Category: Erasmus

Nature vs. Nurture in Crops and Kids

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Erasmus, Adagia 44:

Ἔτος φέρει, οὐχὶ ἄρουρα,

that is,

The year, not the field, brings forth the grain, a proverbial hemistich which is related in Theophrastus’ eighth book of On Plants:

Πρὸς αὔξησιν δὲ καὶ τροφὴν μέγιστα μὲν ἡ τοῦ ἀέρος κρᾶσις συμβάλλεται καὶ ὅλως ἡ τοῦ ἔτους κατάστασις. Εὐκαίρων γὰρ ὑδάτων καὶ εὐδιῶν καὶ χειμώνων γινομένων ἅπαντα εὔφορα καὶ πολύκαρπα, κἂν ἐν ἁλμώδεσι καὶ λεπτογείοις ᾖ. Διὸ καὶ παροιμιαζόμενοι λέγουσιν οὐκ ἄλλως, ὅτι ἔτος φέρει, οὐχὶ ἄρουρα. Μέγα δὲ καὶ αἱ χῶραι διαφέρουσιν

that is,

For growth and nourishment, much is affected by the temper of the sky and the condition of the year on the whole. For indeed if rains, calm periods, and winters occur at the right time, everything comes forth more happily and more abundantly, even in salty or less fertile fields. Thus, it is not unreasonable when they say proverbially that the year brings forth the crop, not the field. Yet it is of no small account what type of lands they are.

Here I thought it worth nothing that in the printed exemplars I have read οὐ καλῶς, that is, incorrectly, and this itself in my opinion is done οὐ καλῶς, partly because Theodorus of Gaza did not translate incorrectly in this passage, partly because it does not yet square with the real opinion of Theophrastus. For he concedes that it is true that the condition of the sky is of great importance (which is even attested by the proverb), and while not without cause is the entire account of the produce attributed to the weather, yet there is something decisive in the very nature of the soil. Therefore, I suspect that we should read οὐκ ἀλλῶς, that is, not by accident, in place of οὐ καλῶς. Yet I do indeed see that οὐ καλῶς can be defended. It is no wonder that Theophrastus disapproves of that common saying, which attributed everything of moment to the sky, though a great part depends upon the nature of the soil. Yet the previous reading mocks me, and I think that the learned will add their pen to my opinion.

He repeats the same adage in his third book On the Causes of Plants while relating the reason why wheat grows in both cold and hot regions. He hardly denies that the nature of the field contributes something to fertility, but says that the circumambient air has a much greater impact and the temper of the sky and the winds touches upon the matter, as well as what winds the field is exposed to. Plutarch notes in the seventh decade of his Symposiaca, second problem. Further, if I may extend the use of the proverb somewhat, it is not inappropriately accommodated to this thought, if someone says that education has a much greater impact upon virtue than birth does, and it clearly matters little from which ancestors you spring, but by far the most important thing is what methods were used to educate you and what habits you were instilled with. For we can see the sky as “leading up” [educating] what the earth brings forth. Euripides seems to allude to this adage in his Hecuba, whom he makes to speak thus:

Οὔκουν δεινόν, εἰ γῆ μὲν κακὴ

Τυχοῦσα καιροῦ θεόθεν εὔσταχυν φέρει,

Χρηστὴ δ᾽ ἁμαρτοῦσ᾽, ὧν χρεὼν αὐτὴν τυχεῖν,

Κακὸν δίδωσι καρπόν, ἀνθρώποις δ᾽ ἀεὶ

Ὁ μὲν πονηρὸς οὐδὲν ἄλλο πλὴν κακός,

Ὁ δ᾽ ἐσθλὸς ἐσθλός, οὐδὲ συμφορᾶς ὕπο

Φύσιν διέφθειρ᾽, ἀλλὰ χρηστός ἐστ᾽ ἀεί;

Ἆρ᾽ οἱ τεκόντες διαφέρουσιν ἢ τροφαί; |

Ἔχει γέ τοι τι καὶ τὸ θρεφθῆναι καλῶς

Δίδαξιν ἐσθλοῦ,

that is,

It is no miracle if, with the sky’s favor, bad earth bears good fruit. Good land which falls short of what was necessary will give forth bad fruit. But whoever of mortals is bad is unable to be anything but always bad, but the good always good. Does adverse Fortune not spoil the nature of man – does the good man always remain so? Do parents or the educators make the difference?  Indeed, being raised correctly has not a little of education in virtue.

Hecuba seems to attribute more to the mother than to education, and marvels on that account that the same thing does not happen in the character of mortals which occurs in the production of grain. Further, how much more education does than breeding is elegantly demonstrated by Lycurgus. Two dogs were brought before the multitude, of which one was born to a lowly mother but, on account of its education, pursued a beast with something like native ease, while the other dog, born to excellent parents, abandoned the hunt for the beast and stopped at the smell of bread and food because he had not been trained.

Ἔτος φέρει, οὐχὶ ἄρουρα,

id est

 Annus producit segetem, non aruum.

Hemistichion prouerbiale quod refertur a Theophrasto libro De plantis octauo:

Πρὸς αὔξησιν δὲ καὶ τροφὴν μέγιστα μὲν ἡ τοῦ ἀέρος κρᾶσις συμβάλλεται καὶ ὅλως ἡ τοῦ ἔτους κατάστασις. Εὐκαίρων γὰρ ὑδάτων καὶ εὐδιῶν καὶ χειμώνων γινομένων ἅπαντα εὔφορα καὶ πολύκαρπα, κἂν ἐν ἁλμώδεσι καὶ λεπτογείοις ᾖ. Διὸ καὶ παροιμιαζόμενοι λέγουσιν οὐκ ἄλλως, ὅτι ἔτος φέρει, οὐχὶ ἄρουρα. Μέγα δὲ καὶ αἱ χῶραι διαφέρουσιν,

id est

Ad incrementum autem alimentumque plurimum quidem coeli temperies et in totum anni conditio iuuat. Etenim si imbres, serenitates et hyemes accidant opportunae, cuncta felicius atque vberius proueniunt, etiam in salsuginosis ac parum pinguibus agris. Vnde non ab re est, quod prouerbio dicunt annum producere fructum, non aruum. Veruntamen non parui refert, quae sit regionum ratio.

