Ab ovo facts for kids
Ab ovo is a Latin phrase that means "from the beginning" or "from the egg." This saying comes from an old story about Helen of Troy, a famous figure from Greek myths. She was said to have been born from one of two eggs.
The idea behind "ab ovo" is that if you want to tell a story completely, you have to start right from the very first event, like the laying of the egg that led to Helen's birth. If Helen had not been born, she wouldn't have met Paris, and the famous Trojan War would never have happened. So, the egg was the absolute start of everything.
Ab ovo in literature
In English literature, the phrase "ab ovo" became popular because of a Roman poet named Horace. In his famous work, Ars Poetica, he talked about how a good epic poet (someone who writes long, heroic poems) should tell a story.
Starting a story
Horace suggested that a poet should not start the story of the Trojan War "from the double egg." This means the poet should not begin from the very earliest possible moment. Instead, he advised poets to jump right into the middle of the action. This technique is called in medias res, which is Latin for "into the middle of things."
For example, instead of telling the whole story of the Trojan War from Helen's birth, a poet might start when the war is already happening. This way, the story immediately grabs the listener's attention.
A different approach
However, not everyone agreed with Horace's advice. A famous writer named Laurence Sterne actually rejected this idea in his novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. In his book, the main character tries to tell his life story by starting from the very, very beginning, even before he was born! This shows a different way of thinking about how to tell a story.
From egg to apples
There is also a longer Latin phrase, ab ovo usque ad mala, which means "from the egg to the apples." This phrase comes from Horace's Satire 1.3. It refers to how a traditional Roman meal would begin with eggs and end with fruit like apples.
So, "ab ovo usque ad mala" means "from start to finish" or "from beginning to end." It's similar to saying "soup to nuts" in English, which means covering everything completely. When "ab ovo" is used on its own, it can sometimes carry this meaning of completeness, referring to something that is entire or whole.
See also
In Spanish: Ab ovo para niños
