Literal translation
He's as old as Herod.
Meaning
he's as old as Herod
Explanation
The comparison invokes a biblical figure, Herod, a tetrarch associated in popular memory with a very distant past, more through his place in the gospel narrative than through historical accuracy about his actual age at the events that made him famous. The name functions as a shared cultural reference point, transmitted through religious teaching, to denote an age judged extreme without needing to put a number on it. It belongs to the same family as es vièi coume un banc, both serving to describe old age through comparison, but it differs in its more learned, biblical grounding, which assumes at least a minimal familiarity with the religious story involved on the listener's part. The register remains ordinary and mildly humorous, the reference carrying no solemnity in this use: it evokes only the idea of an immemorial time associated with his name, stripped of any cruelty.