Hic illud obiter admonendum duxi in impressis exemplaribus legi οὐ καλῶς, id est non recte, atque hoc ipsum, vt mea quidem est opinio, οὐ καλῶς, partim quod Theodorus Gaza verterit hoc loco non perperam, partim quod non perinde quadret ad Theophrasti sententiam. Nam is fatetur verum esse plurimum habere momenti coeli conditionem, id quod etiam prouerbio testatum sit, quo non sine causa tota prouentus ratio tribuitur aeri, tamen nonnihil etiam discriminis situm esse in ipso soli ingenio. Proinde legendum suspicor pro οὐ καλῶς, οὐκ ἀλλῶς, id est non temere. Quanquam equidem video et illud οὐ καλῶς vtcunque posse defendi. Nimirum vt Theophrastus improbet vulgare dictum, quod coelo momentum omne tribuit, cum et a soli ratione magna pars pendeat. Mihi tamen superior lectio magis arridet, atque huic meae sententiae doctos calculum suum addituros existimo.

Repetit idem adagium libro De causis plantarum tertio rationem reddens cur in frigidis pariter et calidis regionibus triticum proueniat, haud negans agri naturam nonnihil conferre ad fertilitatem, sed multo maximum momentum habere aerem circumfusum et cuiusmodi coeli ventorumque temperies contingat, tum ad quos flatus oppositus sit ager. Meminit et Plutarchus in Symposiacis decade septima, problemate secundo. Porro si libebit vsum prouerbii dilatare, non intempestiuiter accommodabitur in hanc sententiam, si quis dicat ad virtutem educationem longe plus adferre momenti quam genus, ac plane perparui referre, quibus maioribus sis natus, sed multo maxime quibus rationibus educatus quibusque moribus sis institutus. Nam coelum velut educat quod progignit terra. Ad hoc adagii videtur allusisse Euripides in Hecuba, quam ita loquentem facit:

 Οὔκουν δεινόν, εἰ γῆ μὲν κακὴ

Τυχοῦσα καιροῦ θεόθεν εὔσταχυν φέρει,

Χρηστὴ δ᾽ ἁμαρτοῦσ᾽, ὧν χρεὼν αὐτὴν τυχεῖν,

Κακὸν δίδωσι καρπόν, ἀνθρώποις• δ᾽ ἀεὶ

Ὁ μὲν πονηρὸς οὐδὲν ἄλλο πλὴν κακός,

Ὁ δ᾽ ἐσθλὸς ἐσθλός, οὐδὲ συμφορᾶς ὕπο

Φύσιν διέφθειρ᾽, ἀλλὰ χρηστός ἐστ᾽ ἀεί;

Ἆρ᾽ οἱ τεκόντες διαφέρουσιν ἢ τροφαί; |

Ἔχει γέ τοι τι καὶ τὸ θρεφθῆναι• καλῶς

Δίδαξιν ἐσθλοῦ,

id est

 Non nouum ergo, si mala

Fauente coelo terra fert segetem bonam,

Bona destituta, quibus opus fuerat, malum

Fructum aedit. At mortalium quisquis malus

Nil possit aliud esse quam semper malus,

Frugi vsque frugi. Sors nec ingenium viri

Aduersa vitiat, sed probus semper manet?

Vtrum id parentum an educantium magis?

Recte educari scilicet nonnullam habet

Doctrinam honesti.

Videtur Hecuba plusculum tribuere geniturae quam institutioni miraturque proinde non idem euenire in mortalium moribus, quod in prouentu segetum accidat. Porro quanto plus valeat institutio quam genus, Lycurgus eleganter ostendit prolatis apud multitudinem duobus canibus, quorum alter ingenerosa matre natus, propter institutionem gnauiter feram est insecutus, alter generosis ortus parentibus, quod institutus non esset, turpiter relicta fera ad odorem panis ac cibi restitit.

Herd Immunity

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Erasmus, Adagia 43:

Ἔβα καὶ ταῦρος ἀν᾽ ὕλαν, that is, Even the bull has set off into the forest. This is a pastoral proverb, an ugly little allegory, signifying the separation and neglect of an old girlfriend. Even if it will be permitted to draw it in this way into a more modest use, if it is accommodated by a joke to those who seem to neglect their earliest friends and to have become unaccustomed to the flock of their familiars and peers. It may also be applied to those who separate themselves from their usual pursuits and follow a different course of life. Theocritus in his Idyll, entitled Theonychus, relates it in the form of a proverb:

Αἶνος θην λέγεταί τις ‘ἔβα καὶ ταῦρος ἀν᾽ ὕλαν’,

that is,

It was once said that ‘the bull is withdrawing into the forest.’

For the lover is complaining that he was long ago left behind by his girlfriend, and he shows that it was a lot of time that Cynisca, that is Catella (for that was the girl’s name) was entertaining herself with a certain Lycus, and showed no inclination to return to her former way of life, in much the same way that bulls, who themselves occasionally wander off from the crowd of cows and either hang out with other bulls or wander in solitude through the groves, touched by no desire for women.

Pastors refer to that withdrawal and that divorce-like neglect with the peculiar word ‘ἀτιμαγελεῖν’ (‘herd-forsaking’), with a sense clearly composed ἐκ τοῦ ἀτιμεῖν, τὸ ἀτιμάζειν καὶ καταφρονεῖν, which is to say from ‘to dishonor, to neglect, and to rate as worthless,’ and from τοῦ ἀγέλη, which means the herd. Bulls are said to ‘forsake the herd’ when, having been set apart from interaction with the cows, care for them so little that they not only don’t seek intercourse with them, but they don’t even wish to use the same pastures. In his sixth book of On the Nature of Animals, Aristotle demonstrates the custom of this animal and the nature of the word given to this phenomenon with these words:

Ὁ δὲ ταῦρος ὅταν ὥρα τῆς ὀχείας ᾖ, τότε γίνεται σύννομος καὶ μάχεται τοῖς ἄλλοις. Τὸν δὲ πρότερον χρόνον μετ᾽ ἀλλήλων εἰσίν, ὃ καλεῖται ἀτιμαγελεῖν. Πολλάκις γὰρ οἵ γε ἐν τῇ Ἠπείρῳ οὐ φαίνονται τριῶν μηνῶν ὅλως δὲ τὰ ἄγρια πάντα ἢ τὰ πλεῖστα οὐ συννέμονται ταῖς θηλείαις πρὸ τῆς ὥρας τοῦ ὀχεύειν.

We will consider rather than number these words in this way:

‘But the bull, when it is time for intercourse, will then share the same pastures with the cows, and will fight with the other bulls. For, before that time, they were out to pasture with each other, and they call this ἀτιμαγελεῖν. Indeed, the bulls in the province of Epirus often do not appear for a space of three months; further, all wild beasts (or at least, certainly, most of them) do not congregate at shared pastures with the females of their species before it is time to procreate.

