Greek Proverbs

Here are today's Greek proverbs with LOLCats! These are repeats of previous proverbs, but now with illustrations... and with a quiz too! 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):

Ἔριν ______.

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Ἔριν μίσει.

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Μὴ ______ Καμάριναν.

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Μὴ κίνει Καμάριναν.

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______ πάθη πάντων.

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Κοινὰ πάθη πάντων.

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______ πίσσης γεύεται.

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Μῦς πίσσης γεύεται.

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Εἰς ______ πτύεις.

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Εἰς οὐρανὸν πτύεις.

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Ἔριν μίσει.

Hate strife.

Don't let μίσει fool you: that's the imperative form of an -εω contract verb! From the Greek root  μίσ- we get English words like misanthrope and misogyny. Meanwhile, for more about strife personified as a goddess, Ἔρις, see Wikipedia: Eris.

Μὴ κίνει Καμάριναν.

Don't move Kamarina.

This refers to a marshy swamp outside the city of Kamarina in Sicily. Because the air of the swamp was unhealthy, the people wanted to drain the swamp, but the Delphic oracle told them: Μὴ κίνει Καμάριναν. The people ignored the oracle, drained the swamp, and thus exposed their city to attack by their enemies. The saying of the oracle came to be used like a proverb, and as such it is the subject of a poem in the Greek Anthology.

Κοινὰ πάθη πάντων.

Suffering is common to all.

These words come from the "gnomai" supposedly composed by Phocylides, the 6th-century B.C.E. poet, although the work is now usually attributed to a pseudo-Phocylides, and perhaps composed as late as the 1st century C.E. by a Jewish writer. Here are the complete "gnomai" of pseudo-Phocylides if you are curious.

Μῦς πίσσης γεύεται.

The mouse is tasting the pitch.

The idea is that the pitch is part of a mousetrap: as soon as the mouse tastes the pitch, he's caught and cannot escape. Compare the English idiom about catching fish: "he's taken the bait." You've seen an Attic version of this saying in a previous blog post, citing Demosthenes. The saying also appears in one of the Idylls of Theocritus, where it is put into the first-person plural: μῦς γεύμεθα πίσσας, "we (like) the mouse have tasted pitch."

Εἰς οὐρανὸν πτύεις.

You're spitting into the sky.

This is not a good idea: the spit is going to fall right back down on you! Compare the English saying: "Spit in the wind, you'll get it back in your face." The Greek word οὐρανός meant the sky, and also the sky-god himself; you can read about the sky-god at Wikipedia: Uranus.

Ἔριν ______.

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Ἔριν μίσει.

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Μὴ ______ Καμάριναν.

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Μὴ κίνει Καμάριναν.

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______ πάθη πάντων.

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Κοινὰ πάθη πάντων.

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______ πίσσης γεύεται.

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Μῦς πίσσης γεύεται.

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Εἰς ______ πτύεις.

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Εἰς οὐρανὸν πτύεις.

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And to finish up, here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too:

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Greek Proverbs: June 18

Here are today's Greek proverbs with LOLCats! These are repeats of previous proverbs, but now with illustrations... and with a quiz too! 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):

Ἐν ______ ναυαγεῖν.

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Ἐν λιμένι ναυαγεῖν.

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Λύκου ______ ζητεῖς.

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Λύκου πτερὰ ζητεῖς.

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Κροκοδείλου ______.

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Κροκοδείλου δάκρυα.

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Εἰς θεῶν ______ ἦλθεν.

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Εἰς θεῶν ὦτα ἦλθεν.

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Κοσκίνῳ ______ φέρει.

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Κοσκίνῳ ὕδωρ φέρει.

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Ἐν λιμένι ναυαγεῖν.

To be shipwrecked in port.

The saying refers to suffering defeat just within sight of your goal, i.e. the ship goes down just as it sails into its destination port. The verb ναυαγεῖν is a compound: ship-break, ναῦς-ἄγνυμι.

