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)

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

Response by poster: 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