“And the walls have ears” How did the proverb come about?

Ever since the days of the ancient Greeks and Byzantine rulers, palaces and castles have been full of spies, conspirators, or just gossipers. Miniature electronic eavesdropping devices had not yet been invented at that time, so all hope was on our own ears. For eavesdropping, auditory holes were made in the walls, or even special pipes were brought in.

In literature, the expression "the walls have ears" first appeared 400 years ago in the works of Spanish writers. By that time, "the stn have ears" had already become an enduring metaphor and symbol for any eavesdropping. Cervantes, in his Don Quixote, published in 1615, has the phrase “No, I’d better keep quiet, because even the walls have ears.” Another Spanish author, the playwright Lope de Vega, in his comedy "The Valencian Widow" (written in 1604) used the phrase "So, wall, and you have ears."

In our age of technology, not only "ears" have already appeared at the walls, but also "eyes" in the form of micro-video cameras transmitting images and sound. Their dimensions may not exceed a few millimeters. Just imagine: if our smartphones have such small cameras, how small can specialized devices be?

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