Sunday, April 28, 2024

26: be about to, learn, stay, appear, call upon

Here are today's vocabulary words; they are verbs with the present, future, and aorist stems, plus a brief definition. (If you are just beginning Greek and have not studied the future or aorist stems yet, you can just focus on the present stem.) Click on the word to learn more at Logeion, and there's also a study tips post.

1. μέλλω ~ μελλήσω ~ ἐμέλλησα: be about to, be fated 
2. μανθάνω ~ μαθήσομαι ~ ἔμαθον: learn, understand 
3. μένω ~ μενέω ~ ἔμεινα: stay, remain 
4. φαίνω ~ φανέω ~ ἔφηνα: appear, become 
5. ἐπικαλέω ~ ἐπικαλέσω ~ ἐπεκάλεσα: call upon 

Here are the proverbs and sayings:

Τὸ μέλλον οὐδεὶς ἐκφύγοι.

Ἐὰν μὴ πάθῃς, οὐ μὴ μάθῃς.

Τὰ πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει.

Ἄνθρακες ὁ θησαυρὸς πέφηνεν.

Ἐν ψύλλας δήξει θεὸν ἐπικαλεῖται. 

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Plus some commentary:

Τὸ μέλλον οὐδεὶς ἐκφύγοι.
No one can escape what is coming.
The verb ἐκφύγοι is in the optative mood, expressing potential: people might wish to escape what is coming, but nobody can escape, οὐδεὶς ἐκφύγοι. The participial phrase τὸ μέλλον means "that which is coming," i.e. the future, fate, destiny, etc.

Ἐὰν μὴ πάθῃς, οὐ μὴ μάθῃς.
If you don't suffer, you won't learn.
Compare a similar saying from an earlier blog post: Τα παθήματα μαθήματα. Both πάθῃς and μάθῃς are in the subjunctive, and the use of οὐ μὴ with the subjunctive expresses an emphatic negative prediction, so the saying could even be translated as "you won't ever learn."

Τὰ πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει.
All things are in flux and nothing lasts.
You are already saw a shorter version of this saying in a previous blog post: Πάντα ῥεῖ.  

Ἄνθρακες ὁ θησαυρὸς πέφηνεν.
The treasure turned out to be charcoal.
The proverb refers to a supposed treasure that turned out to be worthless. It might also be an allusion to a folktale type that is sometimes called "fairy gold" in English, i.e. gold belonging to or given by fairies which disappears or changes into something worthless. You can find the saying in Lucian of Samosata along with a Latin version in Phaedrus's fables: Carbonem, ut aiunt, pro thesauro invenimus.

Ἐν ψύλλας δήξει θεὸν ἐπικαλεῖται.
He calls upon God for the bite of a flea.
This proverb alludes to Aesop's fable about the man who foolishly called upon the divine Hercules for help when a flea bit him, as if a flea bite were worthy of divine intervention!


The fable appears in La Fontaine, and here is an illustration for that fable by Rabier which shows not only Hercules, but also Zeus in the heavenly clouds above... plus decorative fleas down below!

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