NOTE: I'll be away for next week, so the next post/email won't be until Tuesday, Oct. 5, after I get back. I'm also thinking about a new turn in the ongoing development of this project. When I started, I hadn't intended for it to be cat-based, but with this new round of cats, there are now over 365 cats. That's enough for one every day of the year. So I am thinking I will switch over to a daily post, presenting a proverb each day and glossing all the words and providing more systematic grammar notes. I'll keep making new cats too, but it's fun to think that there are enough for a year now, and having fully glossed proverbs will be better for students, right? Plus, hey, it's Greek: we can all benefit from glossing. :-)
So now: here's one more round of five new cats with previous proverbs, and with the quiz. See how you do on the questions up top, and then try them again down below after you've read through the proverbs (the
quiz results display only at the blog, not in the email).
Ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ______ ὑμῶν.reveal/hide answer
Ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν.
______ ὠτίων πιστότεροι.reveal/hide answer
Ὀφθαλμοὶ ὠτίων πιστότεροι.
Ἀρχὴ τῆς ______ ἡ παιδεία.reveal/hide answer
Ἀρχὴ τῆς σοφίας ἡ παιδεία.
Δόσις δ᾿ ὀλίγη τε ______ τε.reveal/hide answer
Δόσις δ᾿ ὀλίγη τε φίλη τε.
Ἀνδρῶν ἡρώων ______ πήματα.reveal/hide answer
Ἀνδρῶν ἡρώων τέκνα πήματα.
Ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν.
Love your enemies.
Ὀφθαλμοὶ ὠτίων πιστότεροι.
The eyes (are) more trustworthy than the ears.
The idea is that you need to see something for yourself rather than listening to someone else tell you about it. Compare the English saying, "Seeing is believing." The word πιστότεροι is a comparative form of the adjective πιστός, and as a comparative it takes a genitive complement: ὠτίων.
Ἀρχὴ τῆς σοφίας ἡ παιδεία.
Education (is) the beginning of wisdom.
All three of the nouns in this sentence are feminine! The root of the word παιδεία is παῖς, "child," which also gives us English words like
pediatric and
pedagogy.
Δόσις δ᾿ ὀλίγη τε φίλη τε.
A gift, small (but) welcome.
The words appear twice in Homer's Odyssey. First, in
Book 6, when Nausicaa offers hospitality to Odysseus, and again in
Book 14, when Eumaeus welcomes Odysseus in Ithaca. The saying offers an apology for not having a bigger gift to offer; the idea is that a gift, although small, is given gladly and should be welcome. You can see the Greek root ὀλίγ- in
oligopoly and
oligarchy.
Ἄνδρῶν ἡρώων τέκνα πήματα.
The children of heroes (are) calamities.
In other words, you cannot predict the quality of a person based on who their fathers are; heroes' children do not always turn out to be heroes — sometimes just the opposite. Erasmus includes this saying in his
Adagia.
Ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ______ ὑμῶν.reveal/hide answer
Ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν.
______ ὠτίων πιστότεροι.reveal/hide answer
Ὀφθαλμοὶ ὠτίων πιστότεροι.
Ἀρχὴ τῆς ______ ἡ παιδεία.reveal/hide answer
Ἀρχὴ τῆς σοφίας ἡ παιδεία.
Δόσις δ᾿ ὀλίγη τε ______ τε.reveal/hide answer
Δόσις δ᾿ ὀλίγη τε φίλη τε.
Ἀνδρῶν ἡρώων ______ πήματα.reveal/hide answer
Ἀνδρῶν ἡρώων τέκνα πήματα.
And to finish up, here's a random LOLCat too:
