add insult to injury, to

To make harm worse by adding humiliation. The phrase has been traced to a Greek fable in a bald man, trying to kill a fly on his head, misses and hits himself very hard, and the fly replies, “You wanted to kill me for merely landing on you; what will you do to yourself now that you have added insult to injury?” It has since been applied to countless situations by as many writers, and has long been a cliché.