Strangling the monster in the crib
July 10, 2007 12:08 PM

What are the origins of the idiom "strangle the monster in the crib"?
posted by commander_cool to Writing & Language (7 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
It's a reference to Hercules strangling the serpents in his crib, isn't it? I'll look for a supporting link...
posted by amro at 12:20 PM on July 10, 2007


I always took it to mean getting to an issue before it becomes a bigger problem, as in "nipping it in the bud".
posted by sephira at 12:44 PM on July 10, 2007


Yes, surely it refers to Hercules killing the snakes sent by Hera to kill him whilst a baby in his cradle?
posted by greycap at 2:15 PM on July 10, 2007


I had always thought that it was based on the common fiction trope "if you could go back in time and kill Hitler as a a baby, would you?"
posted by solid-one-love at 2:19 PM on July 10, 2007


Hercules did strangle snakes in his crib, but that story doesn't seem to go along very well with the meaning of the idiom, as sephira points out.
posted by commander_cool at 5:11 PM on July 10, 2007


Especially since the most common variant reported by google is "in [i]its[/i] crib". Apparently Churchill said something of the sort in reference to communism, but I'm not finding an exact quote.
posted by squidlarkin at 5:34 PM on July 10, 2007


Are you sure it's not referring to Larry Cohen's 70's horror cult classic, "It's Alive"?

It is so sad that I thought of that before Hercules and the serpent.
posted by Lieber Frau at 7:30 PM on July 10, 2007


« Older Career and education advice for a social worker?   |   Hyper-realistic fruits and veggies? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.