Greek Proverbs: Feb. 19

Here are today's Greek proverbs with LOLCats! These are repeats of previous proverbs, but now with illustrations (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):

Ἡ πεῖρα διδάσκαλος.

Experience is a teacher.

You can find the saying in Gregory of Nyssa, and likewise in John Chrysostom. Plus here's a fun word origin: from Greek πεῖρα and its derivative, πειρατής, we actually get the English word pirate! We also get technical terms like empirical.

Κύκνειον ᾆσμα.

A swan song.

You've seen another version of this saying in a previous post: Κύκνειον μέλος. The legend of the song that the swan (supposedly) sings just before it dies, having spent the rest of its life in silence, has its own article at Wikipedia: Swan song. The word ᾆσμα is from the verb ἀείδω, "sing," while μέλος has a more general meaning: it is a "part" or "limb" of a larger whole, and then comes to mean specifically a "tune" or "song."

Ὄφεως ὄμμα.

The eye of a snake.

This proverbial phrase refers to someone who has a particularly sharp and piercing gaze. 

Γνῶθι σεαυτόν. 

Know yourself.

You can read about this Delphic maxim at Wikipedia: Know thyself. You will also find this form of the saying: Γνῶθι σαυτόν, as in this Roman mosaic, which uses the saying as a kind of "memento mori."

Ἄκουε πάντα.

Listen to everything.

This is one of the Delphic maxims recorded by Stobaeus. Notice the accusative object, πάντα. That means ἄκουε has the sense of "listen to," as in listening to things, to sounds heard. When ἀκούω takes the genitive, it has the sense of "hearing" a person, and even "hear and obey."

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

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Greek Proverbs: Feb. 17

Here are today's Greek proverbs with LOLCats! These are repeats of previous proverbs, but now with illustrations (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):

Θάλαττα! θάλαττα! 

The sea! The sea!

This was the cry of Cyrus's army of Greek mercenaries who had been stranded in Persia and finally reached the Black Sea after a two-year, 3000-mile journey; the story is told in Xenophon's Anabasis. It features the Attic pronunciation: θάλαττα instead of θάλασσα. The phrase has its own Wikipedia article: Thalatta! Thalatta!

Ἄμμον μετρεῖς.

You're measuring sand.

This is a proverbial fool's errand; the idea is that you are counting grains of sand... which means you will never stop counting. From the root in Greek μετρ- we get all the meter and -metry words in English, like kilometer and geometry.

Ἐξ ἑνὸς πηλοῦ.

From one clay.

This saying is used to refer to two people who are similar because they were made "from one clay," i.e. like pots made from the same clay. In one Greek account of the creation, Prometheus shaped human beings from clay (Wikipedia). The same idea also appears in the Biblical Book of Wisdom — ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ πηλοῦ, "from the same clay" —as God also was supposed to have made human beings from the clay of the earth.

Εἰδὼς σίγα.

Having learned something, keep it quiet.

These words are attributed to Solon, one of the Seven Sages of Greece; find out more at Wikipedia. The word εἰδὼς is a perfect participle from οἶδα, a verb that only has a perfect system; a good way to see how that works is at the Wiktionary.

Βοιωτία ὗς.

A Boeotian pig.

This saying brings together two proverbially ignorant creatures: someone from Boeotia, and a pig. Combine the two, and you've got someone who is totally ignorant. You've already seen a proverb mocking the people of Boeotia in a previous post: Βοιώτιος νοῦς. You've also seen a saying mocking the ignorance of the foolish pig who dares to rival the goddess of wisdom in this post: Ὗς πότ᾽ Ἀθηναίαν ἔριν ἤρισεν.

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

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Greek Proverbs: Feb. 12

Here are today's Greek proverbs with LOLCats! These are repeats of previous proverbs, but now with illustrations (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):

Ἀεὶ ὁ θεὸς γεωμετρεῖ.

God is always doing geometry.

