a friend in need is a friend indeed

The idea that false friends will abandon a person in times of adversity while true friends will reveal themselves and provide help is ancient: the Greek playwright Euripides (c. 480 – c. 406 BC) wrote in Hecuba (424 BC), ἐν τοῖς κακοῖς γὰρ ἁγαθοὶ σαφέστατοι φίλοι: τὰ χρηστὰ δ’ αὔθ’ ἕκαστ’ ἔχει φίλους (en toîs kakoîs gàr hagathoì saphéstatoi phíloi: tà khrēstà d’ aúth’ hékast’ ékhei phílous, “it is in trouble’s hour that the good most clearly show their friendship; though prosperity by itself in every case finds friends”), and the Roman poet Ennius (c. 239 – c. 169 BC) observed in his Tragedies that amicus certus in re incerta cernitur (“a sure friend is known in unsure times”).

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