39: arouse, guard, be, wish, kill

More verb vocabulary today; 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. ἐγείρω ~ ἐγερέω ~ ἤγειρα: wake up, arouse 

2. φρουρέω ~ φρουρήσω ~ ἐφρούρησα: guard, keep watch 
3. εἰμί ~ ἔσομαι (no aorist): be, exist 
4. ἐθέλω ~ ἐθελήσω ~ ἠθέλησα: be willing, wish 
5. ἀπόλλυμι ~ ἀπολέω ~ ἀπώλεσα: kill, destroy 

Here are the proverbs and sayings:

Σκορπίον ὀκτώπουν ἐγείρεις.

Ἐν παντὶ σκορπίος φρουρεῖ λίθῳ.

Ἐὰν ᾖς φιλομαθής, ἔσει πολυμαθής.

Ἡ γὰρ σιωπὴ μαρτυρεῖ τὸ μὴ θέλειν.

Πολλῶν ἰατρῶν εἰσοδός μ' ἀπώλεσεν.

 

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Laura Gibbs · Greek Proverbs: 039

Plus some commentary:

Σκορπίον ὀκτώπουν ἐγείρεις.

You are waking the eight-footed scorpion.

Of course, waking the scorpion is NOT a good idea. Compare the English saying, "Let sleeping dogs lie." From Greek σκορπίος comes Scorpio, the astrological sign. And, yes, from ὀκτώπους we get English octopus.

Ἐν παντὶ σκορπίος φρουρεῖ λίθῳ.

At every stone, a scorpion stands guard.

Compare a saying you saw in an earlier post: Ὑπὸ παντὶ λίθῳ σκορπίος, "Under every rock (hides) a scorpion." This time the scorpion is not hiding under the rock; instead, he is standing guard at the rock, ready to defend his home. From Greek λίθ- we get English words like monolith and neolithic.

Ἐὰν ᾖς φιλομαθής, ἔσει πολυμαθής.

If you are a lover of learning, you will be a learner of many things.

The words come from Isocrates, the Athenian rhetorician and educator; you can read more at Wikipedia: Isocrates. The saying plays on two adjectives, φιλο-μαθής and πολυ-μαθής, formed from the verbal root μαθ-, i.e. μανθάνω, "learn." For the forms of the verb εἰμί, "be" — here present subjunctive and future — see the Wiktionary conjugation charts.

Ἡ γὰρ σιωπὴ μαρτυρεῖ τὸ μὴ θέλειν.

Silence is evidence of refusal.

In other words: silence is not consent; just the opposite. Silence indicates that someone is unwilling, τὸ μὴ θέλειν. Contrast the remark in Plato's Cratylus that silence is consent: τὴν γὰρ σιγήν σου συγχώρησιν θήσω, "I consider your silence to be consent." The verb ἐθέλω can also appear as θέλω, as it does in this saying. The root of the Greek verb μαρτυρέω, meaning "testify, bear witness, provide evidence," gives us the English word martyr.

Πολλῶν ἰατρῶν εἰσοδός μ' ἀπώλεσεν.

Many doctors' visiting killed me.

These were the mocking words of an epitaph, allowing the dead person to rebuke their doctor from beyond the grave, and to do so in a line of comic iambic verse. Compare also the saying you saw in a previous blog post: Πολλοὶ ἰατροὶ βασιλέα ἀπώλεσαν, supposedly the words of the dying emperor Hadrian.

Here is a Greek scorpion mosaic:

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