Ab ovo (literally, "from the egg," hence from the beginning), an old Roman phrase, generally with allusion to the custom of beginning a meal with eggs, in this case forming the first part of the phrase ab ovo usque ad mala, from the egg to the apples, i.e., from beginning to end; but sometimes the allusion is to the poet mentioned by Horace ("Ars Poetica," 147) who began the history of the Trojan war with the story of the egg from which Helen was fabled to have been born. Horace contrasts him unfavorably with Homer, who plunged at once into the midst of things, or in medias res.