Weary of Thucydides and Tacitus

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John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 3 February 1812

“I have read Thucidides and Tacitus, So often, and at Such distant Periods of my Life, that elegant, profound and enchanting as is their Style, I am weary of them. When I read them I Seem to be only reading the History of my own Times and my own Life. I am heartily weary of both; i.e. of recollecting the History of both: for I am not weary of Living. Whatever a peevish Patriarch might Say, I have never yet Seen the day in which I could Say I have had no Pleasure; or that I have had more Pain than Pleasure.”

A Fable on Facades

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The Fox and the Tragic Mask, Phaedrus 1.7

By chance a fox had seen a tragic mask:
What a sight, he has no brains inside!–he gasped.
To whomever fortune grants honor and glory,
It deprives of common sense, as in this story.

MaskTragedy168.jpg

Personam tragicam forte vulpes viderat:
O quanta species, inquit, cerebrum non habet!
Hoc illis dictum est, quibus honorem et gloriam
Fortuna tribuit, sensum communem abstulit.

Wau! Some Proverbs for Wednesday

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The Greek letter digamma (Ϝ), closest to our glide –w– existed in Mycenaean Greek (wanax instead of anaks) and its force can be felt in Homeric formulae (e.g. Il. 1.39: Κίλλάν τε ζαθέην Τενέδοιό τε ἶφι ἀνάσσεις where hiatus is twice  preserved because the line may have been τε Ϝἶφι Ϝἀνάσσεις ) and seen in inscriptions.

Digama image

For this reason, I can’t do the ever-clever thing where I pluck proverbs from the Suda that begin with the Greek letter that corresponds to the English day of the week. Lazily, I am reverting to upsilon. The results are, uber-interesting. And, since in late antiquity once a seven-day week was adopted in Greece our Wednesday was dedicated to Hermes, why not perform a ridiculous translation?

Not a proverb, but funny:

“Oo, oo, oo, oo…: A surprised utterance which we typically make when we smell some savory smoke.”

Ϋϋ ϋϋ, ϋϋ ϋϋ, ϋϋ ϋϋ: ἐπίρρημα θαυμαστικόν: ὅπερ ἐν τῇ συνηθείᾳ λέγομεν, ὀσφραινόμενοί τινος κνίσους.

 

Healthy Insects?

“Healthier than a tick”: A proverb used for people who are entirely healthy. It comes from the animal, the tick which is completely smooth and has neither blemish nor injury.”

Ὑγιέστερος Κρότωνος: ἐπὶ τῶν πάνυ ὑγιαινόντων ἡ παροιμία. ἀπὸ τοῦ ζῴου τοῦ κρότωνος: λεῖον γάρ ἐστιν ὅλον καὶ χωρὶς ἀμυχῆς καὶ μηδὲν ἔχον σίνος.

Insanity

“Turning a pestle”: A proverb used for people who keep doing the same things and accomplish nothing. These proverbs also indicate this: “Zeus’ son Korinthos”; “Again on the road to Pytho”; “The man carrying a plank”; and “Not blind, but eyeless.” Plato* writes also in the Adonis “I hope I don’t have a pestle’s turn”.

Ὑπέρου περιτροπή: ἐπὶ τῶν τὰ αὐτὰ ποιούντων καὶ μηδὲν περαινόντων. καὶ αὗται δ’ αἱ παροιμίαι τοῦτο δηλοῦσιν: ὁ Διὸς Κόρινθος. καί, αὖθις αὖ Πυθώδε ὁδός. καί, ὁ τὴν δοκὸν φέρων. καί, οὐ τυφλός, ἀλλ’ ἐξώρυκται. Πλάτων Ἀδώνιδι: εἶτ’ οὐχ ὑπέρου μοι περιτροπὴ γενήσεται.

*The comic poet, not the philosopher.

“A Pestle’s Turn”: A proverb about those who keep doing the same thing and accomplish nothing. There is also the proverb: “More naked than a pestle and a discarded skin.”

