Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 97. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

κάρα ~ κάρατος (noun n.): head 

δάκρυον ~ δακρύου (noun n.): tear, teardrop 

ἱμάτιον ~ ἱματίου (noun n.): cloak; clothes 

σῶμα ~ σώματος (noun n.): body 

εἶδος ~ εἴδους (noun n.): shape, form 

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

Ὑπὲρ κάρα πτύεις.

Μεγαρέων δάκρυα.

Ἱματίῳ πῦρ περιστέλλεις.

Λάβετε, τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ σῶμά μου.

Κάτοπτρον εἴδους χαλκός ἐστ'· οἶνος δὲ νοῦ.

And now, some commentary:

Μεγαρέων δάκρυα.

The tears of the Megareans.

This is like the phrase "crocodile tears," referring to feigned tears; see this earlier post. As Erasmus reports, ancient sources provide different explanations for the origin of the saying about Megarean tears. For example, supposedly Megara abounded in garlic, and people wept when cooking with raw garlic. In another story, there was a funeral for a princess of Megara at which there were many hired mourners, weeping theatrically, but not from any real grief. Regardless of the origin of the saying, its meaning is the same: tears without sadness. 

Ὑπὲρ κάρα πτύεις.

You're spitting over your head.

Needless to say, spitting up over your own head is not a good idea; that spit is going to come right back at you. Compare the English saying: "spitting into the wind." From the word κάρα comes the diminutive κρανίον, meaning the upper part of the head or skull, which gives us the English word cranium.

Ἱματίῳ πῦρ περιστέλλεις.

You're wrapping fire in your cloak.

As Erasmus explains, this is like "nursing a viper in your bosom," i.e. you are keeping something close to you (fire) that will lead to your own destruction. The word himation is sometimes used in English when writing about ancient Greek clothing.

Λάβετε, τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ σῶμά μου.

Take: this is my body.

These words come from The Gospel of Mark; see similar versions in Luke and Matthew.  Jesus is offering bread to his disciples at the Last Supper; you can find out more at Wikipedia. From Greek σῶμα, we get English somatic.

Κάτοπτρον εἴδους χαλκός ἐστ'· οἶνος δὲ νοῦ.

Bronze is a mirror of the face, wine of the mind.

This is an unattributed fragment of Aeschylus that is recorded in Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae.

You can read about bronze mirrors at Wikipedia. (The earliest glass mirrors made with silver-mercury amalgams date to around 500 C.E.) Here's an Etruscan bronze mirror showing the Judgment of Paris:

And here's a random proverb too:

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Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Oct. 14

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 96. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

σοφός ~ σοφοῦ adj. masc.): wise, skilled 

ὅμοιον ~ ὁμοίου adj. neut.): the same, like 

μικρός ~ μικροῦ adj. neut.): small, little 

γέρων ~ γέροντος adj. fem.): old, elderly 

ἕκαστος ~ ἑκάστου adj. masc.): each, all 

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

Σοφοῖς χρῶ.

Ὅμοιον ὁμοίῳ φίλον.

Μικρὸς ἡλίκος Μόλων.

Γέρων ἀλώπηξ οὐχ ἁλίσχεται.

Ὁ νοῦς γὰρ ἡμῶν ἐστιν ἐν ἑκάστῳ θεός.

And now, some commentary:

Σοφοῖς χρῶ.

Make use of those who are wise.

The form χρῶ is the second-person imperative of χράομαι (those middle imperatives can look sneaky, especially for contract verbs). The adjective σοφός is being used substantively as a noun: (a) wise (man). This is one of the maxims that Stobaeus attributes to the Seven Sages of Greece. From the Greek root σοφ- we get all the soph- words in English philosopher and sophistication.

Ὅμοιον ὁμοίῳ φίλον.

Like likes like.

