Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night...

[HMS_Irruncible]

What’s the origin, attribution, and source text of the phrase “Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night…”?

I know this much: it has something to do with the mail service. So no need to repeat that. I know it has nothing to do with “it was a dark and stormy night.” I hope we can avoid going off on those tangents.

[friedo]

The phrase comes from the inscription which can be found on the main post offices in New York and Washington, DC, which says:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

According to the USPS Website,

This inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the New York General Post Office. Kendall said the sentence appears in the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.C. The Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers, and the sentence describes the fidelity with which their work was done.

So there ya go.

[HMS_Irruncible]

Never mind, I found it. It’s Herodotus writing about the Persian mail system.

Herodotus - Wikiquote

@Herodotus

It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.

Source: Herodotus, translation. A.D. Godley, vol. 4, bk. 8, v. 98, pp. 96–97 (1924).
variant: Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed. (Book 8, Ch. 98)
Paraphrase: “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” ”
Source: Appears carved over entrance to Central Post Office building in New York City.
Historically, Persian King Xerxes had sent a message home to Persia stating that the Greeks had destroyed his navy off Salamis in the year 480 B.C.E.
Source: George Stimpson, A Book About a Thousand Things, pp. 69–70 (1946).

[HMS_Irruncible]

Simulpost! Sorry about that. This always happens to me.