ἀνάγκη ~ ἀνάγκης (noun f.): necessity
ἀρχή ~ ἀρχῆς (noun f.): beginning
χείρ ~ χειρὸς (noun f.): hand
ἄρκτος ~ ἄρκτου (noun f.): bear (animal)
γαῖα ~ γαίας (noun f.): earth, land
Διομήδειος ἀνάγκη.
Ἀρχὴ σοφίας φόβος θεοῦ.
Ἁ δὲ χεὶρ την χεῖρα νίζει.
Ἄρκτου παρούσης, ἴχνη μὴ ζήτει.
Μήτηρ ἁπάντων γαῖα καὶ κοινὴ τροφός.
And now, some commentary:
Διομήδειος ἀνάγκη.
A Diomedian necessity.
This proverb is used for when people do things out of necessity, under compulsion as opposed to acting of their own free will. According to one interpretation, Diomedes of Thrace compelled his guests to sleep with his daughters who were, so the story goes, very unattractive. But some say instead that the saying refers to Diomedes, the son of Tydeus; according to fragments from the so-called Little Iliad, Odysseus attempted to kill Diomedes on their night raid to steal the Palladium so that he could get all the glory for himself but Diomedes thwarted his plan and then bound Odysseus, compelling him to walk back to the Greek camp by hitting him with the flat of his sword. More details at Wikipedia: Diomedes and the Palladium.
Ἀρχὴ σοφίας φόβος θεοῦ.
The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.
The saying comes from the Biblical Book of Proverbs. The Greek word ἀρχὴ has a wide range of meaning: it can mean first in terms of time (as in English "archaic") and it can also refer to first in status, hence authority, command, etc. (as in English words like archangel and other arch- words).
Ἁ δὲ χεὶρ την χεῖρα νίζει.
The hand washes the hand.
Compare the English saying, "One hand washes the other." The saying appears in a fragment of the comic writer Epicharmus. The complete verse line explains the meaning of the saying: Ἡ δὲ χεὶρ τὴν χεῖρα κνίζει, δός τι καὶ λάβοις τι, "give something and you'll get something." Another version of the saying in Greek cited by Erasmus is Χεὶρ χεῖρα νίπτει, δάκτυλός τε δάκτυλον, "Hand washes hand, and finger (washes) finger." From the Greek word χείρ we get the English word "chiropractor."
Ἄρκτου παρούσης, ἴχνη μὴ ζήτει.
The bear's right here; don't look for the tracks.
This is one of the fragments of the lyric poet Bacchylides.The fragment is preserved in the proverb collection of Zenobius; this bilingual Loeb edition has the rest of the fragments of Bacchylides if you are curious. The phrase ἅρκτου παρούσης is a genitive absolute, and you can see from the participle παρούσης that ἄρκτος is a feminine noun.
Μήτηρ ἁπάντων γαῖα καὶ κοινὴ τροφός.
Earth is the mother of all and (our) common nurturer.
This is another of the iambic monostichs of Menander; here's the meter marked:
Μήτηρ ἁπάν|των γαῖ-α καὶ | κοινὴ τροφός.
The word γαῖα is also the name of the Earth Goddess, Gaia: Wikipedia. The root gives us all the geo- words in English, like geology and geography, etc.
The word γαῖα is also the name of the Earth Goddess, Gaia: Wikipedia. The root gives us all the geo- words in English, like geology and geography, etc.
And here's a random proverb too:
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