It seems to me worth noting in the version of Theodore of Gaza, for the word ἀτιμαγελεῖν, which Latin is unable to express properly, we find the word ‘coarmentari’ or ‘to herd together.’ That little piece of a word has poured a bit of fog over even the most learned men, such that they think that the passage in Aristotle is corrupt, and they bring to bear an entirely different interpretation on it by changing the reading, and they think that Theodore has hallucinated not a little in translating it. But I have weighed this matter out more diligently, and I seem to see the sense of Aristotle’s words to square exactly on this side of the change of any word. Clearly, a bull may spend time in the same pastures with cows when the time for breeding approaches, and may not come together with the other herds of bulls (but rather, wage war with them), while at other times bulls may enjoy the same pastures with other bulls and not pursue a life shared with the cows, choosing instead to spend time with each other, which is the case for pretty much all other animals. Clearly, this society of bulls with bills while the herds of cows are neglected is called ἀτιμαγελεῖν or ‘herd neglect’.

Now I ask, what scruple is there, why should we think that the reading of Aristotle must be changed, unless we are offended by the changed number of the words ‘bull’ and ‘are’, which is a common enough occurrence in that word of Aristotle. It can’t be doubted that the word ‘coarmentari’ here is not appropriate, but spurious, and has entered the work either from the carelessness of booksellers or the temerity of some person who possessed too little education. I suspect that we should read ‘dearmentari’ or ‘abarmentari’ (‘to be away from the herd’). I cannot be led to believe that Theodore, a man so perfect in every mode of learning, could have slipped so, especially in a word which is neither that unnatural or unusual in Greek authors, and one whose force and meaning is clearly indicated by etymology, and which is further read in Theocritus, an ultra famous and common author in his Νομεῖ ἢ Βωκόλοις, that is in his ‘Pastor or the Flocks’:

Χοἲ μὲν ἁμᾷ βόσκοιντο καὶ ἐν φύλλοισι πλανῷντο Οὐδὲν ἀτιμαγελεῦντες

that is,

But these are in the pasture at the same time, and they wander in the tall grasses, and they seek no separation from the flock.

In reference to this, the Suda has ταῦρον ἀτιμάγελον signifying τὸν τῆς ἀγέλης καταφρονοῦντα, that is, ‘one who neglects the herd. It seems to me that Vergil alluded somewhat to this in his Silenus:

Ah, unfortunate maiden, you know wander in the mountains. He, reclining his snowy side on soft hyacinth grazes on the pale grasses below a dark rock, or follows another cow in a large herd. Close, nymphs, Dictaean nymphs, now close the woodlands, if by chance the wandering tracks of a cow bear themselves before our eyes. Perhaps some cows may lead him, captured in the green grass or following the herd, to the Gortynian stables.

For, when he says

He, reclining his snowy side on soft hyacinth grazes on the pale grasses below a dark rock

he intimates that the bull is ἀτιμάγελον (‘herd forsaking’). The same is true when he describes the ‘wandering tracks of a cow.’ The poet, however, is talking about the bull whom Pasiphae loved, is engaged in herd forsaking in such a way that he neglects his own herd and follows other cows.

Further, on the fighting of bulls at the very time of copulation itself, Vergil writes in the third book of Georgics:

Nor is it the custom for the fighters to dwell together, but one goes away vanquished to an exile far away on distant shores, groaning much of his ignominy and the blows of the arrogant victor, and then complains of the loves which he has lost unavenged, and looking at his abode, departs from his ancestral kingdom.

For my part, I think that this expression, if it is bent a little bit, is proverbial, like the words καπροῦν et ἱππομανεῖν (‘to be lewd’ and ‘to be horse-mad’), and Theocritus seems to have reflected on that the most when he notes that it is said proverbially, Ἔβα καὶ ταῦρος ἀν᾽ ὕλαν’,  ‘And the bull has gone among the woods.’ The scholia on Theocritus have in this expression ἔβα κεν ταῦρος, with the conjunction καὶ changed to the explanatory κεν. They add that this is proverbially said of those who are absent and not likely to return. For if a bull flees once to the forest, he cannot be caught. For this reason, someone once elegantly said that a husband who has long been away from his wife is ‘herd-forsaking’, just as is a person who has ceased to visit his friends, and one who has abstained for a long time from the company of the Muses and his books. Similarly, one who abhors interaction with others and lives with himself may be called ‘herd-forsaking.’ And one who has wandered off and withdrawn from legitimate companionship will not wrongly be said to ‘forsake the herd.’ The expression of Aristophanes in Lysistrata is not far from this:

Οἴκοι δὲ ἀταυρώτη διάξω τὸν βίον,

that is,

I will live the celibate life at home, away from the bull.

For he has thus signified the celibate life of the woman neglecting the bull, that is, the husband. Thus Horace writes:

May Lesbia meet a bad end for showing you this impotent bull when you asked.

Ἔβα καὶ ταῦρος ἀν᾽ ὕλαν, id est Abiit et taurus in syluam. Pastorale prouerbium, allegoria subturpicula, significans diuortium ac neglectum veteris amicae.Tametsi licebit in vsum verecundiorem trahere hoc modo, si per iocum accommodabitur ad eos, qui pristinos amicos negligere videntur et a familiarium congerronumque grege desuescere. Aut in illos etiam, qui a solitis desciscunt studiis diuersumque vitae sequuntur institutum. Theocritus in Idyllio, cui titulus est Theonycho, nominatim etiam prouerbii vice refert:

 Αἶνος θην λέγεταί τις ‘ἔβα καὶ ταῦρος ἀν᾽ ὕλαν’,  id est Fertur et hoc olim in syluam secedere taurum.

Queritur autem amans se iam pridem ab amica relictum plurimumque iam esse temporis ostendit, quod Cynisca, id est Catella, nam id erat nomen puellae, sese Lyco quodam oblectet neque omnino curet ad pristinam redire consuetudinem, non magis quam tauri, qui et ipsi nonnunquam a vaccarum armentis secedunt et aut reliquis aggregantur tauris aut solitarii per nemora vagantur nullo foeminarum desiderio tacti.

Eum secessum eumque vaccarum neglectum quasique diuortium, pastores peculiari verbo vocant ἀτιμαγελεῖν voce nimirum composita ἐκ τοῦ ἀτιμεῖν, τὸ ἀτιμάζειν καὶ καταφρονεῖν, quod est despicere negligereque ac pro nihilo ducere, et ἐκ τοῦ ἀγέλη, quod armentum sonat. Ac tum ἀτιμαγελεῖν dicuntur tauri, cum segregati a vaccarum commercio adeo non curant illas, vt non modo coitum non appetant, sed ne pascuis quidem iisdem vti velint. Hunc animantis morem simulque vocem ipsam ei tributam rei demonstrat Aristoteles libro De natura animalium sexto his verbis: Ὁ δὲ ταῦρος ὅταν ὥρα τῆς ὀχείας ᾖ, τότε γίνεται σύννομος καὶ μάχεται τοῖς ἄλλοις. Τὸν δὲ πρότερον χρόνον μετ᾽ ἀλλήλων εἰσίν, ὃ καλεῖται ἀτιμαγελεῖν. Πολλάκις γὰρ οἵ γε ἐν τῇ Ἠπείρῳ οὐ φαίνονται τριῶν μηνῶν ὅλως δὲ τὰ ἄγρια πάντα ἢ τὰ πλεῖστα οὐ συννέμονται ταῖς θηλείαις πρὸ τῆς ὥρας τοῦ ὀχεύειν. Ea verba nos appendemus magis quam annumerabimus hoc modo:

At taurus, cum tempus coitus adfuerit, tum demum incipit communibus cum vaccis pascuis vti cumque  reliquis tauris dimicat. Nam ante id temporis inter sese pascuntur, quod quidem appellant ἀτιμαγελεῖν. Sane qui sunt in Epiro prouincia tauri, saepenumero trium mensium spacio non apparent; porro fera animantia aut omnia aut certepleraque ante tempus coeundi non aggregantur ad communes cum foeminis pascuas.

