Monday, April 18, 2022
The Carpathian and the Hare
Aristotle, Rhetoric 3.11.14 (1313 a 14-17; tr. John Henry Freese, with his note):
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Proverbs also are metaphors from species to species. If a man, for instance, introduces into his house something from which he expects to benefit, but afterwards finds himself injured instead, it is as the Carpathiana says of the hare; for both have experienced the same misfortunes.
a Or, "he says it is a case of the Carpathian and the hare." An inhabitant of the island of Carpathus introduced a brace of hares, which so multiplied that they devoured all the crops and ruined the farmers (like the rabbits in Australia).
καὶ αἱ παροιμίαι δὲ μεταφοραὶ ἀπ᾽ εἴδους ἐπ᾽ εἶδος εἰσίν· οἷον ἄν τις ὡς ἀγαθὸν πεισόμενος αὐτὸς ἐπαγάγηται, εἶτα βλαβῇ, ὡς ὁ Καρπάθιός φασι τὸν λαγώ· ἄμφω γὰρ τὸ εἰρημένον πεπόνθασιν.
