The idiom of the Blind Leading the Blind comes from the Upanishads, written between 800-200 BCE: “Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind.” Bruegel probably knew the idiom from the Gospel of Matthew 15:14.
We see five disfigured blind men being led by another blind man at the front of line. The leader falls in a ditch, taking the lot with him.
