οἱ πολλοί
τὸ κακὸν δοκεῖν ποτ' ἐσθλὸν τῷδ' ἔμμεν' ὅτῳ φρένας θεὸς ἄγει πρὸς ἄταν → evil appears as good to him whose mind the god is leading to destruction (Sophocles, Antigone 622f.)
English (LSJ)
hoi polloi, the great unwashed, the plebeians, the crowd, the plebs, the rabble, the masses, the dregs of society, riffraff, the herd, the canaille, the proles, proletariat, sheeple, peons. Hoi polloi (Greek: οἱ πολλοί, hoi polloi, "the many") is an expression from Greek that means the many or, in the strictest sense, the people. In English, it has been given a negative connotation to signify deprecation of the working class, commoners, the masses or common people in a derogatory or (more often today) ironic sense.
Portuguese Wikipedia
Hoi polloi (em grego antigo: οἱ πολλοί, hoi polloi, "os muitos"), é uma expressão do grego que significa muitos ou, no sentido mais estrito, a maioria.
A frase tornou-se conhecida por estudiosos ingleses, provavelmente a partir da Oração Fúnebre de Péricles, como mencionada na obra História da Guerra do Peloponeso de Tucídides, Péricles usa o termo como uma forma de elogiar a democracia ateniense, contrastando com hoi oligoi, "os poucos" (οἱ ὀλίγοι).
