Greek Proverbs: December 4

Here are today's Greek proverbs; it's Group 212. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

ὁμιλέω ~ ὁμιλήσω ~ ὡμίλησα (verb): associate with, speak to 

ἀπέχω ~ ἀφέξω ~ ἀπέσχον (verb): keep off; keep away 

πόλεμος ~ πολέμου (noun m.): war, battle 

σωφρονέω ~ σωφρονήσω ~ εσωφρόνησα (verb): be wise, learn moderation 

σύν (prep.+dat): with, together with 

These are the proverbs (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):

Κωφῷ ὁμιλεῖς.

Ἀλλοτρίων ἀπέχου.

Τὸν πόλεμον ἐξωρχήσαντο.

Ξυμφέρει σωφρονεῖν ὑπὸ στένει.

Πόλλ' ἐφέλκεται φυγὴ κακὰ ξὺν αὐτῇ.

And now, some commentary:

Κωφῷ ὁμιλεῖς.

You're speaking to the deaf.

This is another one of the "adynata" of Plutarch: you can shout as loud as you want, but your message is not going to get through. It's an impossibility, adynaton.

Ἀλλοτρίων ἀπέχου.

Keep away from other people's things.

Note the middle imperative: "keep (yourself) away." This is another of the so-called Delphic maxims recorded by Stobaeus; find out more here at Wikipedia.

Τὸν πόλεμον ἐξωρχήσαντο.

They danced away the war.

This saying is the punchline to a Sybaritic story recorded in Aelian's Natural History: the decadent people of Sybaris in Italy had taught their horses to dance so that they could provide entertainment at their banquets. So when the people of Croton went to war with Sybaris, they swapped out their trumpeters for pipes; when the horses heard the dance music, they threw off their riders and "danced away the war," and so the Sybarite army was routed.

Ξυμφέρει σωφρονεῖν ὑπὸ στένει.

It's useful to become wise in dire straits.

This is advice from the Chorus in Aeschylus's Eumenides.

Just like in English, Greek στεῖνος (Attic στενός) is a "narrow place," but it means any difficult place or circumstance, so I used the English phrase "dire straits" here. This root also gives us English "stenography."

Πόλλ' ἐφέλκεται φυγὴ κακὰ ξὺν αὐτῇ.

Exile drags many evils along with it.

These words come from Euripides' Medea. Jason is sending Medea into exile, although he says he wants to make sure she and their sons do not suffer in exile; Πόλλ' ἐφέλκεται φυγὴ κακὰ ξὺν αὐτῇ. Medea, however, is not placated by his promises, and the results are κακὰ indeed.

Jason (Pompeii fresco)

And here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too:

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Greek Proverbs: December 2

Here are today's Greek proverbs; it's Group 211. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

γάμος ~ γάμου (noun m.): wedding, marriage 

λυπέω ~ λυπήσω ~ ἐλύπησα (verb): grieve; feel grief 

ἄμεινον ~ ἀμείνονος (adj. neut.): better, braver 

δεινόν ~ δεινοῦ (adj. neut.): fearful, terrible 

πλοῦς ~ πλόου (noun m.): voyage 

These are the proverbs (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):

Αἰγύπτου γάμος

Μὴ ἐπὶ παντὶ λυποῦ.

Ἔφυγον κακὸν, εὗρον ἄμεινον.

Ὑπόνοια δεινόν ἐστιν ἀνθρώποις κακόν.

Οὐ παντὸς ἀνδρὸς ἐς Κόρινθον ἐσθ' ὁ πλοῦς.

And now, some commentary:

Αἰγύπτου γάμος.

Aegyptus's wedding.

This is an ominous mythological allusion to the marriage of the fifty sons of Aegyptus to the fifty daughters of Danaus, the Danaides, all of whom — except for one — murdered their husbands on their wedding night. You can find out more at Wikipedia: Danaus. The Danais were famously punished in the underworld by drawing water with leaky pots.

Μὴ ἐπὶ παντὶ λυποῦ.

Don't grieve at all.

You could also translate this as "Don't grieve over everything" or "over everyone" — but the idea is really not to grieve, and translating it as "Don't grieve at all" saves the trouble of specifying everything (neuter) or everyone (masculine) for Greek παντὶ. Note also the middle imperative: λυποῦ. We have something like that middle sense in English when we say "don't grieve yourself, don't trouble yourself." This is one of the so-called Delphic maxims recorded by Stobaeus.

Ἔφυγον κακὸν, εὗρον ἄμεινον.

I fled the bad, I found the better.

This is an unusually optimistic saying! Often the result of fleeing from something bad means that you end up with something as bad or even worse (for example, the Greek saying Τέφραν φεύγων, εἰς ἀνθρακιὰν ἔπεσεν, or English "Out of the frying pan, into the fire"), but this goes from bad to better, κακὸν to ἄμεινον. Even if it is just the better or lesser of two evils, that is still an improvement.

Ὑπόνοια δεινόν ἐστιν ἀνθρώποις κακόν.

Suspicion is a dire evil among mankind.

The word ὑπόνοια is "under-mind" or "under-thought," which can mean a guess or conjecture in Greek, but it can also have the sense of suspicion, unspoken thoughts which tend in a negative direction; that seems to be the best sense here. This saying is another one of the monostichs of Menander, which means it is in iambic verse:

Ὑπόνοι|α δει||νόν ἐσ|τιν ἀν||θρώποις | κακόν.

Οὐ παντὸς ἀνδρὸς ἐς Κόρινθον ἐσθ' ὁ πλοῦς.

