E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Die.
Whom the gods love die young. This is from Menander’s fragments (Hon hoi theoi philousin apothnskei neos). Demosthenes has a similar apophthegm. Plautus has the line, “Queen Di diligunt adolescens moritur.” (See Byron: Don Juan, canto iv. 12.) Those who die young are “taken out of the miseries of this sinful life” into a happy immortality.
skei neos). Demosthenes has a similar apophthegm. Plautus has the line, “Queen Di diligunt adolescens moritur.” (See Byron: Don Juan, canto iv. 12.) Those who die young are “taken out of the miseries of this sinful life” into a happy immortality.
