Monday, September 23, 2024

Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Sept. 24

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 82. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

βοή ~ βοῆς (noun f.): shout, outcry 
ἔχθρα ~ ἔχθρας (noun f.): hatred, enmity 
ὀργή ~ ὀργῆς  (noun f.): anger 
ἀδελφή ~ ἀδελφῆς  (noun f.): sister 
ὁμιλία ~ ὁμιλίας (noun f.): company, association 

These are the proverbs (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):

Οἱ φῶρες τὴν βοήν.

Ἐμπεδοκλέους ἔχθρα.

Μέγιστον ὀργῆς ἐστι φάρμακον λόγος.

Ἡ δὲ μωρία μάλιστ' ἀδελφὴ τῆς πονηρίας ἔφυ.

Ἡ δ᾽ ὁμιλία πάντων βροτοῖσι γίγνεται διδάσκαλος.


And now, some commentary:

Οἱ φῶρες τὴν βοήν.
Thieves (fear) the outcry.
As Erasmus explains, the saying can refer not just to thieves but to any guilty person who is acutely aware of their own guilt and fearful of being found out. Thanks to the use of nominative and accusative cases in the Greek, the nouns can stand on their own with the verb being implied. From the noun βοή comes the Greek contract verb βοάω.

Ἐμπεδοκλέους ἔχθρα.
The hostility of Empedocles.
This saying invokes the philosopher Empedocles to refer to someone who is prone to grudges, resentment, and outbursts of hostility.  Ancient sources report that Empedocles was quick to anger, hating not just his enemies but his erstwhile friends too. You can read more about Empedocles at Wikipedia. Related to the noun ἔχθρα is the adjective ἐχθρός, meaning hostile, hated, etc., and the adjective is often used substantively to mean "an enemy."

Μέγιστον ὀργῆς ἐστι φάρμακον λόγος.
The greatest remedy for anger is speech.
This is another one of the monostichs (one-liners) of Menander; here is the iambic meter marked:
Μέγισ|τον ὀρ||γῆς ἐσ|τι φάρ||μακον | λόγος.
The word λόγος means speech, but it also has the connotations of reason; so, not just any speech, but reasonable speech, rational words is what can bring a person back from irrational anger. Compare a different remedy from this saying in an earlier blog post: Φάρμακον ὀργῆς ὁ χρόνος.

Ἡ δὲ μωρία μάλιστ' ἀδελφὴ τῆς πονηρίας ἔφυ.
Stupidity is really the sister of wickedness.
This type of proverb plays on the metaphor of family relationships; stupidity, μωρία, is the sister of wickedness because μωρία is a feminine noun in Greek, a gender distinction that is lost in any English translation. The Greek ἔφυ has the sense of being born to be something, to be something by nature, from the verb φύω. The Greek nouns ἀδελφὴ, sister, and ἀδελφός, brother, are from the word δελφύς, womb, i.e. sisters and brothers are people who come form the same womb.

Ἡ δ᾽ ὁμιλία πάντων βροτοῖσι γίγνεται διδάσκαλος.
Cooperation is the teacher of all things to mortal men.
The words are from Euripides' Andromache; Menelaus is speaking about how the Greeks learned to be soldiers as a result of having to band together to fight the Trojans. Greek ὁμιλία has a wide range of meanings, including a "crowd," which is the origin of the English word "homily," i.e. the sermon preached to the crowd who assembled for a church service. More specifically, it can also mean a crowd of people working together (hence my choice of "cooperation" in the translation), and it can also refer to the habits of a crowd, common usage, etc. You can find out more at Logeion.


And here's a random proverb too:



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