Illud admonitu dignum mihi visum est in versione Theodori Gazae pro Graeca voce ἀτιμαγελεῖν, quam Romana lingua nullo pacto reddere potest, scriptum esse coarmentari. Idque verbi doctis etiam viris non parum caliginis offudit, ita vt deprauatum apud Aristotelem locum existiment commutataque lectione longe diuersum sensum inducant putentque Theodorum in transferendo non mediocriter hallucinatum. At ego tota re diligentius pensiculata videre videor Aristotelicorum verborum sententiam citra vllius vocis commutationem adamussim quadrare: videlicet taurum aggregari cum vaccis et in iisdem versari pascuis appetente coitus tempore eumque non conuenire cum reliquis taurorum armentis, sed bellum cum aliis gerere, reliquis autem temporibus tauros cum tauris socialiter iisdem vti pascuis neque foeminarum conuictum sequi, sed inter sese agere, quod idem accidat in feris ferme omnibus. Hanc autem taurorum cum tauris societatem neglectis vaccarum armentis vocari ἀτιμαγελεῖν.

Quaeso quid hic scrupuli, cur Aristotelicam lectionem mutandam existimemus, nisi si quid offendit mutatus numerus in ταῦρος et εἰσίν, id quod Aristoteli praesertim eo in opere pene familiare deprehenditur. Dictionem autem illam coarmentari non germanam, sed supposititiam esse dubium non est, et aut librariorum incuria aut alicuius parum eruditi temeritate inductam. Suspicor enim legendum vel dearmentari vel abarmentari. Neque enim adduci possum, vt credam Theodorum hominem tam in omni doctrinae genere absolutum fuisse lapsum praesertim in voce neque magnopere prodigiosa nec inusitata Graecis autoribus, vtpote cuius vim vel ipsa statim indicat etymologia, praeterea quae apud Theocritum autorem vsqueadeo notum vulgatumque legatur ἐν Νομεῖ ἢ Βωκόλοις,  id est in Pastore siue Bubulcis:

  Χοἲ μὲν ἁμᾷ βόσκοιντο καὶ ἐν φύλλοισι πλανῷντο

 Οὐδὲν ἀτιμαγελεῦντες,  id est

 Atque hi pascuntur simul inque comantibus herbis

 Errant et non vlla gregis diuortia quaerunt.

Ad haec Suidas ostendit ταῦρον ἀτιμάγελον appellatum τὸν τῆς ἀγέλης καταφρονοῦντα, id est qui negligeret armentum. Huc mihi videtur nonnihil allusisse Vergilius in Sileno:

Ah virgo infelix, tu nunc in montibus erras.

 Ille latus niueum molli fultus hyacintho

 Ilice sub nigra pallentes ruminat herbas

 Aut aliquam in magno sequitur grege. Claudite, nymphae,

 Dictaeae nymphae, nemorum iam claudite saltus,

 Si qua forte ferant oculis sese obuia nostris

 Errabunda bouis vestigia; forsitan illum

 Aut herba captum viridi aut armenta secutum

 Perducant aliquae stabula ad Gortynia vaccae.

Cum enim ait,

 Ille latus niueum molli fultus hyacintho

 Ilice sub nigra pallentes ruminat herbas,

taurum innuit ἀτιμάγελον. Item cum ait: Errabunda bouis vestigia. Significat autem poeta taurum, quem adamabat Pasiphae, aut prorsus ἀτιμαγελεῖν aut eatenus ἀτιμαγελεῖν, vt suo armento neglecto vaccas alias sequeretur. Porro de pugna taurorum inter ipsos coitus tempore meminit idem Maro libro Georgicôn tertio:

 Nec mos bellantes vna stabulare, sed alter

 Victus abit longeque ignotis exulat oris

 Multa gemens ignominiam plagasque superbi

 Victoris, tum quos amisit inultus amores,

 Et stabula aspectans regnis excessit auitis.

Equidem arbitror hanc ipsam vocem, si deflectatur alio, prouerbialem esse, quemadmodum sunt et illae καπροῦν et ἱππομανεῖν, ad eamque potissimum respexisse Theocritum, cum ait prouerbio dici: Ἔβα καὶ ταῦρος ἀν᾽ ὕλαν. Scholia quae feruntur in Theocritum, habent ἔβα κεν ταῦρος pro καὶ coniunctione copulatiua mutata κεν expletiua; addunt esse prouerbium de his dici solitum, qui abessent non reuersuri. Taurus enim si semel aufugerit in syluam, capi non potest. Vnde non inconcinne quis dixerit maritum diutius ab vxore secubantem ἀτιμαγελεῖν et eum, qui familiares desierit inuisere, ἀτιμαγελεῖν et qui diutius a Musis ac librorum abstinuerit contubernio, ἀτιμαγελεῖν. Item qui a conuictu hominum abhorreat secumque viuat, ἀτιμάγελον licebit appellare. Et qui a legitimo contubernio aberrarit secesseritque, non inepte dicetur ἀτιμαγελεῖν. Nec prorsus abhorret ab hac forma, quod est apud Aristophanem in Lysistrata:

 Οἴκοι δὲ ἀταυρώτη διάξω τὸν βίον,  id est

 Domi absque tauro coelibem vitam exigam.

Sic enim significauit vitam coelibem foeminae negligentis taurum, id est maritum. Sic et Horatius:

 Pereat male quae te

 Lesbia quaerenti taurum monstrauit inertem.

