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Headword: Ἀπ' ὄνου καταπεσών
Adler number: alpha,3459
Translated headword: having fallen from a donkey
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
A proverb [deriving] from those who attempt horsemanship when they are not even able to handle donkeys. Aristophanes in Clouds [writes]: "why, pray, are you talking nonsense, as if you had fallen from a donkey?"[1] But the philosopher Plato says the proverb with "the mind" taking the place of the animal, like so: "[I should not], as if my mouth were unbridled, be forcefully carried away by the argument and, as the proverb has it, fall from a mind".[2]
Greek Original:
Ἀπ' ὄνου καταπεσών: παροιμία ἀπὸ τῶν ἱππικῇ ἐπιχειρούντων, μὴ δυναμένων δὲ μηδὲ ὄνοις χρῆσθαι. Ἀριστοφάνης Νεφέλαις: τί δῆτα ληρεῖς, ὥσπερ ἀπ' ὄνου καταπεσών; ὁ δὲ φιλόσοφος Πλάτων οὐκ ἀπὸ τοῦ ζῴου τὴν παροιμίαν λέγεσθαι, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τοῦ νοῦ οὕτως: καὶ μὴ καθάπερ ἀχάλινον κεκτημένον τὸ στόμα, βίᾳ ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου φερόμενον κατὰ τὴν παροιμίαν ἀπό τινος νοῦ καταπεσεῖν.
Notes:
[1] Aristophanes, Clouds 1273 (web address 1 below), with scholion; cf. lambda 467. See also Zenobius 2.57 and other paroemiographers.
[2] Plato, Laws 701C (web address 2). The manuscript tradition of this passage is actually divided between the straight ἀπ' ὄνου ('from a donkey'), preferred by many editors, and the punning ἀπὸ ... νοῦ ('from the mind') version quoted here. See Dover (below) 243.
Reference:
Aristophanes, Clouds, edited with introduction and commentary by K.J. Dover (Oxford 1968)
Associated internet addresses:
Web address 1
Web address 2
Keywords: comedy; daily life; definition; imagery; philosophy; proverbs; zoology
Translated by: William Hutton on 24 November 2000@11:59:59.
Vetted by:
David Whitehead (modified headword and translation; added bibliography; cosmetics; raised status) on 25 November 2000@09:06:49.
David Whitehead (added keyword) on 21 August 2002@08:28:18.
David Whitehead (expanded n.1; more keywords; tweaks and cosmetics) on 4 April 2012@05:33:23.

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