Читать книгу The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 405, December 19, 1829 - Various - Страница 5

(For the Mirror.)

In modern days we should term Grecian Flies, Spongers; alias Dinner Hunters. Among the Grecians (according to Potter) "They who forced themselves into other men's entertainments, were called flies, which was a general name of reproach for such as insinuated themselves into any company where they were not welcome." In Plautus, an entertainment free from unwelcome guests is called hospitium sine muscis, an entertainment without flies; and in another place of the same author, an inquisitive and busy man, who pries and insinuates himself into the secrets of others, is termed musca. We are likewise informed by Horus Apollo, that in Egypt a fly was the hieroglyphic of an impudent man, because that insect being beaten away, still returns again; on which account it is that Homer makes it an emblem of courage.

P.T.W.