῾Υπέρου περίτροφον: παροιμία ἐπὶ τῶν τὰ αὐτὰ ποιούντων καὶ μηδὲ περαινουμένων. καὶ παροιμία· γυμνότερος ὑπέρου καὶ λεβηρίδος.

Aging

“Off the list”: A saying for those who have grown old.”

Ὑπὲρ τὸν κατάλογον: παροιμία ἐπὶ τῶν γεγηρακότων.

Risk

“A hog under a club”: A proverb applied by Deinolokhos to those who put themselves in danger.”

῝Υς ὑπὸ ῥόπαλον: παροιμία παρὰ Δεινολόχῳ ἐπὶ τῶν ἑαυτοὺς εἰς ὄλεθρον ἐμβαλλόντων.

The Frog King: Another Fable for Our Time

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Phaedrus, Fabulae 1.2

“When Athens flourished with equal laws,
Heady freedom corrupted the state
And excess dissolved their ancient restraints.
As partisan conspiracies were inflamed,
The tyrant Pisistratus took the citadel.
While all the Attic demes mourned wretched slavery—
Not because he was savage, but because they were all
Unaccustomed to control—Aesop retold this tale.
The frogs who wandered free in their marshes
Sought from Jupiter a king with great acclamation,
One who would return their customs in decline.
He sent a small plank whose sudden appearance
Shocked the timid race with its movement and sound.
While it floated for some time on the surface
By chance one lifted his quiet head from the pond
And called all the rest to their newly found ‘king’.
With fear set aside, they swam to it bit by bit
And the raucous crowd climbed on the plank to dance!
Then their furies rang out all around,
As they asked Zeus for another king
Because the one he sent them was useless.
Then he sent them a water-snake who began
To snatch them one by one with savage teeth.
In vain they tried their useless flight; fear muted their voices.
Secretly they gave their pleas to Mercury for Jove,
That he might help the cursed. But the god responded:
“Because you did not want the good king you had,
You must now endure the bad. And you, too, Athenians
Endure this, lest you take in turn a greater evil.”

silver-stater
A Silver Stater from Seriphos

Athenae cum florerent aequis legibus,
Procax libertas civitatem miscuit
Frenumque solvit pristinum licentia.
Hic conspiratis factionum partibus
Arcem tyrannus occupat Pisistratus.
Cum tristem servitutem flerent Attici,
(Non quia crudelis ille, sed quoniam gravis
Omnino insuetis), onus et coepissent queri,
Aesopus talem tum fabellam rettulit.
Ranae vagantes liberis paludibus
Clamore magno regem petiere a Iove,
Qui dissolutos mores vi compesceret.
Pater deorum risit atque illis dedit
Parvum tigillum, missum quod subito vadi
Motu sonoque terruit pavidum genus.
Hoc mersum limo cum iaceret diutius,
Forte una tacite profert e stagno caput
Et explorato rege cunctas evocat.
Illae timore posito certatim adnatant
Lignumque supera turba petulans insilit.
Quod cum inquinassent omni contumelia,
Alium rogantes regem misere ad Iovem,
Inutilis quoniam esset qui fuerat datus.
Tum misit illis hydrum, qui dente aspero
Corripere coepit singulas. Frustra necem
Fugitant inertes, vocem praecludit metus.
Furtim igitur dant Mercurio mandata ad Iovem,
Afflictis ut succurrat. Tunc contra deus:
Quia noluistis vestrum ferre inquit bonum,
Malum perferte. — Vos quoque, o cives, ait,
Hoc sustinete, maius ne veniat malum.

Salutati Attacks Aristotelian Impostors

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(1.) I do not think that it will be irrelevant, since all of our education is wrapped up with those things which the poets have sung about the deeds of Hercules, to preface by saying a bit about poesy. For I see that not only the vulgar mob, but even those who in our time boast that they are philosophers, will sometimes consider poetry of little value, and sometimes even condemn it entirely. Nor does the authority of their own teacher (since they consider themselves Aristotelians), whom they read – or, to speak more truly, whom they are capable of reading – move them to make use of the various poets not on fleeting occasions but at all times in the most refined studies.