An Iliad of Troubles

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Erasmus, Adagia 226:

Ἰλιὰς κακῶν, that is, an Iliad of troubles; used when speaking of the greatest and most numerous calamities, because in Homer’s Iliad there is no type of problem which isn’t covered. For this reason, the learned think that the premises of tragedies were taken from it, just as the plots of comedies were taken from the Odyssey. It is, however, a rather wordy work, hardly finished in twenty-four volumes. Thus, they call any speech which is a little more prolix than necessary ‘longer than the Iliad,’ as Aeschines, against Demosthenes wrote, ‘Ταῦτα δὲ εἰπὼν δίδωσιν ἀναγνῶναι ψήφισμα τῷ γραμματεῖ, μακρότερον μὲν τῆς Ἰλιάδος, κενώτερον δὲ τῶν λόγων οὓς εἴωθε λέγειν’ that is, ‘with these words he gave the decision to the scribe to be read, more long-winded than the Iliad, but more empty than the words with which he usually speaks.’

Eustathius inverts the saying thus: ‘Καὶ παροιμία μέντοι κακῶν Ἰλιάδα φησίν, αὕτη δὲ καλοῦ παντὸς Ἰλιάς,’ that is, ‘the proverb says an Iliad of troubles, but this is an Iliad of everything good.’ Synesius writes in a letter to his brother, Καὶ ὅλως κακῶν ἂν Ἰλιάς περιέστη τὴν πόλιν ἡμῶν, that is, ‘in sum, an Iliad of troubles has surrounded our city.’ Plutarch, in his Conjugal Precepts, writes, ‘Ὁ δὲ ἐκείνων Ἰλιάδα κακῶν Ἕλλησι καὶ βαρβάροις ἐποίησεν,’ that is, ‘but their marriage rites brought a whole Iliad of troubles upon the Greeks and the barbarians.’ For he is talking about the wedding of Paris and Helen, which was the cause of inestimable troubles. Cicero, too, uses this expression in his letters to Atticus: ‘such a great Iliad of troubles hangs over us.’

Achilles Lamenting the Death of Patroclus, by Nikolay Ge

Ἰλιὰς κακῶν, id est Ilias malorum. De calamitatibus maximis simul et plurimis. Propterea quod in Iliade Homerica nullum mali genus non recensetur. Vnde ex hac docti putant tragoediarum argumenta fuisse sumpta, sicut ex Odyssea comoediarum. Est autem opus verbosum, viginti quatuor voluminibus vix absolutum. Vnde et quamuis orationem plus satis prolixam Iliade longiorem vocant, vt Aeschines aduersus Demosthenem. Ταῦτα δὲ εἰπὼν δίδωσιν ἀναγνῶναι ψήφισμα τῷ γραμματεῖ, μακρότερον μὲν τῆς Ἰλιάδος, κενώτερον δὲ τῶν λόγων οὓς εἴωθε λέγειν, id est His dictis decretum scribae legendum tradit, prolixius quidem lliade, vanius autem verbis iis quae dicere consueuit.

Eustathius inuertit adagionem ad hunc modum: Καὶ παροιμία μέντοι κακῶν Ἰλιάδα φησίν, αὕτη δὲ καλοῦ παντὸς Ἰλιάς, id est Iliadem malorum prouerbium ait, at haec omnium bonorum llias. Synesius in epistola quadam ad fratrem: Καὶ ὅλως κακῶν ἂν Ἰλιάς περιέστη τὴν πόλιν ἡμῶν, id est In summa,  malorum Ilias circunstetit vrbem nostram. Plutarchus in Praeceptis coniugalibus: Ὁ δὲ ἐκείνων Ἰλιάδα κακῶν Ἕλλησι καὶ βαρβάροις ἐποίησεν, id est At illorum nuptiae Iliada malorum Graecis ac barbaris inuexerunt. Loquitur enim de coniugio Paridis et Helenae, quod inaestimabilium malorum fuit causa. Vtitur et M. Tullius in Epistolis ad Atticum: Tanta malorum impendet Ilias.

With Minerva Unwilling

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Erasmus, Adages 1.42:

“With Minerva Unwilling”

This phrase is most celebrated among the Latins: With Minerva unwilling, used to mean something like with one’s mind resisting, with nature rebelling, or with heaven being unfavorable. Cicero, in his On Duties, writes: With Minerva, as they say, unwilling. Cicero also writes in his twelfth book of Familiar Letters:

During the festival of Minerva, I conducted your case with Minerva not unwilling.

Again, in the third book of the same work:

Since you want it so, I think that I will do it with a not unwilling Minerva.

Horace writes:

You will neither say nor do anything with Minerva unwilling.

Seneca alluded to this when he said:

Minds respond badly under compulsion…

Minerva - Wikipedia

INVITA MINERVA

Latinis et illud est celebratissimum: Inuita Minerua pro eo, quod est: refragante ingenio, repugnante natura, non fauente coelo. Cicero in Officiis: Inuita, vt aiunt, Minerua. Idem libro Epistolarum familiarium duodecimo:

Quinquatribus frequenti senatu causam tuam egi non inuita Minerua.

 Rursum eiusdem operis libro tertio:

 Idque quoniam tu ita vis, puto me non inuita Minerua facturum.

 Horatius:

Tu nihil inuita dices faciesue Minerua.

 Huc allusit Seneca, cum dixit:

Male respondere coacta ingenia.

Pigs and Minerva, Round II

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Erasmus, Adagia 1.41

A Pig Has Undertaken a Contest with Minerva

This saying is the same or at least as close as possible to what we read in Theocritus’ Travelers: Ὗς ποτ᾽ Ἀθηναίαν ἔριν ἤρισε, that is, A pig has dared to compete with the goddess Minerva. How often the uneducated and the stupid and those prepared for a fight are not afraid to provoke the most eminent men in every discipline to a literary contest. The interpreter of Theocritus says that this saying is circulated among the common people thus: Ὗς ὢν πρὸς Ἀθήνην ἐρίζεις, that is, Though you are a pig, you contend with Minerva. Some scholiast or other adds that those are said to ἐρίζειν who contend with words, and those who content with facts are said to ἐρείδειν. So it’s all the more ridiculous if an unteachable pig vies with Minerva, the custodian of learning.

Athena | Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary

1.41

SVS CVM MINERVA CERTAMEN SVSCEPIT

Cum hoc aut idem aut certe quam maxime finitimum, quod apud Theocritum legitur in Hodoeporis:  Ὗς ποτ᾽ Ἀθηναίαν ἔριν ἤρισε,  id est  Cum diua est ausus sus decertare Minerua. Quoties indocti stolidique et depugnare parati non verentur summos in omni doctrina viros in certamen literarium prouocare. Theocriti enarrator sic efferri vulgo παροιμίαν scribit: Ὗς ὢν πρὸς Ἀθήνην ἐρίζεις, id est Sus cum sis, cum Minerua contendis.  Scholiastes nescio quis addit eos ἐρίζειν dici, qui verbis certant, ἐρείδειν, qui factis, quo magis ridiculum est, si sus indocilis certet cum Minerua disciplinarum praeside.

