The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (63 page)

The exploits of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, in the Trojan War were celebrated by Homer and by the tragic poets of ancient Greece. The point, made first by Horace, was that heroes need writers to commemorate them if they are to achieve eternal fame: HORACE
Odes
IV. ix. 25
vixere fortes ante Agamemnona multi
, many brave men lived before Agamemnon. Cf.
1616
JONSON
Forest
VIII. 114 There were braue men, before Aiax or Idomen, or all the store That Homer brought to Troy.
1819
Don Juan
I. V.
Brave men were living before Agamemnon And since, exceeding valorous and sage.
1980
Times
23 June 16
Brave men lived before Agamemnon, lots of them. But on all of them .. eternal night lies heavy, because they have left no records behind them.
courage
;
fame and obscurity

 
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see also (adjective used as noun)
FORTUNE favours the brave
; (verb)
ROBIN Hood could brave all weathers but a thaw wind
.

 
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A formulation of Murphy's Law; cf.
if ANYTHING can go wrong, it will
.
1867
Beyond Mississippi
iii.
His
bread never fell on the buttered side.
1891
Beast & Man
x.
We express the completeness of ill-luck by saying, ‘The bread never falls but on its buttered side.’
1929
Dead Nigger
xix.
Didn't her bread and butter always fall butter downwards?
1980
Guardian
3 Dec. 12
Murphy's (or Sod's) Law …Murphy's many relatives always quote it as ‘Buttered bread falls buttered side down—and if it's a sandwich it falls open.’
luck
;
misfortune

 
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see also
HALF a loaf is better than no bread
;
MAN cannot live by bread alone
.

 
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