(2.) But indeed, I do not wonder at them; rather, I am indgnant, and I grieve. For, although they typically brag that they fly about through the loftiest summits of logic (or, loyce, as they call it in their own corrupt way) and philosophy, and they are prepared to discourse on all subjects with disputatious loquacity, they neither understand the texts of Aristotle, nor do they even read them, but instead they seek out I know not what tracts from the “British, divided from the whole world[1]”, as if our own country were not sufficiently stocked with erudition. They seize upon these works during long lamp-lit nights and learn, without books and without the assistance of textual witnesses, dialectic, physics, and whatever else transcendental speculation can disclose; or perhaps I should say that they boast that they have learned something, now that the traditions of their master have been abandoned.

[1] Vergil, Eclouges 1.66: At nos hinc alii sitientis ibimus Afros,
pars Scythiam et rapidum cretae veniemus Oaxen               65
et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos.

File:Aristotle. Woodcut by T. Stimmer (?), 1589. Wellcome V0000204EL.jpg

(1.) Non ab re futurum arbitror, cum omnis institutio nostra versetur circa ea que poete de rebus Herculis cecinerunt, aliquid de poetica prelibare. Hanc enim video non solum profanum vulgus sed etiam qui se philosophos nostro tempore gloriantur tum parvi pendere, tum damnare. Nec movet istos etiam sui magistri (cum se Aristotelicos profiteantur) autoritas, quem legunt, sive, ut verius loquar, legere possunt, non semel sed ubique varios poetas etiam in rebus subtilissimis allegare.

(2.) Verum ipsos non admiror, potius autem indignor et doleo. Nam cum per logices, imo (ut corrupto vocabulo dicunt) loyce, et philosophie cacumina volitare se iactent et de cunctis disputatione garrula discutere sint parati (proh pudor!), textus Aristotelicos nec intelligunt nec legunt sed nescio quos tractatus apud <<toto divisos orbe Britannos>>, quasi noster eruditioni non sufficiat situs, querunt. Quos totis lucubrationibus amplectentes sine libris et sine testium adminiculis et dialeticam et physicam et quicquid transcendens speculatio rimatur ediscunt, sive potius edidicisse relicitis sui magistri traditionibus gloriantur.

The Elder Pliny’s Intense Study Habits

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From Pliny’s Letters, 3.5:

“Before daybreak, he would go to see the emperor Vespasian, who also liked to work at night, and then he would set about his assigned duty. Once he returned home, he gave the rest of his time up to study. Often, after eating (which, in the ancient way, was always light and sparing) he would lie in the summer sun if he had the leisure, and read a book which he annotated and excerpted from. He never read anything without at least making some notes: he was in the habit of saying that no book was so bad that it was not useful in at least some way. After the sun, he would wash in cold water, then eat and sleep a little bit; soon, as if it were a new day already, he would study again until dinnertime. While eating dinner, he would read and take notes in a cursory fashion. I remember that he was once reading out loud, and was asked by one of his friends to repeat what he had just recited; to this man, my uncle said, ‘Surely, you understood the meaning?’ When the friend said that he had, my uncle responded, ‘Why then did you ask me to repeat it? I have lost the time for reading ten more verses because of your interruption.’ Such was his parsimony of his time. In summer, he would leave the dinner table when it was still light out; in winter, within the first hour of night and as though he were compelled by some law.

He did all this amidst many labors, and the bustle of the city. In his retirement, the only time which he took away from his studies was in the bath-house (and when I say this, I mean the bath itself; when he was being oiled down or dried off, he would listen to or dictate something). When on the road, as though devoid of any other concerns, he had time for this alone: a secretary would be by his side with a book and some note-tablets, and this secretary would wear gloves in winter so that not even foul weather could snatch away any of his time for his studies. For this same reason, he was always carried in a chair when he was in Rome. I remember that one time, he asked me why I was walking. ‘You could have,’ he said, ‘avoided wasting these hours,’ for he thought that all time was wasted which was not spent on study.”