A Pig Teaches Minerva

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Erasmus, Adages 1.40:

A Pig…Minerva

The saddest adage among Latin authors is Ὗς τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν, that is, ‘A pig…Minerva’, where ‘advises’ or ‘teaches’ must be understood as the verb. It is typically said whenever someone uneducated or lacking in wit tries to teach someone from whom they should rather be taught. To use the words of Pompeius Festus, it is when someone teaches another that of which they themselves are ignorant. This is because the guardianship of the arts and the intellect is attributed to Minerva by the poets, as we have said. Further, there is no other animal more brutish or filthy than the big, either because it takes immeasurable delight in shit, which comes about because of the size of its liver, which is the seat of lust and desire, or because of the thickness of its nose and its blunt sense of smell, from which it occurs that it is not offended by the filth. Further, it is so prone and given to food that if by chance it is compelled to look upward, it suddenly falls into a stuporous silence because of the novelty, as Alexander Aphrodiseus tells us. Nor is there anything less capable of instruction, and seems not to be of any use (as some other animals are), but rather to have been given to us by nature simply for feasts. Pliny, in Book VIII Chapter 51 of his Natural History, attests to this when he says, Of all the animals, the pig is especially brutish and is thought, not unwittily, to have received a soul as salt. Varro, in the second book of On Agricultural Affairs says the same thing: They say that the swinish herd was given by nature for feasting. And so, they were given souls in place of salt, to preserve the meat. Indeed, in the fifth book of On the Ends of Good and Evil, Cicero explains what these words mean:

For of all things, which nature creates and guards, which are either lacking mind or not far from it, the highest good lies in their body, as it seems not unwisely said of the pig that a mind was given to that flock in place of salt, so that it would not rot. There are however beasts in which there is something similar to virtue, as for example in lions, in dogs, in horses, in which we see not only some motions in their bodies (as is the case in pigs), but even in some part of their minds.

Aristotle, in his Physiognomics, writes that people with a small forehead are incapable of instruction and unsuited for learning, and seem to belong to their own race, as if they were the farthest removed of all from docility and human arts. For the rest seem full of docility, from which now too we are accustomed commonly to call those who are lacking intelligence and born as if for their guts and stomachs alone ‘pigs’.

Nay, even Suetonius in his catalogue of illustrious grammarians relates that Palaemon was endowed with such arrogance that he called Marcus Varro a pig, and said that his letters were born with and would die with him. Further, if we wish to signify anything uneducated or illiterate, we say that it came from the pig sty, as Cicero says in Against Piso: Brought forth from the sty, not from the school. From this, then, comes the adage a pig Minerva. Luciius Caesar in Cicero’s second book of The Orator says, Thus I, as Crassus listens, will speak first about jokes and I the pig will teach him, the orator of whom, when Catulus had recently heard him, said that the rest might as well eat hay. Cicero also says in the first book of his Academic Questions: For even if it is not a case of the pig teaching Minerva, as they say, nevertheless whoever ineptly teaches Minerva…

Jerome says, in Against Rufinus: I pass over the Greeks, the knowledge of whom you toss about, and while you run after foreign things, you have almost entirely forgotten your speech, lest according to the old adage a pig seems to teach Minerva. Jerome also uses this phrase with different wording in a letter to Marcella, the beginning of which is Charity does not have measure.

Marcus Varro and Euhemerus refer the saying to fables, which can be conjectured from the words of Pompeius Festus, who says, They preferred to involve this thing, placed in the middle, with inept stories rather than relating it simply. The joke of Demosthenes is celebrated; when Demades was crying out to him Δημοσθένης ἐμὲ βούλεται διορθοῦν, ἡ ὗς τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν, that is, Demosthenes wants to correct me, like a pig correcting Minerva, Demosthenes responded, Αὕτη μέντοι πέρυσιν ἡ Ἀθηνᾶ μοιχεύουσα εἰλήφθη, that is, And indeed, this Minerva was recently caught out in adultery. The saying alluded to Minerva the virgin.

sir-oinks-a-lot

SVS MINERVAM

Tritissimum apud Latinos autores adagium Ὗς τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν, id est Sus Mineruam, subaudiendum ‘docet’ aut ‘monet’, dici solitum, quoties indoctus quispiam atque insulsus eum docere conatur, a quo sit ipse magis docendus aut, vt Festi Pompeii verbis vtar, cum quis id docet alterum, cuius ipse est inscius. Propterea quod Mineruae artium et ingeniorum, vt diximus, tutela tribuitur a poetis. Porro sue nullum aliud animal magis brutum magisque sordidum, vt quod stercoribus impense gaudeat vel ob iecoris magnitudinem, quae sedes est concupiscentiae ac libidinis, vel ob narium crassitudinem et olfactum hebetem, vnde fit vt non offendatur foetore; tum adeo pronum ciboque deditum, vt si forte sursum aspicere cogatur, protinus stupore sileat ob insolentiam, vt tradit Alexander Aphrodiseus. Nec est aliud magis indocile, proinde non ad vsum aliquem, quemadmodum pecudes nonnullae, sed ad epulas duntaxat a natura donatum videtur. Cui rei testis est Plinius lib. viii., cap. li. Animalium, inquit, hoc maxime brutum animamque ei pro sale datam, non illepide existimabatur. Idem affirmat Varro libro De re rustica secundo, Suillum, inquit, pecus donatum a natura dicunt ad epulandum. Itaque his animam datam pro sale, quae seruaret carnem. Atque haec quidem verba quid sibi velint, explicat M. Tullius libro De finibus bonorum quinto,

Etenim omnium rerum, inquit, quas et creat natura et tuetur, quae aut sine animo sunt aut non multo secus, eorum summum bonum in corpore est, vt non inscite illud dictum videatur in suem, animum illi pecudi datum pro sale, ne putresceret. Sunt autem bestiae, in quibus inest aliquid simile virtutis vt in leonibus, vt in canibus, vt in equis, in quibus non corporum solum vt in suibus, sed etiam animorum aliqua ex parte motus aliquos videmus.

Aristoteles in Physiognomicis scribit exigua fronte homines indociles et ad disciplinas ineptos videri atque ad suum genus pertinere, tanquam a docilitate humanisque artibus longe omnium alienissimum. Nam reliqua ferme docilitatis esse capacia, vnde nunc quoque vulgo insipidos istos et quasi ventri atque abdomini natos sues appellare consueuimus.

