Voor het weekend
Voor het weekend een stukje Yes Minister:
Jim Hacker: No Humphrey, the Prime Minister has asked me to undertake this task, this necessary duty. And after all, we must all endeavour to do our duty. Further more, Sir Mark thinks there may be votes in it, and if so I don’t intend to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Sir Humphrey: I put it to you Minister, that you are looking a Trojan Horse in the mouth.
JH: Do you think if we look closely to this gift horse, we’ll find it’s full of Trojans?
Bernard Wooley: If you had looked the Trojan Horse in the mouth Minister, you would have found Greeks inside. Well the point is it was the Greeks who gave the Trojan Horse to the Trojans. So, technically it wasn’t a Trojan Horse at all, it was a Greek Horse. Hence the tag ‘Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes’, which, as you will recall, is usually and somewhat inaccurately translated as ‘Beware of Greeks bearing gifts’, or doubtless you would have recalled, had you not attended the LSE.
JH: Yes, well I’m sure Greek tags are all very well in their way, but can we stick to the point?
BW: Sorry .. sorry, Greek tags?
JH: Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. I suppose the EEC equivalent would be ‘Beware of Greeks bearing an olive oil surplus’.
SH: Excellent Minister…
BW: No well, the point is Minister, that just as the Trojan Horse was in fact Greek, what you described as a Greek tag is in fact Latin. It’s obvious really: the Greeks would never suggest bewaring of themselves – if one can use such a participle: bewaring, that is – and it’s clearly Latin, not because ‘timeo’ ends in ‘o’ (because the Greek first person also ends in ‘o’) – though actually there is a Greek word ‘timao’ meaning ‘I honour’ – but because the ‘os’ ending is a nominative singular termination of the second declension in Greek and an accusative plural in Latin, of course – though actually ‘Danaos’ is not only the Greek for ‘Greek’, it’s also the Latin for ‘Greek’. It’s very interesting really.
JH: Yes, I take your point Humphrey…..
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