<P> The phrase "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad" is a phrase spoken by Prometheus in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Masque of Pandora" (1875). </P> <P> The first version of this phrase appears in Antigone by Sophocles (verses 620 - 623) as "τὸ κακὸν δοκεῖν ποτ _̓ ἐσθλὸν τῷδ _̓ ἔμμεν' ὅτῳ φρένας θεὸς ἄγει πρὸς ἄταν" meaning "evil appears as good in the minds of those whom gods lead to destruction". Even this appears to be a borrowing from an earlier, lost Greek play . </P>

Who said those whom the gods wish to destroy