In Greek, it is literally "a (similar) thing is friendly to a similar thing." The saying appears in Plato's Lysis (τὸ ὅμοιον τῷ ὁμοίῳ φίλον εἶναι) in a debate about whether friendship is more likely among people who are similar or whether people who are similar are prone to envy and resentment, with friendship more naturally occurring between people who are dissimilar. From the Greek root ὁμο- we get the homo- words in English like homogeneous and homonym.

Μικρὸς ἡλίκος Μόλων.

As small as Molon.

Here μικρός means small in stature, i.e. short. The words come from Aristophanes' Frogs. According to the ancient commentators, the words are ironic; Molon was actually a very tall actor, so the speaker — Dionysus — is joking when he invokes Molon in this way: παίζει· ἔστι γὰρ μεγαλόσωμος ὁ Μόλων, "he's joking, for Molon is a big man." However, the commentaries also note that there was a notorious thief named Molon who was, in fact, very short. So, we would need to talk to Aristophanes himself to be sure just how this one works!

Γέρων ἀλώπηξ οὐχ ἁλίσχεται.

An old fox can't be trapped.

Of course, foxes are sly and hard to catch at any age; the force of this proverb is that a fox who has lived to enjoy her old age has no doubt escaped many a trap and is not likely to fall into a trap now. Compare a similar saying about the old mouse: Γέρων δὲ καὶ μῦς οὐχ ἁλισκεται πάγῃ. From the root in Greek γέρων we get English gerontology.

Ὁ νοῦς γὰρ ἡμῶν ἐστιν ἐν ἑκάστῳ θεός.

The mind (is) a god in each of us.

This is a fragment from a lost play by Euripides, and the idea is invoked by the Emperor Julian in his essay addressed To the Uneducated Cynics, who refers both to the mind and to λόγος as a god in each of us, something that links us to the divine. This Julian is known both as Julian the Apostate (as he renounced Christianity and was the last pagan emperor), but also as Julian the Philosopher. He was a prolific author, and you can see a list of his works at Wikipedia: Julian.

Here is Julian on a coin:

And here's a random proverb too:

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Week 27: Proverb and Vocabulary Review

Review Padlet. Here's the Proverb Padlet that contains the contents of the week's posts... and it displays at random each time you load the Padlet! That way you can use it as a randomizing-reviewer for the week. Here's a screenshot of this week's Padlet: Greek Proverbs Week 27. Here's the Padlet embedded, but the  embedded version may not appear in the email.

And remember: you can put a Padlet on your phone so you can pop up a proverb at random whenever. There's a free Padlet app you can download if you want, but you don't need the app; you can just save the URL to your phone home screen (that's what I do). I hope you will enjoy this review option; random is a great way to review!

Audio. I've now added audio to all the posts for the past week; see the playlist below, and the audio is also embedded in each post:

• Group #91
• Group #92
• Group #93
• Group #94
• Group #95

Below is a playlist with all the audio, but that playlist won't appear in the email; to access the playlist from the email, use this link: Proverbs Audio.

Laura Gibbs · Greek Vocabulary with Proverbs

Alphabetical Index. Finally, here is the list of all of this week's proverbs, alphabetized and linked back to the blog post so that you can access the English translation and commentary as needed. I've also updated the complete list of proverbs (all 475 so far!).

• Ἄνθρωπος ἀνθρώπῳ δαιμόνιον.
  
• Ἄριστον μὲν ὕδωρ.
  
• Γυμνὸς ὡς ἐκ μήτρας.
  
• Δακρυόεν γελάσασα.
  
• Δίδοτε, καὶ δοθήσεται ὑμῖν.
  
• Δόλον φοβοῦ
  
• Εἰς κόλπον πτύειν.
  
• Ἐν νυκτὶ βουλὴ τοῖς σοφοῖσι γίγνεται.
  
• Ἔριν μίσει.
  
• Ἑρμῆς κοινός.
  
• Ζῇ ἀεὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια.
  
• Ἰχθύων βίος.
  
• Μὴ πῦρ ἐπὶ πυρί.
  
• Μήτε νεῖν, μήτε γράμματα.
  
