GREEK AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE GREEKS 159 



ary's art, n-A.arro) KO.KOV, airo Kai/a/3ev//,aTa>v. The life of the farmer sup- 

 plied the figurative use of apovv, to "procreate," and^cWo? ypoOr) 8op(, 

 and of oAoaco " thresh " and " thrash." Metaphors from war are not so 

 common in Greek as in Latin; hence the range of the figurative uses 

 of TToAe/xo'w and /xaxo/xat is more restricted than is that of the cor- 

 responding Latin words. Comedy is far less free than tragedy in its 

 recourse to metaphors from arming. There are of course many 

 differences between Greek and modern metaphors. The ass is not 

 always the stupid beast, and the goose is not foolish to the Greek. 

 The dog is not always the faithful companion of man. If there be 

 virtue in heredity, the character of the modern Greek dog has not 

 changed from that of his classical ancestor which justified the phrase 

 TraXXoLKi) KWWTTIS of Aspasia. 



Bliimner calls attention bo one advantage possessed by the form 

 of metaphor in Greek and Latin. We might say, ". Each one of you, 

 like the fox, gets his bribe," or " The fox gets his bribe," but we 

 cannot say, "Each one of you, a fox, gets his bribe"; as the Greek 

 does in proverbial sayings with pregnant force, vp-lav tts //,ei/ 

 (Cratinus, 128). 



Proverbs 



Metaphors often find a place in proverbs, and a word may be said 

 of the character of the Greek proverb. The Greeks did not sharply 

 distinguish between va.poip.ia and yvwpq. They often included under 

 proverbs expressions that are merely metaphorical, as oWn? linKovpia ; 

 famous words of the poets or other writers, as a/x/xes TICK' ^c?, an 

 abbreviation of a/x/xes TTOK' ^es aA/a/toi veaviat; word-plays; com- 

 parisons, as 6pytXwT6po? TWV KwiStW. Many, perhaps most proverbs, 

 disclose no truth that is the specific property of any people. Form, 

 shading of expression, manner of pointing the moral, may vary with 

 different peoples, but the content is usually common property. 

 Proverbs set forth the wisdom of an age rather than of a nation as 

 distinct from any other nation. In Greek, in comparison to the mass 

 of "literary" proverbs in the collections there are relatively few 

 handed down orally and drawn from the mouth of the common 

 people ("ex vulgi faece," as Erasmus has it). Greek literature, 

 even Greek philosophy, stood nearer to the life of the common 

 people than is the case in modern times. The Greek poets and 

 philosophers drew on popular wisdom for their axioms of sound 

 sense and good morals with a frequency that would be indecorous 

 in their fellow craftsmen of to-day. Still much proverbial wit 

 smacks of the soil whence it springs. Goethe has well expressed it : 



Sprichwort bezeichnet Nationen 

 Muss aber erst unter ihnen wohnen. 