Plutarch attributes the words to Plato, who was a great believer in geometry, as you can learn at Wikipedia: Plato - The Forms. Even more fascinating is the fact that the words have been elaborated into an expanded statement, Ἀεὶ ὁ θεὸς ὁ μέγας γεωμετρεῖ τὸ σύμπαν, "Always the great god is doing geometry on the universe," which is an encoding of the digits of pi, based on the number of letters in each word: 3.1415926. (I found this nifty mnemonic widely shared online but without attribution; if anyone knows more about its source, let me know!) And, of course, we get English geometry from Greek γεωμετρία, literally "earth-measuring."

Ζεῖ χύτρα, ζῇ φιλία.

(While) the pot is boiling, friendship lives.

The idea is that when there is good food to share, it's easy to find and keep friends. Note the sound-play between the verbs ζεῖ and ζῇ. There is also a related but rather different saying cited by Erasmus: χύτρης φιλία, "a friendship of the pot," which means a friendship that exists only because of good food, convenience, opportunity, etc., as opposed to true friendship which persists even in adversity. From the Greek φιλία, we get all the -phile words in English, such as... bibliophile!

Εἰς θεῶν ὦτα ἤλθεν.

It has reached the ears of the gods.

As Erasmus explains, this saying refers to some kind of criminal deed or shameful secret that, despite being concealed from mankind, has reached the ears of the gods.

Γαλῇ στέαρ.

Fat for a weasel.

This is a saying about giving someone exactly what they want; a weasel will gladly eat the fat that you feed her. For an opposite sort of saying, where you are offering something to someone who doesn't appreciate it, see the previous post about wine for frogs: Βατράχοις οἰνοχοεῖς.

Πρόνοιαν τίμα.

Honor foresight.

The Greek πρόνοια is from the verb προνοέω. You can see a wide range of νοέω derivatives at Wiktionary. This is another one of the maxims attributed by Stobaeus to the Seven Sages.

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

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Greek Proverbs Feb. 10

Here are today's Greek proverbs with LOLCats! These are repeats of previous proverbs, but now with illustrations (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):

Πάντα ῥεῖ.  

Everything flows.

Note that the neuter plural takes a singular verb, as is the rule in Greek: πάντα (everything = literally, all things) ῥεῖ. Another translation might be: "All things are in flux," or "All situations are fluid." The idea is attributed to the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus.

Σοφίαν ζήλου.

Strive for wisdom.

This is one of the sayings attributed by Stobaeus to the Seven Sages. The verb ζήλου is a middle imperative from the verb ζηλόω, and like many middle verbs it can take a direct object: σοφίαν. From that same root we get both English zealous and jealous. For more about the goddess of wisdom, see Wikipedia: Sophia.

Εἰς ὕδωρ γράφεις.

You're writing on water.

In other words, you are doing something foolish; the water will simply carry your words away. The phrase appears with various prepositions: ἐν ὕδατι γράψει in Plato, καθ᾿ ὕδατος in Lucian, etc., but the idea is always the same: only a fool would write on water! Similarly, only a fool would trust something written on water, as in this saying in Menander: Ἀνδρῶν δὲ φαύλων ὅρκον εἰς ὕδωρ γράφε, "Write the oath of bad men in water," i.e. their words cannot be trusted. From Greek γραφ- we get all the graph words in English, including the word "graph" itself.

Ὄρνιθος γάλα ζητεῖς.

You're trying to get milk from a bird.

This is one of the fool's errands: there are a lot of animals that you can milk, but you are wasting your time trying to get milk from a bird. Compare the English sayings about "hen's teeth" or "blood from a stone."

Τὴν ὀρθὴν βαδίζειν ὁδόν.

To walk the straight path.

Compare the English saying, "to walk the straight and narrow." Metaphorically, this means to proceed honestly, to do the right thing. Although ὁδός is a second-declension noun, it is feminine in gender: τὴν ὀρθὴν ὁδόν. From Greek ὁδός we get the word odometer.

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

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