Proof of something or another

[DCHindley]

The Mythiambics of Babrius: Edited with Introductory Dissertations, Critical Notes, Commentary, and Lexicon, by W. Gunion Rutherford, M.A. (1883)

page xxv

CHAPTER II. THE HISTORY OF GREEK FABLE.

The theories of Oriental origin for the Aesopic fable now proved to be erroneous.

Heavy as is the blow which Benfey's edition of the Pantscha-Tantra dealt on the theory1 which derives the fables of Greece from an Oriental source, it might have been made much heavier by a discussion of the way in which the Greeks and the Orientals handle the fable in their respective literatures. The first thought which will occur to most English readers of the Pantscha-Tantra and the Kalilah and Dimnah is the childishness of the whole, the indications on all sides of the Oriental love of support, whether moral or physical, and the absence of any great originality. Throughout the perusal of their contents the feeling will never be far off that grown men who could derive any profit from such writings are men on whom a great literature would have been thrown away. Page follows page of weak moralising, capped by a so-called fable. Κύνες πρὸς ἔμετον indeed!

1 There is a very large collection of treatises bearing on this subject by Loiseleur des Longchamps, Wilson, Dubois, Silvestre de Sacy, Édélstand du Méril, A. Wagener, and others; but they are all merely tentative, and have been quite superseded by Benfey’s ela- borate work on the Pantscha-Tantra and Kalilah and Dimnah. The study of Pali in the able hands of Mr. Rhys Davids and other scholars has reopened the ques- tion within recent years (see especially Buddhist Birth Stories, or Jataka Tales, the oldest collection of Folk Lore extant, being the Jātakaa thavannanā for the first time edited in the original Pali by V. Fausböll, and translated by J. W. Rhys Davids, 1880). I am sure, however, that they will acknowledge that the facts to he stated in this essay make it plain that the Greeks were familiar with fable long before the Pali texts were written.

As late as 1880 Eugêne Lévêque recurred to the wildest speculations of the earlier writers in his book, Les Mythes et Légendes de l' Inde et la Perse dans Aristophane, Platon, Aristote, etc., which, by its great want of critical method and mad enthusiasm, gives the coup de grâce to the theory which it would fain support. Dr. J. Landsberger’s book, Die Fabeln des Sophos Syrisches Original der Griechischen Fabeln des Syntipas, Posen, 1859, is still less critical.

(as long as everyone else seems to be doing it, might as well expect 12 or 13 more randomly scanned from this book)

[Peter Kirby]

Κύνες πρὸς ἔμετον indeed!

+1 would read with incomprehension again

[DCHindley]

Κύνες πρὸς ἔμετον indeed!

+1 would read with incomprehension again

I do not comprehend your response, but that I suppose is the point.

Be that as it may, I would read it to mean "[Mila] Kunis is about to puke again." This would most naturally mean that the author traveled to our time from the late 19th century using a time machine that dropped from the back pocket of an extra-terrestrial's "encounter suit" while searching for botanical specimens.

He (the author) obviously watched an episode of "That 70's Show" BEFORE Kunis dumped Ashton Kutchner, traveled back to his own time, and THEN wrote about the silliness of Oriental fables as opposed to REAL "he man" fables by Greeks, and added this gratuitous remark.

Anyone who cannot see that this is what "actually happened", is a MORON, as the truth of the matter is PLAIN AS DAY!!

The sad thing for mankind is that the author MUST have left it in HIS back pocket on wash day and his Cockney speaking washwoman ran it through the wash and destroyed its functionality. It was tossed into the North Sea from the wash woman's tub, floated about until it found its way to the Mediterranean sea, and is in fact the "Antikythera mechanism" beloved by Richard Carrier.

Duh!

[andrewcriddle]

Κύνες πρὸς ἔμετον indeed!

+1 would read with incomprehension again

dogs to vomit compare e.g. Proverbs 26:11

Andrew Criddle

[DCHindley]

Κύνες πρὸς ἔμετον indeed!

+1 would read with incomprehension again

dogs to vomit compare e.g. Proverbs 26:11

Andrew Criddle

On a serious side, I thought the author was citing 2 Peter 2:22, which of course is quoting/alluding to Proverbs 26:11. But that is not the point of the opening post, which is about erudite, but pointless, erudition.

Speaking of dogs, it is time to literally carry ours to the vet today (at 11, and being 70-80 lbs, she can't hop into our car on her own anymore). Luckily, no vomit ...