Corvi e adulatori. Attestazioni e origini di un antico detto greco

Crows and flatterers are compared in an ancient Greek saying because of their harmfulnessand damage to human beings. The saying «it is better to fall amongst crowsthan flatterers» is attributed to the Cynic seem philosopher Antisthenes of Athenson the basis of several literary sources. All these seem to go back to Cynic doxographyand ethics, relying on the Stoic thinker Hecaton of Rhodes. Previous witnessesare 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 speechdefect of Alcibiades, which seems to be rather a comic device, but also hints at a linkbetween the crow and the flatterer. Performed in 422, before Antisthenes’ teaching asa Cynic, Aristophanes’ Wasps could represent the first literary attestation of the sayingon crows and flatterers, which probably went back to the Greek sapiential heritage.