In my post about the Gavin and Stacey quiz, I used the word phrase ‘gift horse’. It occurred to me to look into the derivation of the saying ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I’ll be honest, the idea of a horse as a gift did make me think of the wooden one given to the good people of the city of Troy. But then that never quite made sense to me. I mean, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth - because you might get a Greek spear in your eye for your pains? Somehow that didn’t work. Nor does the idea that the Trojans should just have blindly accepted the gift without checking It out. That’s essentially what they did anyway and look how that worked out for them.
No, the saying really means, when you get given a horse –
and I have to believe that the gifting of an equine was maybe more common in
days of yore than it is today - you
should just accept it with gratitude and not yank its mouth open to have a look
at the teeth. Apparently, that’s a good way of checking the age and condition
of a horse. A real horse that is. With a wooden one you can just count the
rings. The point of the saying is to be grateful when you receive a gift or a
piece of good fortune and not insult the giver by checking it and looking for
flaws and negatives.
So, when would you think that we have the first recorded
use of the saying, or something very similar? Actually in the 4th
Century AD in St. Jerome’s Commentarium in Epistolam ad Ephesios (Commentary on
the Letter to the Ephesians) and it went something like this – Noli equi dentes
inspicere donati”. Ah, they don’t write them like that any more. Basically it
means, don’t look at the teeth of a horse you’ve been given. Maybe not as big a
hit as his Latin translation of The Bible, but sequels can be difficult to pull
off at the best of times.
Speaking of the Trojan Horse, I wonder how well acquainted
you are with the term – the Trojan Mouse? If you’ve never heard of it, well it
can be used in different contexts, for example, a small-scale change in an
organisation – maybe in policy, maybe in procedure, whatever – that is designed
to have a large-scale effect. I first heard of it in terms of a tactic you can
use to persuade someone in a higher position of authority than you are to do
something you want them to. Basically it involves introducing an idea to said
authority figure in such a way that they come to believe it’s their own idea,
take ownership of it and see it through to fruition. I wouldn’t say that I’ve
made a habit of doing this and I wouldn’t say it’s been a conspicuous success
every time that I’ve tried. But I did have a notable success once.
I made a point of dropping it into the conversation with a
former deputy headteacher of mine that a colleague in another school had just
told me that their headteacher had just instituted a policy whereby when a
member of staff reached 20 years with the school – or at least within the local
authority – then a recommendation would automatically be sent to the powers
that be that they should receive the discretionary £250 award for long service
from the authority. The Monday afterwards at the weekly staff meeting, our Head
announced to the staff that, as a sign of how much he valued his staff, he had
come up with a policy whereby everyone reaching 20 years with the school would
automatically be recommended to the Authority for the discretionary award for
long service. How did I know that the deputy would mention the idea to the
Head? Because the Deputy was in his 19th year with the school
Oh, he wasn’t quite the first person to benefit. Who was?
Well, come on, who do you think?!
