Latin Via Proverbs: Home - Previous - Next
618. Pegaso velocior est.
619. Labyrintho involutior.
620. Electro lucidior.
621. Oleo tranquillior.
622. Ovo nudior.
623. Asello stolidior.
624. Echino asperior.
625. Urso hispidior.
626. Hirco libidinosior.
627. Albo rarior corvo.
628. Nigro rarior cycno.
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Study Guide
618. He is swifter than Pegasus. (Pegasus is the winged horse of Greek mythology who helped Bellerophon battle the monstrous Chimera.)
619. More winding than a labyrinth. (The first labyrinth was built by the craftsman Daedalus to imprison the monstrous Minotaur, half-man and half-bull.)
620. Brighter than electrum. (Electrum is a naturally occuring alloy of gold and silver.)
621. Smoother than oil. (This phrase shows up in Erasmus's Adagia, 1.7.35, who explains that the phrase is used to describe people who are slow to get angry, agreeable, etc.)
622. More naked than an egg. (I think this is a delightful way to express the sheer nakedness of something: what could be more naked than an egg? Humpty Dumpty excepted, of course.)
623. Dumber than a donkey. (Erasmus includes this comparison in the introduction to his Adagia, under the heading De Figuris proverbialibus, "About Proverbial Figures of Speech.")
624. More prickly than a hedgehog. (Erasmus includes this comparison in the introduction to his Adagia, under the heading De Figuris proverbialibus, "About Proverbial Figures of Speech.")
625. More shaggy than a bear. (Erasmus includes this comparison in the introduction to his Adagia, under the heading De Figuris proverbialibus, "About Proverbial Figures of Speech.")
626. More lusty than a billy-goat. (Erasmus includes this comparison in the introduction to his Adagia, under the heading De Figuris proverbialibus, "About Proverbial Figures of Speech.")
627. More rare than a white crow. (You can find this saying used in Juvenal.)
628. More rare than a black swan. (Juvenal refers to the black swan as a rara avis, "a rare bird.")