64: sail, do, act, throw out, weep

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. πλέω ~ πλεύσομαι ~ ἔπλευσα: sail, swim, float 

2. δράω ~ δράσω ~ ἔδρασα: do, act 

3. κεῖμαι ~ κείσομαι (no aorist): lie, be placed 

4. ἐκβάλλω ~ ἐκβαλέω ~ ἐξέβαλον: throw out, depose 

5. κλαίω ~ κλαιήσω ~ ἔκλαυσα: weep, lament 

 

Here are the proverbs and sayings:

Οὐ νυκτὶ πλεῖς.

Δράσαντι παθεῖν.

Νεκρὸς κεῖται βδέων.

Πῶς δύναται Σατανᾶς Σατανᾶν ἐκβάλλειν;

Καιρὸς τοῦ κλαῦσαι καὶ καιρὸς τοῦ γελάσαι.

Listen at SoundCloud.

Laura Gibbs · Greek Proverbs: 064

Plus some commentary:

Οὐ νυκτὶ πλεῖς.

You are not sailing at night.

This refers to the fact that it is the night which gives you a way to steer your ship, using the stars. To be sailing by day, not by night, means to be doing something in a haphazard way without a sense of direction. As Erasmus notes, however, the saying also appears in the proverb collections without the negative — νυκτὶ πλεῖς, "you're sailing by night" — with the same negative meaning as sailing in the dark can be dangerous too because of rocks and shoals of coastlines. Traveling by sea is dangerous at any time! (The Greek were not very adventurous navigators.)

Δράσαντι παθεῖν.

It is for the doer to suffer (the consequences).

This is from a choral passage in Aeschylus's Libation Bearers about justice and atonement. The preceding line reads: ἀντὶ δὲ πληγῆς φονίας, φονίαν

πληγὴν τινέτω, "for a death blow, a death blow must be paid."

Νεκρὸς κεῖται βδέων.

The dead man lies there, farting.

The saying is used to refer to someone who attempts to do something but who has no idea what they are doing. There are folktales around the world about tricksters pretending to be dead who betray themselves by coughing or farting or yawning, etc., and I wonder if the saying might allude to a folktale of that type. The Greek word for farting, βδέων, is from the Indo-European root *pesd/*perd, which is also the origin of English "fart."

Πῶς δύναται Σατανᾶς Σατανᾶν ἐκβάλλειν;

How can Satan cast out Satan?

The words are from the Gospel of Mark; the scribes have accused Jesus of using Satanic powers in order to perform exorcisms, but Jesus rejects this interpretation with a rhetorical question. In other words, Satan cannot cast out Satan. The same scene also occurs in the Gospel of Matthew. For more about Jesus and exorcism, see Wikipedia: Miracles of Jesus: Exorcisms.

Καιρὸς τοῦ κλαῦσαι καὶ καιρὸς τοῦ γελάσαι.

(There is a) season of weeping and a season of laughing.

This is from a famous passage in the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes. The long list begins with this opening verse: τοῖς πᾶσιν χρόνος καὶ καιρὸς τῷ παντὶ πράγματι ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν, "For all (things), there is a time, and there is a season for each thing under heaven." For information about the Hebrew words that the Greek words of the Septuagint are translating, see Wikipedia: Ecclesiastes 3.

This is not an exorcism scene; instead, it shows Jesus rebuking Satan's temptation (painting by Duccio di Buoninsegna):

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