A voyage to Corinth is not for every man.

Corinth was a great tourist destination, especially famed for its high-priced courtesans, like the famous Lais of Corinth, so getting to go to Corinth was something like taking a luxury vacation... not something every man would be lucky enough to do in his lifetime. Horace uses the Latin equivalent in one of his Epistles: Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum.

Holbein's portrait of Lais of Corinth

And here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too:

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Greek Proverbs: Nov. 29

Here are today's Greek proverbs; it's Group 210. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

ἁρμόζω ~ ἁρμόσω ~ ἥρμοσα (verb): fit together; accommodate 

ἐλαίον ~ ἐλαίου (noun n.): olive oil 

βίος ~ βίου (noun m.): life, lifestyle 

φύω ~ φύσω ~ ἔφυσα (verb): grow, be born, be 

τίθημι ~ θήσω ~ ἔθηκα (verb): put, place 

These are the proverbs (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):

Πᾶσιν ἁρμόζου.

Ἐλαίῳ πῦρ σβεννύεις.

Εὐμετάβολός ἐστιν ἀνθρώπων βίος.

Οὔτοι συνέχθειν ἀλλὰ συμφιλεῖν ἔφυν.

Ὁ ἔχων πολὺ πέπερι τίθησι κἀν λαχάνοις.

And now, some commentary:

Πᾶσιν ἁρμόζου.

Accommodate yourself to everyone/everything.

This is one of the so-called Delphic maxims recorded by Stobaeus. Note the middle/passive imperative: ἁρμόζου. The Greek word has a wonderfully wide range of metaphorical uses which you can see in the LSJ dictionary entry.

Ἐλαίῳ πῦρ σβεννύεις.

You're putting out a fire with olive oil.

This is one of Plutarch's adynata. Compare the English "putting out a fire with gasoline." Which means: you're not putting the fire out; you're making it worse.

Εὐμετάβολός ἐστιν ἀνθρώπων βίος.

Human life changes easily.

This is a fragment from Greek comedy. We use "metabolism" in a scientific/medical sense in English, but this is about the basic meaning of the Greek word: μετά-βολος, "changeable" — and εὐ-μετά-βολος means "easily changing." 

Οὔτοι συνέχθειν ἀλλὰ συμφιλεῖν ἔφυν.

I was born not to join in hatred but to join in love.

Antigone speaks these words to Creon in Sophocles's play, Antigone.

Ὁ ἔχων πολὺ πέπερι τίθησι κἀν λαχάνοις.

He who has a lot of pepper puts it even on vegetables.

Compare an Aesopic proverb you saw earlier about putting pepper on lentils: ῾Ο πέπερι ἔχων καὶ εἰς φακὸν βάλλει.

And here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too:

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Greek Proverbs: Nov. 25

Here are today's Greek proverbs; it's Group 209. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

κοινός ~ κοινοῦ (adj. neut.): common, shared, impartial 

βίος ~ βίου (noun m.): life, lifestyle 

λόγος ~ λόγου (noun m.): word, speech 

τέχνη ~ τέχνης (noun f.): art, skill, craft 

ὀπίσω (adverb): back, backwards 

These are the proverbs (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):

Κοινὸς γίνου.

Ἀνέλπιστον βίον ζῇς.

Λόγος καλὸς ὀστοῦν κατεάξει.

Λιμὴν ἀτυχίας ἐστὶν ἀνθρώποις τέχνη.

Δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου, καὶ ποιήσω ὑμᾶς γενέσθαι ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων.

And now, some commentary:

Κοινὸς γίνου.

Be impartial.

The usual meaning of κοινός is shared or common or public, but it can also have the meaning of impartial, as here, opening yourself up to all sides of a question. This is another one of the so-called Delphic maxims recorded by Stobaeus; see them all here.

Ἀνέλπιστον βίον ζῇς.

You are living the unhoped-for life.

This is an alpha-privative: ἀν-έλπιστος. We have the word "unhoped for" in English which is always positive, but this Greek word is ambiguous: it can mean "unhoped for" but also "hopeless, desperate." The idea here, though, is positive: you are living something like "beyond your wildest dreams," and in a good way.

Λόγος καλὸς ὀστοῦν κατεάξει.

A good word can shatter bone.

The idea here is breaking bones in some aggressive sense; instead, the idea is that a good word — a gentle word, a soft word — can break something that is proverbially hard, like bone, stone, etc. You might understand it as something like "A good word can break a heart of stone" or something like that. This is one of the sayings attributed to Aesop, and the accompanying interpretation refers to softening something λιθώδης, "stony," making the connection between bone and stone.

Λιμὴν ἀτυχίας ἐστὶν ἀνθρώποις τέχνη.

Skill gives people refuge from misfortune.

The word λιμήν literally means a harbor, but it also has the metaphorical meaning of a refuge or a haven, much like "harbor" in English. Being skilled is like a safe port in the storm that is bad luck or misfortune, ἀτυχία. This is another one of the iambic monostichs of Menander:

Λιμὴν | ἀτυχί||ας ἐσ|τὶν ἀν||θρώποις | τέχνη.

Δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου, καὶ ποιήσω ὑμᾶς γενέσθαι ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων.

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

This is a line from the Gospel of Mark and also in the Gospel of Matthew; the King James version reads: "Come ye after me, and I will you to become fishers of men." Jesus is speaking to Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew as they are casting a fishing net; they become his disciples: "they forsook their nets and followed him." The phrase has its own article at Wikipedia: Fishers of men.

Duccio di Buoninsegna

And here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too:

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