Λύκου πτερὰ ζητεῖς.

You're looking for wings on a wolf.

This is one of those proverbial fool's errands: you will not find any wings on a wolf... and it's a dangerous place to look!

Κροκοδείλου δάκρυα.

Crocodile tears.

This famous saying has its own article at Wikipedia: Crocodile Tears. The idea is that the crocodile is a hypocrite, weeping (or seeming to weep) while he devours his victims. From the Greek κροκόδειλος we get the English word "crocodile," but it's not clear where the Greek word itself comes from: etymology of  κροκόδειλος. Compare a similar phrase: Μεγαρέων δάκρυα, "The tears of the Megarians." There are various explanations for why the people of Megara were associated with tears that were not tears of sadness; my favorite is that Megara was famous for its garlic, and the pungency of the garlic made the Megarians shed tears.

Εἰς θεῶν ὦτα ἦλθεν.

It came to the ears of the gods.

As Erasmus explains, this phrase means that what is done rightly or wrongly, once it finally reaches the ears of the gods, will be rewarded or punished accordingly. The verb ἧλθον is used as the aorist of the verb ἔρχομαι; it's another example of an irregular verb paradigm, or suppletion.

Κοσκίνῳ ὕδωρ φέρει.

He's carrying water in a sieve.

This is a proverbial fool's errand, since of course the water comes streaming out of the sieve before the fool reaches his destination. The saying appears in Plato's Gorgias and also in the Republic.

Ἐν ______ ναυαγεῖν.

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Ἐν λιμένι ναυαγεῖν.

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Λύκου ______ ζητεῖς.

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Λύκου πτερὰ ζητεῖς.

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Κροκοδείλου ______.

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Κροκοδείλου δάκρυα.

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Εἰς θεῶν ______ ἦλθεν.

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Εἰς θεῶν ὦτα ἦλθεν.

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Κοσκίνῳ ______ φέρει.

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Κοσκίνῳ ὕδωρ φέρει.

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And to finish up, here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too:

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Greek Proverbs: June 17

Here are today's Greek proverbs with LOLCats! These are repeats of previous proverbs, but now with illustrations... and with a quiz too! 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):

Ἐχθρῶν ἄδωρα ______.

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Ἐχθρῶν ἄδωρα δῶρα.

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______ ἔχεις.

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Γαλῆν ἔχεις.

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Ἀφ᾽ ἵππων ἐπ᾽ ______.

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Ἀφ᾽ ἵππων ἐπ᾽ ὄνον.

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______ αἰδοῦ.

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Πρεσβύτερον αἰδοῦ.

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Ἅπας ἐχῖνος ______.

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Ἅπας ἐχῖνος τραχύς.

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Ἐχθρῶν ἄδωρα δῶρα.

The gifts of your enemies (are) not gifts.

Literally, the gifts of your enemies are un-gifts, ἄ-δωρα. Ajax quotes this proverb in Socrates's play of the same name.

Γαλῆν ἔχεις.

You've got the weasel.

The weasel was a very bad omen, so telling someone that they have a weasel means that they are unlucky and going to get into trouble as a result. Compare the evil omen of a black cat crossing your path in English; there is a lot of folkloric overlap between weasels and cats (the ancient Greeks kept weasels in their houses to control mice; later, they adopted the Egyptian practice of keeping cats as pets).

Ἀφ᾽ ἵππων ἐπ᾽ ὄνον.

From horses to a donkey.

Other versions go from horses to donkeys, plural: ᾿Αφ’ ἵππων ἐπ’ ὄνους. Whether a person goes from horses to donkeys in the plural or from horses to just one donkey, it is clearly a big comedown. You can see ἵππο- in many Greek names, such as Hippocrates and Hippodamia. AFAIK, there are no Greek donkey names!

Πρεσβύτερον αἰδοῦ.

Respect an elder.

This is one of the so-called Delphic maxims recorded by Stobaeus. This one also has a comparative adjective; πρεσβύτερος is the comparative form of πρέσβυς, meaning "older, elder." This is the root of the English word "Presbyterian." Greek πρεσβύτερος is also the origin of English "priest."

