Wednesday, February 25, 2026
The One-Eyed Man Is King
Hartmut Erbse, ed., Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem, vol. V: Scholia ad Libros Υ-Ω Continens (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1977), pp. 551-552 (on 24.182, my translation):
Vol. I (1963), p. 253 (# 2213):
‹Older
[There is] also a proverb: "In a city of blind men, a blear-eyed man rules as a king."Hans Walther, Proverbia Sententiaeque Latinitatis Medii Aevi, Vol. II (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964), p. 915 (# 15030b, my translation):
καὶ παροιμία "ἐν τυφλῶν πόλει γλαμυρὸς βασιλεύει".
Among blind men, the one-eyed man [is] king.Similar examples in Walther:
Monoculus inter cecos rex.
Vol. I (1963), p. 253 (# 2213):
Cecorum in patria luscus rex imperat omnis.Vol. II (1964), p. 491 (# 12101a):
In terra ceci regnat vir luscus egeni.Vol. II (1964), p. 565 (# 12619):
Inter pigmeos regnat nanus, strabo luscos,
Loripes extalos, monotalmus rex quoque cecos.
