Greek Stories and Proverbs: 19: victory, elephant, anger, earth, letter

Here are today's vocabulary words; they are nouns with the nominative and genitive plus gender, along with a brief definition. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion, and there's also a study tips post.

1. νίκη ~ νίκης (f.): victory
2. ἐλέφας ~ ἐλέφαντος (m.): elephant
3. ὀργή ~ ὀργῆς (f.): anger
4. γῆ ~ γῆς (f.): earth, land
5. γράμμα ~ γράμματος (n.): letter, writing

Here are the proverbs and sayings:

Καδμεία νίκη.

Ἐλέφαντα ἐκ μυίας ποιεῖς.

Φάρμακον ὀργῆς ὁ χρόνος.

Ἀνδρὶ σοφῷ πᾶσα γῆ βατή.

Βελλεροφόντης τὰ γράμματα.

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Laura Gibbs · Greek Proverbs: 019

Plus some commentary:

Καδμεία νίκη.

A Cadmeian victory.

This famous saying has its own article at Wikipedia: Cadmeian victory; it refers to a victory which comes at a terrible cost to the victor, so that the victory is also a defeat. You can also read about the goddess of victory at Wikipedia: Nike, and you can find out more about the hero Cadmus too, who, like Bellerophon (see below), was a famous slayer of monsters: Wikipedia: Cadmus.

Ἐλέφαντα ἐκ μυίας ποιεῖς.

You're making an elephant out of a fly.

Compare the English saying: "You're making a mountain out of a molehill." This Greek saying appears in Erasmus's Adagia.

Φάρμακον ὀργῆς ὁ χρόνος.

Time is a remedy for anger.

From Greek φάρμακον we get the English word pharmacy. This Greek word was also made famous in modern times thanks to its use by the French philosopher Derrida; see more at Wikipedia: Pharmakon.

Ἀνδρὶ σοφῷ πᾶσα γῆ βατή.

The whole world is open to the wise man.

This is a fragment of the philosopher Democritus, the idea being that wisdom removes all obstacles. The word γῆ gives us English geology and geometry. The word also appears in the form γαῖα, as in the name of the Earth Goddess; find out more at Wikipedia: Gaia.

Βελλεροφόντης τὰ γράμματα.

The letter of Bellerophon.

This saying alludes to a story about the hero Bellerophon who was sent to King Iobates bearing a letter (Greek γράμματα, plural, means a "letter" in English) that said "Kill Bellerophon." You can read more at Wikipedia: Bellerophon. Another famous letter like this appears in the story of King David in the Hebrew Bible; David sends Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, on a mission carrying a letter intended to secure Uriah's death. Uriah does, in fact, die, but Bellerophon survives and goes on to other heroic adventures. More about Uriah in Wikipedia: Bathsheba. You can also read about this motif at the great TVTropes website: Kill The Messenger.

Here's Bellerophon on Pegasus slaying the Chimera: