37: come, live, be sick, invade, say

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. ἥκω ~ ἥξω ~ ἧξα: come, arrive

2. ζήω ~ ζήσω ~ ἔζησα: be alive, live  

3. νοσέω ~ νοσήσω ~ ἐνόσησα: be sick 

4. ἐπέρχομαι ~ ἐπελεύσομαι ~ ἐπῆλθον: come upon, invade 

5. λέγω ~ λέξω ~ εἶπον: say, speak 

Here are the proverbs and sayings:

Κατὰ θεὸν ἥκεις.

Αὐλητοῦ βίον ζῇς.

Βέλτιόν ἐστι σῶμά γ' ἢ ψυχὴν νοσεῖν.

Πεινῶσαν ἀλώπεκα ὕπνος ἐπέρχεται.

Εἰπὼν ἃ θέλεις, ἀντάκουε ἃ μὴ θέλεις. 

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Laura Gibbs · Greek Proverbs: 037

Plus some commentary:

Κατὰ θεὸν ἥκεις.

You come by god.

This is a polite greeting to a guest, especially to an unexpected guest. In other words: it is by the will of a god that you have come here, like a divine version of  the English phrase "welcome" (i.e. well-come). The phrase "κατὰ θεὸν" appears in the LSJ dictionary entry for κατά with the meaning of "by the favour of a god, etc." 

Αὐλητοῦ βίον ζῇς.

You are living the life of a flute player.

This referred to living a life of luxury, but at someone else's expense — because of the fact that these flute-players provided entertainment at banquets, where they were able to feast at someone else's table (see Erasmus). You can read more about this Greek instrument at Wikipedia: Aulos. From the Greek root of ζήω, we get English zoology.

Βέλτιόν ἐστι σῶμά γ' ἢ ψυχὴν νοσεῖν.

It is better for the body rather than the soul to be sick.

The word βέλτιόν is used as the comparative form of ἀγαθός, much like the way we use the word "better" as the comparative of "good" in English (instead of "gooder"). This irregular formation is called suppletion; you can find out more at Wikipedia: Suppletion. The saying comes from Menander.

Πεινῶσαν ἀλώπεκα ὕπνος ἐπέρχεται.

Sleep overtakes the hungry fox.

As Erasmus explains, this saying can refer to the way that someone who does not have food to eat might sleep instead. But why in particular a fox? The use of the trickster fox suggests another way to use the saying: the hungry fox is only pretending to sleep, hoping to catch its prey unawares, so the words might also refer to someone who is laying a trap, pretending to be harmless when they are not.

Εἰπὼν ἃ θέλεις, ἀντάκουε ἃ μὴ θέλεις.

Saying what you want, hear in return what you don't want to hear.

In other words, if you speak your mind, you better be prepared for others to speak their mind right back at you. The verb εἶπον is used as the aorist of the verb λέγω. This is another example of suppletion (see above), and we have irregular verbs like this in English also (for example: go-went).

Here is a vase painting of an aulos-player at a banquet:

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