9: water, enemy, tyrant, hand, two

Here are today's vocabulary words; they are nouns (plus a number) 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. ὕδωρ ~ ὕδατος (n.): water

2. ἐχθρός ~ ἐχθροῦ (m.): enemy

3. τύραννος ~ τυράννου (m.): tyrant, despot

4. χείρ ~ χειρὸς (f.): hand

5. δύο ~ δυοῖν (num.): two

Here are the proverbs and sayings:

Βατράχῳ ὕδωρ.

Ἐχθρῶν ἄδωρα δῶρα.

Μακραὶ τυράννων χεῖρες.

Μιᾶς γὰρ χειρὸς ἀσθενὴς μάχη.

Οὐδὲ Ἡρακλῆς πρὸς δύο. 

Listen at SoundCloud:

Laura Gibbs · Greek Proverbs: 009

Plus some commentary:

Βατράχῳ ὕδωρ.

Water for a frog.

This saying refers to making someone happy by giving them exactly what they want and/or need: frogs like water, so when you give water to frogs, they rejoice. A similar saying is Γαλῇ στέαρ, "Fat for a weasel." If you give a weasel some fat to eat, the weasel will be happy. From the root in Greek ὕδωρ, we get English words like hydrate, hydrant, etc.

Ἐχθρῶν ἄδωρα δῶρα.

The gifts of your enemies (are) not gifts.

Literally, the gifts of your enemies are un-gifts, ἄ-δωρα. Ajax quotes this proverb in Socrates's play of the same name.

Μακραὶ τυράννων χεῖρες.

Long (are) the hands of tyrants.

Compare the English proverb, "Kings have long arms." In other words, kings, tyrants, etc. can exert their dangerous power at a distance. And yes, the English word "tyrant" comes from the Greek. Compare an expanded version in Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac: "Kings have long Arms, but Misfortune longer: Let none think themselves out of her Reach."

Μιᾶς γὰρ χειρὸς ἀσθενὴς μάχη.

The combat of one hand (is) weak.

If you are in a fight, you don't want to fight single-handedly; metaphorically, you don't want to fight alone. The saying appears in the play Children of Heracles by Euripides. The word ἀσθενὴς is an alpha-privative: ἀ-σθενὴς, not-strong (the noun σθένος means "strength").

Οὐδὲ Ἡρακλῆς πρὸς δύο.

Not even Heracles (fights) against two.

In other words: don't pick a fight where your enemies outnumber you. The saying appears in a fragment of the archaic poet Archilochus. Meanwhile, you can read about the exploits of the hero Hercules at Wikipedia: Heracles.

Here you can see Heracles wrestling Antaeus (16th-century Italian marble): one on one!

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