1. μέτρον ~ μέτρου (neut.): measure, rule
2. οἶνος ~ οἴνου (masc.): wine
3. θυγάτηρ ~ θυγατρός (fem.): daughter
4. κύων ~ κυνός (common): dog
5. βασιλεύς ~ βασιλέως (masc.): king, chief
5. βασιλεύς ~ βασιλέως (masc.): king, chief
Here are the proverbs and sayings:
Ἄνθρωπος μέτρον.
Οἶνος καὶ παῖδες ἀληθεῖς.
Καθὼς ἡ μήτηρ καὶ ἡ θυγάτηρ.
Κύων σπεύδουσα τυφλὰ τίκτει.
Πολλοὶ ἰατροὶ βασιλέα ἀπώλεσαν.
Plus some commentary:
Ἄνθρωπος μέτρον.
Man (is) the measure.
The words are a fragment of the pre-Socratic philosopher Protagoras, who argued for philosophical relativism: what a person subjectively perceives is the measure of their reality. It is sometimes cited as Ἄνθρωπος μέτρον ἁπάντων, "Man (is) the measure of all things." You can see the Greek μέτρον in English metronome.
Οἶνος καὶ παῖδες ἀληθεῖς.
Wine and children (are) truthful.
You can find this saying in Plato's Symposium. Compare a similar saying that you saw in an earlier blog post: Ἐν οἴνῳ ἀλήθεια. You can see Greek παῖδες in English pedagogy.
Καθὼς ἡ μήτηρ καὶ ἡ θυγάτηρ.
As the mother, so also the daughter.
Compare the English saying, "Like mother, like daughter." The Greek kinship terms are related to the English terms; you can see a handy table of Indo-European kinship terms at Wikipedia.
Κύων σπεύδουσα τυφλὰ τίκτει.
The dog, hurrying, gives birth to blind (puppies).
Not only is this a Greek saying; it is also found on an ancient Assyrian clay tablet, and has thus been described as "the oldest proverb in the world." You can find the Greek proverb in a fragment of the archaic poet Archilochus.
Πολλοὶ ἰατροὶ βασιλέα ἀπώλεσαν.
Many physicians killed the king.
The dying emperor Hadrian supposedly used this saying to taunt the physicians who attended him to no avail. From the same root as the Greek βασιλεύς we get the English word basil.
The Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome, built in Rome in 139 by his Hadrian's successor, Antoninus Pius, is now better known as the Castel Sant'Angelo:
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