Quod licet Iovi (Jovi), non licet bovi (from Latin - “What is permitted to Jupiter , is not allowed to a bull”) is a winged Latin expression , the meaning of which is that if something is allowed to a person or group of people, it is absolutely not necessarily allowed to everyone else. The authorship of the phrase is attributed to Terence [1] , but does not occur in his plays [2] , - this is probably a medieval paraphrase of the original “ Aliis si licet, tibi non licet .” (“ This is permitted to others, you are not allowed. ”) from the comedy “Punishing himself” [3] .
In the usual form Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi, the expression is found in the story of Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts (1826) by the German writer Josef Freicherr von Eichendorf , but it is not clear whether Eichendorf himself invented this expression [4 ] . The aphorism contains a hint of the myth of the abduction of Europe by Zeus (Jupiter), who took the form of a bull.
As a joke, the phrase can be turned over: "Quod licet bovi, non licet Iovi" - "What the bull can do, Jupiter cannot." This is a hint of the same myth: in the form customary for others, Jupiter could not have carried out the abduction of Europe .
See also
- Icarus and the sages
Notes
- ↑ HJ Rose, A Handbook of Latin Literature, 1954.
- ↑ Latin texts of comedies Terence
- ↑ Der Neue Herder, Von A bis Z, Zweiter Halbband: M bis Z, Freiburg im Breisgau 1949 (Herder Verlag), Spalte 3453, dort der Artikel “Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi” “Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi”
- ↑ Eichendorf J. von. From the life of a loafer / Per. D. S. Usova // German romantic novel: in 2 volumes / Per. edited by M. A. Petrovsky; article and comment. N. Ya. Berkovsky. - M.; L.: Academia, 1935. - T. 2 ..