Ἅπας ἐχῖνος τραχύς.

The whole hedgehog is prickly.

As Erasmus explains, this saying refers to a person who is "prickly" by analogy to the prickly hedgehog. In the same way that there is no un-prickly part of a hedgehog that allows you to safely pick it up, so too there are some people who are impossible to deal with no matter what you try to do: they are completely prickly. The adjective ἅπας is a compound: ἁ-πᾶς, "together-all." That initial alpha is not the alpha-privative, which is very common in Greek. Instead, this is the alpha-copulative, which is much less common, and which is weirdly the opposite of the alpha-privative. You can read more at Wikipedia about both the alpha-privative and alpha-copulative.

Ἐχθρῶν ἄδωρα ______.

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Ἐχθρῶν ἄδωρα δῶρα.

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______ ἔχεις.

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Γαλῆν ἔχεις.

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Ἀφ᾽ ἵππων ἐπ᾽ ______.

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Ἀφ᾽ ἵππων ἐπ᾽ ὄνον.

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______ αἰδοῦ.

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Πρεσβύτερον αἰδοῦ.

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Ἅπας ἐχῖνος ______.

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Ἅπας ἐχῖνος τραχύς.

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And to finish up, here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too:

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Greek Proverbs

Here are today's Greek proverbs with LOLCats! These are repeats of previous proverbs, but now with illustrations... and with a quiz too! 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):

Γλαῦκας εἰς ______.

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Γλαῦκας εἰς Ἀθήνας.

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______ βέβρωκε.

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Σκορπίους βέβρωκε.

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______ ἐν πιθήκοις.

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Ὄνος ἐν πιθήκοις.

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Λύκος κρέας ______.

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Λύκος κρέας νέμει.

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Λύκος μάτην ______.

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Λύκος μάτην χάνων.

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Γλαῦκας εἰς Ἀθήνας.

(Bringing) owls to Athens.

This refers to a foolish effort: there's no need to bring owls to Athens because Athens is full of owls. The owls that lived in the Parthenon were a symbol of Athens, and the coins of Athens were stamped with owls. Compare the English proverbial phrase, "coals to Newcastle."

Σκορπίους βέβρωκε.

He's eaten scorpions.

This refers to someone who gets angry easily. The idea is that they've eaten scorpions and those scorpions are still in there being disagreeable, as scorpions are wont to do.

Ὄνος ἐν πιθήκοις.

A donkey among the monkeys.

The saying appears in a long fragment of Menander quoted by Aulus Gellius. It refers to someone, not very bright, who is being mocked and insulted by those around him, as the donkey is regularly an object of ridicule, while monkeys are proverbially rude. 

Λύκος κρέας νέμει.

A wolf is distributing the meat.

This is something like the proverbial "lion's share." You know that the wolf is going to be constantly taking for himself even while he is "sharing" the meat with others. 

Λύκος μάτην χάνων.

The wolf, gaping like a fool.

This proverb refers to someone whose hopes are disappointed: he is gaping, empty-mouthed, not having gotten what he wanted. The proverb takes on narrative form in an Aesop's fable about a foolish wolf who heard a mother threatening her baby: "If you don't stop crying, I'll throw you to the wolf." Since the baby kept on crying, the wolf stood there outside the window, hoping that the woman would soon throw the baby to him, but he stood there gaping like a fool — the woman was never really going to throw the baby to the wolf.

Γλαῦκας εἰς ______.

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Γλαῦκας εἰς Ἀθήνας.

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______ βέβρωκε.

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Σκορπίους βέβρωκε.

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______ ἐν πιθήκοις.

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Ὄνος ἐν πιθήκοις.

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Λύκος κρέας ______.

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Λύκος κρέας νέμει.

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Λύκος μάτην ______.

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Λύκος μάτην χάνων.

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And to finish up, here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too:

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