The blind leading the blind

History

The idiom can be traced back to the Upanishads, which were written around 800 BCE

A similar metaphor exists in the Buddhist Pali Canon, composed in North India, and preserved orally until it was committed to writing during the Fourth Buddhist Council in Sri Lanka in 29 BCE.

A similar expression appears in Horace (Epistles, book I, epistle XVII, line 4): caecus iter monstrare uelit ("the blind wishing to show the way"). Horace was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (27 BCE – 14 CE){{cite journal|last = Sullivan|first= Margaret A.|title= Bruegel's Proverbs: Art and Audience in the Northern Renaissance|journal= The Art Bulletin

The phrase also features in the New Testament. It is mentioned several times in the gospels, with similar stories appearing in Matthew, Luke and the non-canonical gospel of Thomas. It possibly reached the evangelists via the hypothesised Q source.

Sextus Empiricus (160 – 210 CE) compares ignorant teachers and blind guides in his Outlines of Scepticism:

The phrase appears in Adagia, an annotated collection of Greek and Latin proverbs compiled during the Renaissance by Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus. The first edition, Collectanea Adagiorum, was published in Paris in 1500 CE.

Augustine of Hippo, a Catholic theologian, writes ″Vae caecis ducentibus! Vae caecis sequentibus!,″ Latin for, "woe to the blind that lead, woe to the blind that follow."

Artistic depictions

Perhaps the most famous artistic depiction of the phrase is Pieter Bruegel's The Blind Leading the Blind. The distemper on canvas painting was completed in 1568 and is currently in the collection of the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, Italy.

References

References

1. "What does 'Blind leading the blind' mean? – Idiom Definition".
2. "Meaning of the phrase blind leading the blind at dictionary.cambridge.org".
3. Martin, Gary. "'The blind leading the blind' – the meaning and origin of this phrase".
4. 0-14-044163-8, p. 58.
5. [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.095x.than.html Canki Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 95)] {{Webarchive. link. (2017-05-27 , translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu)
6. 978-0-521-77809-1, book III: 259
7. [https://archive.org/details/proverbschieflyt00blaniala Proverbs taken chiefly from the ''Adagia''] (1814)
8. Augustine of Hippo, Contra epistulam parmeniani Libri tres, Lib. III, 4:24, cited by Blaise Pascal in his Lettres provinciales, Onzième lettre "Aux pères jésuites".