Ante lucem ibat ad Vespasianum imperatorem – nam ille quoque noctibus utebatur -, inde ad delegatum sibi officium. Reversus domum quod reliquum temporis studiis reddebat. Post cibum saepe – quem interdiu levem et facilem veterum more sumebat – aestate si quid otii iacebat in sole, liber legebatur, adnotabat excerpebatque. Nihil enim legit quod non excerperet; dicere etiam solebat nullum esse librum tam malum ut non aliqua parte prodesset. Post solem plerumque frigida lavabatur, deinde gustabat dormiebatque minimum; mox quasi alio die studebat in cenae tempus. Super hanc liber legebatur adnotabatur, et quidem cursim. Memini quendam ex amicis, cum lector quaedam perperam pronuntiasset, revocasse et repeti coegisse; huic avunculum meum dixisse: ‘Intellexeras nempe?’ Cum ille adnuisset, ‘Cur ergo revocabas? decem amplius versus hac tua interpellatione perdidimus.’ Tanta erat parsimonia temporis. Surgebat aestate a cena luce, hieme intra primam noctis et tamquam aliqua lege cogente.

Haec inter medios labores urbisque fremitum. In secessu solum balinei tempus studiis eximebatur – cum dico balinei, de interioribus loquor; nam dum destringitur tergiturque, audiebat aliquid aut dictabat. In itinere quasi solutus ceteris curis, huic uni vacabat: ad latus notarius cum libro et pugillaribus, cuius manus hieme manicis muniebantur, ut ne caeli quidem asperitas ullum studii tempus eriperet; qua ex causa Romae quoque sella vehebatur. Repeto me correptum ab eo, cur ambularem: ‘poteras’ inquit ‘has horas non perdere’; nam perire omne tempus arbitrabatur, quod studiis non impenderetur.

Tawdry Tuesday, Object Edition

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Yesterday I took students from my myth class to work with the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC), a wonderful, bedeviling, and at this point old-fashioned reference work. It is also indispensable because nothing comes near to its breadth and depth (why isn’t it online).

I encouraged students to look up something they were interested in (hopefully, something pertaining to a research project; at the least, something that brought them joy). One student found a phallos rhyton:

 

Phallus Picture

One of the things I love about teaching is that I am always learning new things from students. I have been teaching classical subjects for many years, and I honestly did not know anything about penis rhytons (drinking vessels).

Here’s the description, in German (the LIMC written entries are in the author’s preferred language, including English, German, French and Italian).

Phallos Sheet

Here are some others from online (Archaeological Museum, Pella):

Image result for phallus rhyton

Art Institute, Chicago, one from ancient Peru:

Rhyton in the Form of a Man with an Exaggerated Phallus

 

This one is for sale

Image result for phallus rhyton

The Measure of a Man: A Priapic Odysseus (NSFW)

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Caveat Lector: Again, we bring one of the not-so-nice poems from the ancient world to light.  A colleague of mind decided that today was the day to turn to the Priapeia, a collection of poems dedicated to none other than the Phallus god, Priapus.

This elegant poem imagines the, well, endowment that made Odysseus so irresistible to mortal women and goddesses alike.

“The other topic is the wandering of deceiving Ulysses:
If you seek the truth, love also moves this poem:
Here a root, from which a golden flower emerges, is discussed.
When the poem calls it molu, molu was a prick.
Here we read about how Circe and Atlantean Calypso
Sought the large equipment of the Dulichian man.
The daughter of Alcinous marveled at the member of this man,
Which could scarcely be covered by the leafy branch.
And nevertheless he rushed back to his his own old lady,
And his whole mind was in a pussy, Penelope, yours.”

