Meaning & Analysis
The proverb refers to the ancient and widespread, though incorrect, belief that ostriches have such powerful stomachs that they can consume and digest hard materials like iron.
Insights
Emotional and Mental Fortitude
It symbolizes an exceptional ability to endure and process extremely difficult, painful, or offensive situations. A person with an 'ostrich stomach' can 'swallow' harsh truths, insults, or hardships that others cannot.
Physical Resilience
The proverb can describe immense physical toughness or a robust constitution, suggesting a person who can withstand great physical challenges or consume things that would make others ill.
Uncommon Tolerance
It represents an unflinching capacity to face and accept disagreeable or dangerous circumstances without complaint or defeat. This implies a high threshold for tolerance and an unshakeable disposition.
Aggressive Courage
In a more aggressive context, it signifies voracious power or courage, as in being able to 'digest' an enemy's sword, turning a defensive quality into an offensive capability.
Mythological Natural History
The proverb is rooted in the scientifically inaccurate belief from classical and medieval bestiaries that ostriches could consume and digest iron. This folkloric image of the ostrich became a powerful symbol for enduring the unendurable, reflecting a pre-modern fascination with nature's supposed marvels.
Literary and Dramatic Use
In literature, particularly from the Elizabethan era as seen in Shakespeare and Jonson, the proverb is used to denote extreme fortitude or aggression. The threat 'I’ll make thee eat iron' weaponizes the metaphor, turning a symbol of resilience into one of violent subjugation.
Psychology of Resilience
Psychologically, the proverb speaks to the human admiration for resilience and 'hardiness'. It encapsulates the ideal of being able to process and overcome harsh realities, emotional blows, or insults that would defeat an ordinary person.
Endurance of Metaphor
While based on a falsehood, the proverb's metaphorical truth persists. It serves as a striking and memorable image for the concept of mental and emotional toughness, demonstrating how a powerful metaphor can outlive its literal, factual basis.
Rhetorical Devices
Simile
The proverb's central device is a direct comparison to an ostrich, using the animal's mythical ability to create a powerful and vivid image of resilience.
Hyperbole
The act of digesting iron is an extreme exaggeration that effectively emphasizes the extraordinary and almost supernatural level of toughness being described.
Symbolism
'Iron' serves as a potent symbol for the hardest, most unyielding, and painful of life's challenges, while the 'ostrich' symbolizes the power to overcome them.
Transcription
Quotations
The Estrich digesteth harde yron to preserue his healthe.
Rusticks, who haue stomackes like Ostriges, that can digest hard iron.
Ile make thee eate yron like an Astridge, and swallow my sword like a great pinne.
I could eate the very hilts for anger! —A signe of good digestion! you haue an ostrich stomach, cousin.
He must needs be hungry, that like th’ ostridge Can digest metal.
I’ll try his ostrich stomach [to see if it can digest my sword].
The common opinion of the Ostrich .. conceives that it digesteth Iron.
To digest iron, viz. to be Eastridge like, to have a good appetite, or stomach.
Shakespeare Citations
I’ll make thee eat iron like an ostridge . . . ere thou and I part.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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