• Ὁ οἶνος οὐκ ἔχει πηδάλια.
  
• Ὁ φεύγων μύλον ἄλφιτα φεύγει.
  
• Οἶνος ἄνωγε γέροντα καὶ οὐκ ἐθέλοντα χορεύειν.
  
• Ὄνος ἵππον μιμούμενος.
  
• Ὄνου οὐρὰ τηλίαν οὐ ποιεῖ.
  
• Παρὰ κωφῷ διαλέγῃ.
  
• Πονηρός ἐστι πᾶς ἀχάριστος ἄνθρωπος.
  
• Προπέτεια πολλοῖς ἐστιν αἰτία κακῶν.
  
• Τὸν ὑψόθεν σκοπὸν ἐπισκόπει, φύλακα πολυπόνων.
  
• Τύχη εὔριπος.
  
• Ὕπνος τὰ μικρὰ τοῦ θανάτου μυστήρια.
  

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Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Oct. 11

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 95. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

δόλος ~ δόλου  (noun m.): trick, craft, cunning 

κόλπος ~ κόλπου  (noun m.): bosom, lap 

οἶνος ~ οἴνου  (noun m.): wine 

ἄνθρωπος ~ ἀνθρώπου  (noun m.): person, human bein 

ὕπνος ~ ὕπνου  (noun m.): sleep 

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

Δόλον φοβοῦ

Εἰς κόλπον πτύειν.

Ὁ οἶνος οὐκ ἔχει πηδάλια.

Ἄνθρωπος ἀνθρώπῳ δαιμόνιον.

Ὕπνος τὰ μικρὰ τοῦ θανάτου μυστήρια.

Laura Gibbs · Greek Proverbs: 095

And now, some commentary:

Δόλον φοβοῦ.

Fear deceit.

Don't let φοβοῦ fool you; it's the imperative form of a contract deponent verb, middle voice (φοβέομαι). This is one of the maxims that the anthologist Stobaeus attributed to the Seven Sages of Greece; you can find out more at Wikipedia: Seven Sages. You can also find out more about Stobaeus at Wikipedia.

Εἰς κόλπον πτύειν.

To spit into one's cloak. 

This was something done to ward off a bad omen or to counteract magic. According to one of the idylls of Theocritus, you had to spit three times: ὡς μὴ βασκανθῶ δὲ τρὶς εἰς ἐμὸν ἔπτυσα κόλπον, "so that I wouldn't be bewitched, I spit three times into my cloak." You can find out more about this idyll at Wikipedia: Theocritus VI.

Ὁ οἶνος οὐκ ἔχει πηδάλια.

Wine has no oars.

In other words, when you drink, you lose control of yourself, just as you cannot control a ship without oars. Metaphorically, the word πηδάλια could also be used to mean the reins of a horse: ἱππικὰ πηδάλια. From Greek οἶνος we get the words oenophile and oenology.

Ἄνθρωπος ἀνθρώπῳ δαιμόνιον.

One person is a divine spirit to another.

The idea here is that one person can help another person in a way that is so valuable that it is as if that person is a god. Translating the Greek word δαιμόνιον is notoriously difficult; the word has its own Wikipedia article, specifically with reference to Socrates's use of δαιμόνιον: Wikipedia: Daimonion. Erasmus renders the saying in Latin as Homo homini deus, Man is a god to man.

Ὕπνος τὰ μικρὰ τοῦ θανάτου μυστήρια.

Sleep is a small mystery of death.

Many cultures have proverbs related to the eerie similarity of sleep and death, and in Greek mythology, the gods Ὕπνος and Θάνατος are brothers, the fatherless sons of Night, Νύξ. You can find out more at Wikipedia: Hypnos and Thanatos. From these Greek roots we get English words like hypnotize and euthanize. From the root in Greek μυστήρι- we get English mystery.

This is Waterhouse's painting of Sleep and His Half-Brother, Death:

And here's a random proverb too:

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