1. βίος ~ βίου (m.): life, lifestyle
2. ἄνθρωπος ~ ἀνθρώπου (m.): person, human being
3. ποταμός ~ ποταμοῦ (m.): river
4. ῥήτωρ ~ ῥήτορος (m.): public speaker
5. ὀφθαλμός ~ ὀφθαλμοῦ (m.): eye
Here are the proverbs and sayings:
Plus some commentary:
Λέων τὴν τρίχα, ὄνος τὸν βίον.
Ὕπνος δεινὸν ἀνθρώποις κακόν.
Σιγηροῦ ποταμοῦ τὰ βάθη γυρεύει.
Ἀγροίκου μὴ καταφρόνει ῥήτορος.
Ὦτα καὶ ὀφθαλμοὶ πολλοὶ βασιλέως.
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Λέων τὴν τρίχα, ὄνος τὸν βίον.
A lion (judging by its) fur, a donkey (by its) lifestyle.
This saying alludes to the famous Aesop's fable about the donkey in the lion skin: it looks like a lion, but it acts like a donkey. However, in his note to this proverb Apostolius reports a different story about a man found a lion cub and raised it. The man then used the lion to draw a wagon; hence the proverb. The story has a sad ending: when people saw the lion acting in this shameful and undignified way, they killed it. Of course, things don't turn out well for the donkey in the lion-skin either! From Greek βίος we get words like biology and antibiotic.
Ὕπνος δεινὸν ἀνθρώποις κακόν.
Sleep is a terrible evil for mankind.
The plural ἄνθρωποι, "people," can be used much like "mankind" or "humanity" in English (and so anthropology is the study of humanity). Other sayings commend the healthy side of sleeping, but this saying warns us about the darker side of sleep: it is similar to death. Compare the English expression "sleeping your life away." For an artistic association of sleep and death, see Ὕπνος and Θάνατος carrying the body of the dead warrior Sarpedon from the battlefield below. More about the personification of sleep at Wikipedia: Hypnos.
Σιγηροῦ ποταμοῦ τὰ βάθη γυρεύει.
The depths of a silent river are swirling.
Compare the English saying, "Still waters run deep." The idea is that while a river may appear to be calm and still on the surface, down below its currents are spinning and swirling; so too with people: someone might be silent, but their innermost emotions can be rushing and raging. Note a peculiar feature of the Greek language here: the neuter plural subject, τὰ βάθη, takes a singular verb, γυρεύει. From Greek ποταμός, we get hippopotamus, horse-of-the-river.
Ἀγροίκου μὴ καταφρόνει ῥήτορος.
Do not look down on a rural speaker.
The adjective ἄγροικος, literally "of the fields," refers to someone who lives in a rural area, but it also has negative connotations, something like the phrase "country bumpkin" in English. This saying, like the previous saying, conveys a message similar to the English proverb, "Don't judge a book by its cover." In other words, look beyond the label "rural" and listen instead to what the speaker is saying. From the same root in Greek ῥήτορος we get the English word rhetoric.
Ὦτα καὶ ὀφθαλμοὶ πολλοὶ βασιλέως.
Many are the eyes and ears of the king.
Compare a saying you saw in an earlier blog post: Μακραὶ τυράννων χεῖρες. From Greek ὀφθαλμός we get ophthalmology — and knowing the Greek can help you remember how to spell the English! Note that the adjective πολλοὶ agrees with the nearest noun, ὀφθαλμοὶ, although it applies to both ὀφθαλμοὶ and ὦτα.
Here is the vase painting showing Hypnos and Thanatos, Sleep and Death, carrying the dead Sarpedon from the battlefield, with Hermes, conductor of dead souls, watching on:
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