Odysseus CIrce
Now we know what she sees in him.

altera materia est error fallentis Vlixei:
si verum quaeras, hanc quoque movit amor.
hic legitur radix, de qua flos aureus exit,
quam cum μωλυ vocat, mentula μωλυ fuit.
hic legimus Circen Atlantiademque Calypson
grandia Dulichii vasa petisse viri.
huius et Alcinoi mirata est filia membrum
frondenti ramo vix potuisse tegi.
ad vetulam tamen ille suam properabat, et omnis
mens erat in cunno, Penelopea, tuo:

Knowledge and Literary Skill: Keep Reading!

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Below, Leonaro Bruni gives some fine advice about completing (or rather, continuing) a literary education. He is a far finer preceptor than I am. When my students ask me how to study Latin, I tell them that there is an ancient maxim which goes,

If in letters thou wouldst succeed,
then read read read ’til the eyeballs bleed.

Leonardo Bruni, de studiis et litteris 29-30:

“What good is it to know many fine things, unless you can speak about them with dignity and put them into writing without looking foolish? And so, in a certain way, literary ability and knowledge of things are conjoined. These two things carried the ancients, whose memory we admire, to glory and a celebrated name: Plato, Democritus, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Varro, Cicero, Seneca, Augustine, Jerome, Lactantius –it is hard to tell whether these men excelled more in knowledge or literary ability.

In conclusion: I contend that the intellect, which promises to me the highest hopes, should be instructed for these two things (knowledge and literary skill), and for the sake of attaining them, many and various things should be read and piled up in the mind. One should however take account of his time, so that he can always spend more of it upon more profitable and useful things, and avoid being occupied by excessively obscure or useless things. The chief studies seem to me to be religion and the art of living well, while all other things seem to be ancillary contributors to those pursuits, and serve as aids or illustrations to them. For that reason, we should stick to poets, orators, and other writers; but one should be careful in these literary affairs that the instruction be noble and the observation ought to be unfailing, and we ought never to read anything but the best and most well-approved books.”

Franz Dvorak, ‘Thoughtful Reader’

Quid enim prodest multa et pulchra scire, si neque loqui de his cum dignitate neque mandare litteris nisi ridicule possis? Atque ita coniugata quodammodo sunt peritia litterarum et scientia rerum. Haec duo simul coniuncta veteres illos, quorum memoriam veneramur, ad celebritatem nominis gloriamque provexere: Platonem, Democritum, Aristotelem, Theophrastum, Varronem, Ciceronem, Senecam, Augustinum, Hieronymum, Lactantium, in quibus omnibus discerni vix potest, maiorne scientia rerum an peritia fuerit litterarum.

Ut autem ad extremum concludam: ingenium, quod summa omnia de se mihi repromittat, his duobus structum esse oportere affirmo, horumque comparandorum gratia undique legenda multa et coacervanda esse; habendum tamen rationem temporis, ut potioribus semper utilioribusque incumbat, nec aut nimium obscuris aut parum profuturis occupetur; religionis et bene vivendi studia mihi praecipua videri, cetera vero omnia tamquam adminicula quaedam ad ista referri, quae possint vel adiuvare vel illustrare, eaque de causa poetis et oratoribus et scriptoribus aliis inhaerendum; in litteris autem providendum, ut et praeceptio adsit ingenua et pervigil solertia, nec umquam nisi optima probatissimaque legamus.

Proverbs in the Scholia to the Odyssey

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Occasionally, marginal notes on Homeric manuscripts (scholia) will attempt to explain a passage by appealing to a proverb or assert a proverb’s derivation from one of the epics. Several of the proverbs that appear in the scholia to the Odyssey don’t appear outside of the commentary tradition.

Schol. ad. Od. 8.17 (On why Odysseus is only responsible for the companions in his particular ship)

“According to the proverb “Common ship, common safety”
κατὰ τὴν παροιμίαν “κοινὴ ναῦς κοινὴ σωτηρία,”

Schol. ad. Od. 3.36

“Why is Peisistratos first? The proverb goes: “The same age delights the same age”
διὰ τί πρῶτος ὁ Πεισίστρατος; παροιμία ἐστὶν ἡ λέγουσα, ἧλιξ ἥλικα τέρπει. E.

