Open AccessCorvi e adulatori
Author(s) -
Christina Savino
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
a.i.o.n. annali dell'istituto universitario orientale di napoli. dipartimento di studi del mondo classico e del mediterraneo antico. sezione filologico-letteraria/a.i.o.n. annali dell'istituto universitario orientale di napoli. sezione filologico-letteraria
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1724-6172
pISSN - 1128-7209
DOI - 10.1163/17246172-40010047
Subject(s) - comics , extant taxon , literature , philosophy , ancient greek , history , art , biology , evolutionary biology
Crows and flatterers are compared in an ancient Greek saying because of their harmfulness and damage to human beings. The saying «it is better to fall amongst crows than flatterers» is attributed to the Cynic seem philosopher Antisthenes of Athens on the basis of several literary sources. All these seem to go back to Cynic doxography and ethics, relying on the Stoic thinker Hecaton of Rhodes. Previous witnesses are not extant, but a reference to the saying could possibly be found in Aristophanes’ Wasps . Indeed, Wasps 42–46 not only features the wordplay κόραξ / κόλαξ as a speech defect of Alcibiades, which seems to be rather a comic device, but also hints at a link between the crow and the flatterer. Performed in 422, before Antisthenes’ teaching as a Cynic, Aristophanes’ Wasps could represent the first literary attestation of the saying on crows and flatterers, which probably went back to the Greek sapiential heritage.