55: forget, imitate, be, measure, add

Here are today's vocabulary words; they are verbs with 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. λανθάνω ~ λήσω ~ ἔλαθον: escape notice; forget 

2. μιμέομαι ~ μιμήσομαι ~ ἐμιμησάμην: imitate 

3. φύω ~ φύσω ~ ἔφυσα: grow, be born, be

4. μετρέω ~ μετρήσω ~ ἐμέτρησα: measure, count 

5. προστίθημι ~ προσθήσω ~ προσέθηκα: put to, add 

Here are the proverbs and sayings:

Λάθε βιώσας.

Ἱππόλυτον μιμήσομαι.

Ὕπνος πέφυκε σωμάτων σωτηρία.

Ἐν ᾧ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτε μετρηθήσεται ὑμῖν.

Ὁ προστιθεὶς γνῶσιν προσθήσει ἄλγημα. 

Listen at SoundCloud.

Laura Gibbs · Greek Proverbs: 055

Plus some commentary:

Λάθε βιώσας.

Escape notice as you live your life.

As Erasmus explains, this saying praises the humble life, living unnoticed, not seeking fame. The Greek verb λανθάνω means, in the active voice, "escape notice" or "be unnoticed" (λάθε is the aorist active imperative). In the middle and passive forms, it means to "let something escape notice, " i.e. "forget." You can see the same root in the word Λήθη, the river of forgetfulness in the underworld; for more, see Wikipedia: Lethe.

Ἱππόλυτον μιμήσομαι.

I will imitate Hippolytus.

As Erasmus explains, this refers to someone who takes a vow of celibacy. Hopefully not a vow that ends in tragic disaster as the story of Hippolytus did; you can find out more at Wikipedia: Hippolytus. The verb μιμέομαι is from Greek μῖμος, the word for an actor, an "imitator" of life.

Ὕπνος πέφυκε σωμάτων σωτηρία.

Sleep is the body's well-being.

The word σωτηρία normally means "preservation" or "safety," but in this context it means something like "well-being," literally, "the well-being of bodies" (plural). The verb φύω is one of many Greek verbs that express the idea of "being" or "becoming" in English. The root of φύω conveys the idea of "being (by nature)" as in the word φύσις, "nature" (and from this root we get the English word "physical"). This is another of Menander's "monostichs" in iambic meter:

Ὕπνος - πέφυ—κε σω-μάτων — σωτη-ρία.

Ἐν ᾧ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτε μετρηθήσεται ὑμῖν.

According to the measure by which you measure, it will be measured to you.

The words appear in the Gospel of Mark. There are similar but not identical sayings in Matthew, ἐν ᾧ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτε μετρηθήσεται ὑμῖν, and Luke, ᾧ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτε ἀντιμετρηθήσεται ὑμῖν. Both the verb μετρέω and the noun μέτρον come from the same root, as you can also see in the word kilometer. We don't see a lot of future passives in the proverbs, but here you go: μετρηθήσεται. The verb μετρεῖτε is present active.

Ὁ προστιθεὶς γνῶσιν προσθήσει ἄλγημα.

The person who adds knowledge will add suffering.

The saying comes from the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes, which has a complex attitude towards knowledge, sometimes exalting it while sometimes bemoaning it, as here. The Wikipedia article describes the interplay of different voices in this book: Wikipedia: Ecclesiastes. You can see two different forms of the verb προστίθημι here: προστιθεὶς is a present participle and προσθήσει is future indicative. The root of Greek ἄλγημα gives us the English word analgesia (an-alge-).

Here is Lawrence Alma Tadema's painting of the death of Hippolytus:

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