Schol. ad Od. 3.32

“Problem: Why do they dedicate tongues to the gods? Solution: Some say it is because the tongue is the strongest of the limbs; others claim that it is because it is right to be careful about what is said at a drinking party. This is where the proverb “I have the drinking buddy who doesn’t forget” comes from.

᾿Απορία. διὰ τί τοῖς θεοῖς ἀπένεμον τὰς γλώσσας; Λύσις. οἱ μὲν ὅτι κράτιστον τῶν μελῶν ἡ γλῶσσα, οἱ δὲ ὅτι δεῖ τὰ ἐν συμποσίοις λεχθέντα τηρεῖν. ὅθεν καὶ παροιμία “μισῶ μνάμονα συμπόταν.” B.


Schol. ad Od. 7.36

“Or like a thought: this is where the proverbial saying comes from: “It flew like a thought”

ἠὲ νόημα] ἐντεῦθεν τὸ παροιμιῶδες “διέπτατο δ’ ὥστε νόημα.”

Schol. ad. Od. 8.285

“He was not blind, according to the common proverb, “the blind man saw it”
οὐδ’ ἀλαοσκοπίην] οὐ τυφλὸς ἦν, κατὰ τὴν κοινὴν παροιμίαν, ὁ τυφλὸς ἐσκόπησεν.

Schol. ad Od. 8.329

“A gnomic phrase” through the idea “the slow overtakes the swift, there is a popular proverb “a race of cripples.”
γνωμικόν. διὰ δὲ τοῦ “κιχάνει τοι βραδὺς ὠκύν” ἡ παρὰ πολλοῖς παροιμία ἐστὶν “καὶ χωλῶν δρόμος·”

Schol. ad Od. 9.80

“Maleia”: “But when he was about then to come to the steep peak of the Maleains”. It is a rather high mountain in Laconia. It is a rather high, dangerous peak in Laconia, this is where we get the proverb “after rounding Malea, you forgot everything at home.”
Μάλειαν] “ἀλλ’ ὅτε δή ῥα ἔμελλε Μαλειάων ὄρος αἰπὺ ἵξεσθαι” (Od. δ, 514.). ἔστι δὲ ἀκρωτήριον τῆς Λακωνικῆς. B.E.Q. ἀκρωτήριον τῆς Λακωνικῆς λίαν ἐπικίνδυνον. ὅθεν ἡ παροιμία “Μαλέαν δὲ κάμψας ἐπιλαθοῦ τῶν οἴκαδε.” MS. Barnes.

Schol. ad Od. 14.214

“But still the reed.” There is also the proverb, “grain from the reed”
ἀλλ’ ἔμπης καλάμην] καὶ ἡ παροιμία, ἀπὸ τῆς καλάμης τὸν στάχυν. Q.

Schol ad Od. 22.9-12

“For the men…” Dionysus Thrax says in his Thoughts that the proverb “there are many things between the cup and the tip of the lip” comes from this scene. For after raising the cup, Antinoos was struck. Aristotle says this about the proverb. Angkaios, the son of Poseidon and Astupalaia, who was Samian by birth had a household servant from Krete and ordered him to bring him a drink to drink. When he saw that he was not able to drink where the grapes happened to be, Ankaios himself threatened the servants, took the cup and raised it. After he said “there are many thinks between a cup and the tip of its lip”, a curse of a great boar came to ravage the land of Ankaios. After he heard this, he pulled the cup from his lips, put it down, and ran out to face the beast, where he died. Aristotle says that the proverb developed from this story.”

