those who toil and accomplish nothing more. For when, the ship leaking, the sailors bale out the bilge-water, and yet more flows in, they seem to labour in vain.
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1.76
To meet with better omens
of those who pass from evils to good.
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1.77
Word and deed at once
of things accomplished swiftly and sharply.
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1.78
Sloth's corner
of those who sit idle and lazy. There is also a place in Libya called "Sloth's Corner."
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1.79
More unmusical than the Leibethrians
of the unmusical and uneducated. The Leibethrians are a Pierian people, having no notion at all of either melody or poetry. They are said to be the most unmusical, since the dea...
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1.80
To count the sand
of impossible and unattainable things.
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1.81
No sooner pitied than the favour is dead
of those who, when benefited, straightway forget the kindness.
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1.82
We once were
a Laconian proverb. The older men in Sparta, dancing, used to say, "Ammes pot' ēmes" — that is, "We once were."
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1.83
They asked for shovels, but the others denied having tubs
of those asked for one thing who deny having something else.
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1.84
If meat be not at hand, salt-fish must do
it teaches that one must be content with what is present.
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1.85
Not even gods fight against necessity.
Not even gods fight against necessity.
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1.86
A man in flight does not stop for the sound of the lyre
of those who must do each thing swiftly and sharply.
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1.87
The Lydian had no troubles, but went out and bought some
of those who draw evils on themselves; inasmuch as Croesus drew Cyrus upon himself as an enemy.
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1.88
A scorpion-fish in place of a perch
of those who choose the worse instead of the better.
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1.89
The doors of the Muses stand open
of those who readily obtain the fairest things in education.
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1.90
When a man fares ill, his friends are out of the way
of those who in misfortunes find no helper, their friends having fled.
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1.91
Man is a god to man
of those who, beyond expectation, are saved by a man, or prosper through one.
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1.92
If he asks for wine, give him a fist
of those who ask for good things and get cruel ones. The story is from the Cyclops, inasmuch as he asked Odysseus for wine and lost his eye for it. For the Cyclops, having shut...
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1.93
If the lion's skin won't reach, sew on the fox's
if you cannot harm openly, use cunning. If what is set before you cannot be accomplished by force, let what is lacking be brought to pass by stratagem and craft. The proverb is...
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1.94
To stork-back [antipelargein, "return like a stork"]
of those who repay favours. For storks are said to feed their parents in old age, and, when they cannot fly, to carry them on their shoulders.
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1.95
Climbing onto the roof with unwashed feet
of those who come ignorantly to certain works and undertakings.
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1.96
An old man's skull is a raisin
of things useful for nothing, since the whole body of old men is feeble. [Pun: dry, withered, and good-for-nothing — like an old raisin.]
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1.97
Never look at an old man's rump
of things useless for some purposes.
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1.98
To bale with both
supply: "hands." Of those doing something with eagerness. Like the saying, "Shake out every reef."
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1.99
You farm the winds
against those who labour and gain no share. Since the wind makes everything grow and increase, but itself receives nothing, or carries off only chaff.
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1.100
Instead of a bad dog, you ask for a pig
of those who demand good things in place of bad.
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