Quin et Suetonius in catalogo illustrium grammaticorum refert Palaemonem arrogantia tanta fuisse, vt M. Varronem porcum appellaret, secum et natas et morituras literas. Praeterea si quid indoctum atque illiteratum significare volumus, id ex hara profectum dicimus. Quemadmodum M. Tullius in

Pisonem: Ex hara productae, non schola. Hinc igitur natum adagium Sus Mineruam. L. Caesar apud Ciceronem libro De oratore secundo, Sic ego, inquit, Crasso audiente primum loquar de facetiis et docebo sus, vt aiunt, oratorem eum, quem cum Catulus nuper audisset, foenum alios aiebat esse oportere. Idem Cicero libro de

Academicis quaestionibus primo: Nam etsi non sus Mineruam, vt aiunt, tamen inepte quisquis Mineruam docet.

Hieronymus in Rufinum: Praetermitto Graecos, quorum tu iactas scientiam, et dum peregrina sectaris, pene tui sermonis oblitus es, ne vetere prouerbio sus Mineruam docere videatur. Vsurpat idem verbis commutatis in epistola ad Marcellam, cuius initium Mensuram charitas non habet.

Varro et Euemerus adagium ad fabulas retulerunt, id quod ex Pompeii verbis licet coniicere. Quam rem, inquit, in medio, quod aiunt, positam ineptis μύθους inuoluere maluerunt, quam simpliciter referre. Celebratur a multis Demosthenis scomma, qui cum Demades vociferaretur in eum: Δημοσθένης ἐμὲ βούλεται διορθοῦν, ἡ ὗς τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν, id est Demosthenes vult me corrigere, sus Mineruam, respondit: Αὕτη μέντοι πέρυσιν ἡ Ἀθηνᾶ μοιχεύουσα εἰλήφθη, id est Atqui nuper haec Minerua in adulterio fuit deprehensa. Dictum allusit ad Mineruam virginem.

 

Stop Talking Like a Professor

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Erasmus, Adagia 1.39:

Less Cultivated and More Clearly:

Indeed, that phrase is put less elegantly by the Greeks, but it has the same force: Ἀμαθέστερον καὶ σαφέστερον εἰπέ [speak less learnedly and more clearly], which is found in Gellius as well. He says,

‘For you know, I think, that ancient and commonly circulated phrase, Ἀμαθέστερον καὶ σαφέστερον εἰπέ,’

that is, Speak less learnedly and more plainly, and say it more openly and clearly. It appears to be taken from from a comedy of Aristophanes, titled Βάτραχοι, that is, The Frogs:

Ἀμαθέστερον πως εἰπὲ καὶ σαφέστερον,

that is, Speak less learnedly and more clearly. In this song, Bacchus chides the obscurity of Euripides, who had proposed something or other with insufficient lucidity. Suidas and an interpreter advise us that there is a proverb underlying it, which runs:

Σαφέστερόν μοι κἀμαθέστερον φράσον,

that is, Speak to me more openly and less learnedly. I suspect that it was taken from the fact that in antiquity, those sophists (as they call them) were accustomed to exert a fair amount of labor in covering over the mysteries of wisdom with certain enigmatical entanglements, clearly with the intention of keeping the profane mob not yet initiated into the sacred secrets of philosophy from following it. Nay, even today, some professors of philosophy and theology, when they are about to relate what any little old lady or workman might say, tangle and wrap up the matter with little spikes and portents of words so that they will seem learned. Thus Plato with his numbers obscured his own philosophy. Thus Aristotle, with all of his learned collections, made a lot of things more obscure.

640px-Frogs_of_Aristophanes_Playbill

RVDIVS AC PLANIVS     

Inelegantius quidem est illud apud Graecos, sed idem tamen pollet: Ἀμαθέστερον καὶ σαφέστερον εἰπέ, quod apud eundem refertur Gellium.

Nosti enim, inquit, credo, verbum illud vetus et peruulgatum, μαθέστερον εἰπὲ καὶ σαφέστερον,

id est Indoctius rudiusque quodammodo loquere et apertius ac clarius fare. Sumptum apparet ex Aristophanis comoedia, cui titulus Βάτραχοι, id est Ranae:

Ἀμαθέστερον πως εἰπὲ καὶ σαφέστερον,

id est  Indoctius proloquitor atque clarius. Quo carmine Bacchus Euripidis obscuritatem taxat, qui nescio quid parum dilucide proposuerat. Suidas et interpres admonent subesse prouerbium, quod hunc ad modum feratur:

Σαφέστερόν μοι κἀμαθέστερον φράσον,

id est  Apertius mihi loquere atque indoctius. Suspicor inde sumptum, quod antiquitus illi σοφοί, quos vocant, soleant mysteria sapientiae quibusdam aenigmatum inuolucris data opera obtegere, videlicet ne prophana turba ac nondum philosophiae sacris initiata posset assequi. Quin et hodie nonnulli philosophiae ac theologiae professores, cum ea quandoque tradant, quae quaeuis muliercula aut cerdo dicturus sit, tamen quo docti videantur, rem spinis quibusdam ac verborum portentis implicant et inuoluunt. Sic Plato numeris suis obscurauit suam philosophiam. Sic Aristoteles multa mathematicis collationibus reddidit obscuriora.

 

 

With a Thicker Muse

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Erasmus, Adagia 1.38

WITH A THICKER MUSE

Παχύτερα Μούσῃ, that is, with a thicker Muse. Quintilian brought out the same phrase in the first book of his Institutio Oratoria:

It is pleasing because of some less experience people to take away the doubt about this utility with a thicker Muse, as they say.

Sometimes among some not inadequate writers it is found with a richer formula for it, which is: more plainly and more intelligibly. Sometimes people said to speak Latin in place of that phrase, which was meant to signify:: openly and simply. Cicero writes in Against Verres:

Understand that I am speaking Latin, not Accusationese.

He also writes in his Philippics:

…but as is the custom with those, who speak plainly and in Latin.

In the Priapeia:

It is much simpler to say ‘let me fuck you in the ass’ in Latin.

Priapeia - Wikipedia

1.38 CRASSIORE MVSA

Παχύτερα Μούσῃ, id est Crassiore Musa. Eandem paroemiam sic extulit Quintilianus Institutionum oratoriarum libro i.:

Libet propter quosdam imperitiores etiam crassiore, vt vocant, Musa dubitationem huius vtilitatis eximere.

Inuenitur aliquoties apud scriptores non inidoneos pinguiore formula pro eo, quod est: planius atque intelligibilius. Dictum est et Latine loqui pro eo, quod est: aperte et simpliciter. M. Tullius in Verrem:

Latine me scitote, non accusatorie loqui.

Idem in Philip.:

Sed vt solent ii, qui plane et Latine loquuntur.

In Priapeiis:

Simplicius multo est, da paedicare, Latine/Dicere.

Thick Minerva

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Erasmus, Adagia 1.37:

WITH A THICK MINERVA. WITH A FAT MINERVA. WITH A THICKER MUSE.

