Πτεροῖς ἀλλοτρίοις ἀγάλλεσθαιDas schmücken mit fremden federn als antike chiffre für literarisches plagiat
- Antonio Guzmán (coord.)
- Isabel Velázquez (coord.)
Publisher: Ediciones Clásicas
ISBN: 9788478828227
Year of publication: 2017
Pages: 283-292
Type: Book chapter
Abstract
This article traces the catchphrase of The Bird in Borrowed Feathers back to its origins in the ancient tradition. Even in antiquity the mythos of the ‘Vain Jackdaw in Borrowed Feathers’ appeared to be proverbial, being used in invective and rhetorical contexts where rivals are accused of misappropriating other people’s ideas. In a discussion of later uses of fable and proverb respectively throughout antiquity (especially in Horace and Phaedrus), I touch on the satirical writer Lucian of Samosata, in whose works the expression serves to denigrate rival sophists and pseudo‐intellectuals. Evidently, modern debates about plagia‐rism and literary forgery still rely on this popular fable tradition.