ἀνδράσιν] Διονύσιος ὁ Θρᾷξ ἐν ταῖς Μελέταις φησὶ τὴν παροιμίαν “πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέλει κύλικος καὶ χείλεος ἄκρου” ἀπὸ τούτου διαδε-δόσθαι. προστιθέμενος γὰρ ᾿Αντίνοος τὸ ἔκπωμα βάλλεται. λέγει δὲ ᾿Αριστοτέλης περὶ τῆς παροιμίας οὕτως. ᾿Αγκαῖος ὁ Ποσειδῶνος καὶ ᾿Αστυπαλαίας Σάμιος ὢν τὸ γένος ἔχων οἰκέτην ἀπὸ Κρήτης ἐκέ-λευσεν αὐτῷ προσφέρειν ποτὸν πίνειν. εἰπόντος δὲ αὐτοῦ ὡς οὐ δυνήσεται πιεῖν ὅθεν ἐντεῦθεν αἱ ἄμπελοι τυγχάνουσιν, αὐτὸς ὁ ᾿Αγκαῖος κατακερτομήσας τοὺς θεράποντας ἔλαβε τὴν κύλικα καὶ προσέθετο.λέξαντος δὲ ἐκείνου “πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέλει κύλικος καὶ χείλεος ἄκρου” ἄφνω συνέβη χρῆμα συὸς μεγάλου ἐπιζαρῆσαι τοῖς τοῦ ᾿Αγκαίου χωρίοις. ἀκούσαντα δὲ αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τῶν χειλέων τὴν κύλικα καταθεῖναι καὶ δραμεῖν ὡς τὸν ἄγριον ὗν, συμβαλόντα δὲ τῷ κάπρῳ τελευτῆσαι. ἔνθα φησὶ κατανοῆσαι τὴν παροιμίαν. V.

 

This version is not very clear. Here is the account from Zenobius

Zenobius, 5.71

“There are many things between the cup and the tip of the lip”. This proverb was coined for the following reason. Ankaios was a child of Poseidon who planted vines and was mean to his servants. One of his servants said that the master would have no part of the harvest. Ankaois, once the fruit had ripened, he delighted, living luxuriously, and he ordered his servant to mix [wine] for him. When he was about to raise the cup to his mouth, he reminded him of the speech. Then he spoke the line which had been uttered. While these things were being said, another servant arrived and announced that a super-big board was destroying the vineyard. Ankaos dropped his drink and rushed to the boar; he was struck by him and died. This is where the proverb comes from.

Dionysius claims that it refers to the fate of Antinoos after he was wooing Penelope. For he deid as he was lifting a cup to his lips, shot by Odysseus’ bow.”

Πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέλει κύλικος καὶ χείλεος ἄκρου: παροιμία λεχθεῖσα ἐξ αἰτίας τοιαύτης· ᾿Αγκαῖος παῖς Ποσειδῶνος φυτεύων ἀμπελῶνα βαρέως ἐπέκειτο τοῖς οἰκέταις. Εἷς δὲ τῶν οἰκετῶν ἔφη, μὴ μεταλήψεσθαι τὸν δεσπότην τοῦ καρποῦ. ῾Ο δὲ ᾿Αγκαῖος ἐπειδὴ ὁ καρπὸς ἐφθάκει, χαίρων ἐτρύφα, καὶ τὸν οἰκέτην ἐκέλευσε κεράσαι αὐτῷ. Μέλλων δὲ τὴν κύλικα προσφέρειν τῷ στόματι, ὑπεμίμνησκεν αὐτὸν τοῦ λόγου· ὁ δὲ ἔφη τὸν εἰρημένον στίχον. Τούτων ἔτι λεγομένων οἰκέτης ἦλθεν ἀπαγγέλλων,  ὡς ὑπερμεγέθης σῦς τὸν ὄρχατον λυμαίνεται. ῾Ο δὲ ᾿Αγκαῖος ἀποβαλὼν τὴν πόσιν ἐπὶ τὸν σῦν ὥρμησε καὶ πληγεὶς ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ ἐτελεύτησεν. ῞Οθεν ἡ παροιμία. Διονύσιος δέ φησιν εἰρῆσθαι αὐτὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ᾿Αντινόου μνηστευσαμένου τὴν Πηνελόπην συμφορᾶς. Προσαγόμενος γὰρ τὸ ἔκπωμα ἐτελεύτησε τοξευθεὶς παρὰ τοῦ ᾿Οδυσσέως.

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