Paroimia

Paroimia (Greek παροιμία ) denoted a proverb, a proverbial saying or something similar in ancient times. Etymologically, the term is probably derived from οἰμοσ ("course of the story", "main storyline") and accordingly denotes "accompanying" or "accessories".

The term is first used in Aeschylus ( Agamemnon 264). Diogenes Laertius claims that Aristotle wrote a work called Paroimiai ( Παροιμίαι ) on proverbs, which, however, has not survived .

Some collections of such proverbs have survived from late antiquity and the Byzantine period. The authors of these collections are known as Paroimiographoi . Their texts were collected and edited by Ernst von Leutsch and Friedrich Wilhelm Schneidewin in the Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum .

See also

• Parody
• saying

literature

• J. Werner: Ancient Greek proverb literature, arranged according to subject groups. (Diss.) Leipzig 1957
• Ernst Ludwig Leutsch / Friedrich Wilhelm Schneidewin: Corpus paroemiographorum Graecorum. Göttingen 1839–51. Reprinted by Olms, Hildesheim 1958

Web links

• Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum , B. I (1839) , B. II (1851) - Text in ancient Greek, with commentary in Latin (online at Google Books )