Erasmus, Adagia 1.1.16:
“Μεταξὺ τοῦ ἄκμονος καὶ σφύρας, that is, between the anvil and the hammer. Something not dissimilar to this is related by the theologian Origen in a certain homily on Jeremiah in these words: (for we want Greek). There is now among nations a certain proverb, now worn out by being commonly bandied about in vulgar parlance, so that they say of those who are pressed by anxieties and weighty evils, that they are between the hammer and the anvil.”
Inter malleum et incudem.
Μεταξὺ τοῦ ἄκμονος καὶ σφύρας, id est Inter incudem et malleum. Huic non dissimile refertur ab Origene theologo quadam in Hieremiam homilia his quidem verbis : (nam Graeca desideramus) Jam quoddam est apud nationes tritum vulgi sermone proverbium, ut de his qui anxietatibus et ingentibus malis premuntur, dicant : Inter malleum et incudem.
