This paper focuses on the folly of old age as a literary motif. It aims to demonstrate that the first appearance of the motif in Greek literature is not in the early 16th century vernacular poem Peri gerondos na mi pari koritsi, as is generally believed. To the contrary, the motif of foolish old people, oft en treated satirically, emerges in Byzantine literature from the twelfth century onwards. Th e paper places its initial focus on the theme of unequal marriage and then presents other ways of mocking older people in poetry and in satire. It also discusses the use of the same motif in Byzantine historiography. Th e overall conclusion is that the emergence of this motif, typical for European literature of the Renaissance and afterwards, does not constitute a rare exception, but plays a major part in the innovative tendencies of the Komnenian period.