Minerva, according to the stories of poets, presides over arts and minds. From this came the phrase: Minerva unwilling. Beyond that, there was also the phrase with a fat or with a thick Minerva, which is indeed sometimes granted the solemn honor of being treated as a proverb. Columella, in the first chapter of his twelfth book of On Rural Matters, writes,

In this study of the country, however, scrupulosity of that sort is not examined, but as it is said, as long as he has a fat Minerva, a useful presage of a future storm will fall to the overseer.

Similarly, in the preface of the first book:

For agricultural matters can be administered neither by the subtlest nor on the other hand, as they say, by a fat Minerva.

And again, he also writes in the tenth book:

Nor is the subtlety of Hipparchus necessary to what they call the more fertile letters of rustic people.

That is said to occur with a fatter Minerva which occurs with less order, and with more simplicity, as if with less learning, and not with refined or exceptionally exacting care. Thus, when that Priapus, asks with naked words, though he could have sought it more urbanely through verbal convolutions, he says, ‘My Minerva is thick.’ And Horace, describing a philosopher instructed not in those precise reasonings and subtleties of the Stoics, but as if, without any art, expressing his philosophy according to his custom, and not so much learned as simple and sincere, says,

A rustic, irregularly wise and with a thick Minerva.

Aulus Gellius, in Attic Nights 14.1, writes,

Nevertheless, it was his opinion that in no way could that be comprehended and understood by however brilliant a human mind in such a brief and exiguous space of life, but that some few things were subject to mere conjecture and, if I may use his phrase, with a παχύτερον,

that is, more thickly and with a fat Minerva[1].

RR-107-Rembrandt_van_Rijn-Minerva_in_Her_Study
Manuth, Volker. “Minerva in Her Study” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed.

1.37

CRASSA MINERVA. PINGVI MINERVA. CRASSIORE MVSA

Minerua iuxta poetarum fabulas artibus atque ingeniis praesidet. Vnde et illud fluxit: Inuita Minerua. Praeterea illud Pingui seu crassa Minerua, quod quidem iam olim prouerbii vice celebratur. Columella libro De re

rustica duodecimo, capite primo.

In hac autem, inquit, ruris disciplina non consideratur eiusmodi scrupulositas, sed quod dicitur, pingui Minerua, quantumuis vtile continget villico tempestatis futurae praesagium.

Idem in primi libri praefatione:

Potest enim nec subtilissima nec rursum, quod aiunt, pingui Minerua res agrestis administrari.

Idem libro decimo:

Nec tamen Hipparci subtilitas pinguioribus, vt aiunt, rusticorum literis necessaria est.

Dicitur pinguiore Minerua fieri, quod inconditius simpliciusque quasique indoctius fit, non autem exquisita arte nec exactissima cura. Vnde et Priapus ille, cum rem obscoenam, quam poterat vrbanius per inuolucra verborum petere, nudis verbis rogat, Crassa, inquit, Minerua mea est. Et Horatius philosophum describens non exactis illis Stoicorum rationibus atque argutiis instructum, sed veluti citra artem philosophiam moribus exprimentem neque tam disertum quam simplicem ac syncerum,

Rusticus, inquit, anormis sapiens crassaque Minerua.

Aulus Gellius lib. xiiii., cap. i.:

Nequaquam tamen id censebat in tam breui exiguoque vitae spatio, quantouis hominis ingenio comprehendi posse et percipi, sed coniectari pauca quaedam et, vt verbo ipsius vtar, παχύτερον, id est crassius et pingui Minerua.

 

[1] Erasmus is stretching the application of this excerpt.

Pride and Proportionality

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Erasmus, Adagia 1.36:

IN THE SAME PROPORTION:

As we recently related, this phrase seems to pertain equally to the reciprocation of both duty and of injury, but it should refer even more to the recompense for some favor, because Hesiod says:

Αὐτῷ τῷ μέτρῳ, καὶ λώϊον, αἴ κε δύνηαι,

that is, Either in the same proportion, or even better, if it is possible. With this phrase, he teaches that some duty is to be repaid either in the same measure or in an even greater degree, if the opportunity allows, and that in this respect especially we should imitate the fertile fields, which customarily return the seed deposited in them with much interest.

A passage from Lucian’s Imagines is cited in turn:

Αὐτῷ μέτρῳ φασὶ <ἢ> και λώϊον,

that is, In the same proportion, as they say, or better. Cicero, in his thirteenth book of Letters to Atticus, writes:

‘I was preparing myself for that which he had send me so that αὐτῷ τῷ μέτρω καὶ λώϊον [in the same proportion or better], if only I could. For Hesiod even adds this phrase, αἴ κε δύνηαι [if only you are able].

He was not weighed down by this adage, just like our instructor Christ in the Gospel, when he says that some day, with whatever proportion we have measured out to others, it will be with that same proportion that others measure out to us. He speaks thus in Matthew:

Ἐν ᾧ γὰρ κρίματι κρίνετε, κριθήσεσθε, καὶ ἐν ᾧ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτε, μετρηθήσεται ὑμῖν,

that is, In whatever judgment you judge, in that you will be judged, and in whatever proportion you measure out to others, in that proportion they will measure out to you.

Erasmus - Wikipedia

I 36      EADEM MENSVRA

Quod modo retulimus, videtur pariter et ad officii et ad iniuriae retaliationem pertinere, verum ad beneficii pensationem magis referendum, quod ait Hesiodus:

Αὐτῷ τῷ μέτρῳ, καὶ λώϊον, αἴ κε δύνηαι,

id est

Aut mensura eadem, aut melius quoque, si qua facultas.

Quo docet officium remetiendum esse eadem mensura aut etiam copiosiore, si suppetat facultas, prorsumque hac parte imitandos esse foecundos agros, qui sementem depositam multo cum foenore reddere consueuerunt.

Citatur a Luciano prouerbii vice in Imaginibus:

Αὐτῷ μέτρῳ φασὶ <ἢ> και λώϊον,

id est Eadem mensura, quod aiunt, aut melius. M. Tullius Epistolarum ad Atticum libro decimotertio:

Ego autem me parabam ad id, quod ille mihi misisset, vt αὐτῷ τῷ μέτρω καὶ λώϊον, si modo potuissem. Nam hoc etiam Hesiodus asscribit, αἴ κε δύνηαι.

Hoc adagio non grauatus est vti praeceptor noster Christus in Euangelio, cum ait futurum, vt qua mensura fuerimus aliis emensi, eadem nobis alii remetiantur. Sic enim loquitur apud Matthaeum:

Ἐν ᾧ γὰρ κρίματι κρίνετε, κριθήσεσθε, καὶ ἐν ᾧ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτε, μετρηθήσεται ὑμῖν,

id est In quo iudicio iudicatis, in eo iudicabimini, et qua mensura metimini aliis, illa remetientur vobis).