whom the gods love die young
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
This is from Menander — Hon hoi theoi philousin apothneskei neos. Demosthenes has a similar apophthegm. Plautus has the line, Quern di diligunt adolescens moritur (Bacch. IV, vn, 18).
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “whom the gods love die young” mean?
This is from Menander — Hon hoi theoi philousin apothneskei neos. Demosthenes has a similar apophthegm. Plautus has the line, Quern di diligunt adolescens moritur (Bacch. IV, vn, 18).
Is “whom the gods love die young” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.