The mutations of an Ancient Greek proverb

Abstract

The well-known ancient proverbial saying about iron-eating mice (e.g. Herodas' Διδάσκαλος III 75-76 and Seneca's Apocolocyntosis, VII 1) survives in the widely used modern Greek proverb τρώει ή μῦγα σίδερο ( = the fly is eating iron). The variants of the modern proverb are examined in detail, the differences in the meaning between the ancient and the modern proverb are analyzed, and the substitution of a fly in place of the mice of the ancient saying is explained as the result of aural misunderstanding. The history and the uses of the motif of iron-eating mice are examined in the context of the Greek, Roman, Sanskrit, Byzantine, and Modern Greek literatures. The motif originated in ancient Greece and became a literary symbol for a « Wonderland », where incredible, wondrous, and frightening things may happen. Although the belief in such a Wonderland has died out in Greek folklore, the origin of the modern Greek proverb and the reason for expressing the point that it now conveys through such a strange picture become clear only when back to the ancient proverbial saying.