The phrase "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad" is a phrase spoken by Prometheus in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Masque of Pandora" (1875).
Video Whom the gods would destroy
Other versions
The first version of this phrase appears in Antigone by Sophocles (verses 620-623) as "?? ????? ?????? ???? ?????? ???? ?????' ??? ?????? ???? ???? ???? ????" meaning "evil appears as good in the minds of those whom gods lead to destruction". Even this appears to be a borrowing from an earlier, lost Greek play.
Subsequently the phrase was used in Latin, "Quem Iuppiter vult perdere, dementat prius" (Whom Jupiter would ruin, he first makes mad), and, in Christian times, "Iuppiter" was replaced by "God" as in "???????? ?????? ?? ???????? ????????"
Another version ("Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad") is quoted as a "heathen proverb" in Daniel, a Model for Young Men (1854) by William Anderson Scott (1813-1885).
A prior Latin version is "Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat" (Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791) but this involves God, (presumably the Christian God) not 'the gods'.
This phrase was also used by British politician (and classicist) Enoch Powell in his 1968 speech on immigration commonly known as the "Rivers of Blood" speech
Maps Whom the gods would destroy
References
External links
- Similar quotes misattributed to Euripides at Wikiquote
- Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood'speech at The Telegraph, unedited since 12 December 2007
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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