Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Oct. 4

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 90. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

νεκρός ~ νεκροῦ (noun m.): corpse, dead man 

δεσμός ~ δεσμοῦ (noun m.): bond, knot

θησαυρός ~ θησαυροῦ (noun m.): treasure, store 

ἥλιος ~ ἡλίου (noun m.): sun 

λόγος ~ λόγου (noun m.): word, speech 

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

Νεκρὸν μυρίζεις.

Ἡφαίστειος δεσμός.

Ἄνθρακες ὁ θησαυρός.

Ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου μετάστηθι.

Ὁ ἄφρων πληθύνει λόγους.

And now, some commentary:

Νεκρὸν μυρίζεις.

You're putting perfume on a corpse.

As Eramus explains, this saying refers to bestowing favors on someone who will never pay them back (the dead person cannot pay you back!). It can also be used when doing a favor too late (you should have done it to the live person!). From this Greek root, we get the necro- verbs in English, like necromancy.

Ἡφαίστειος δεσμός.

The Hephaestean bond.

Erasmus provides a very cool Latin version of the Greek: Vulcanium vinculum (Vulcan was the Roman name for the god Hephaestus). The saying alludes to the famous incident in the Iliad when Hephaestus forged a chain-link net to bind his wife Aphrodite in bed with her lover Ares; you can read about this story at Wikipedia: Hephaestus and Aphrodite.

Ἄνθρακες ὁ θησαυρός.

The treasure (turned out to be) charcoal.

The proverb refers to a supposed treasure that turned out to be worthless, and it's a shortened version of a saying you saw in an earlier blog post: Ἄνθρακες ὁ θησαυρὸς πέφηνεν. The word θησαυρός gives us English treasure and, yes, Greek ἄνθραξ does give us the English word anthrax, because one of the meanings of the Greek word is an abscess or boil that is dark or dark-red, like charcoal.

Ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου μετάστηθι.

Move out of the sunshine.

These are the words famously spoken by the Cynic philosopher Diogenes to Alexander the Great, as reported by Plutarch in his Life of Alexander. Alexander was curious to meet Diogenes and was eager to do him a favor. He found Diogenes lying in the sunshine; all Diogenes wanted from Alexander was for him to stop blocking his sunshine. This famous anecdote has its own Wikipedia article: Diogenes and Alexander.

Ὁ ἄφρων πληθύνει λόγους.

The fool multiplies his words. 

This is a saying from the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes. This is just one of many sayings in Ecclesiastes denouncing the wordiness of fools; the Greek ἄφρων is an alpha-private compound: ἄ-φρων, without-mind, "witless, foolish." The wide range of meanings of λόγος in Greek gives his kind of saying an ironic undertone: the fools has plenty of words, but not necessarily of the logical persuasion. (And yes, I know, I sometimes write too much about these proverbs, but it's from enthusiasm, not foolishness, I promise!)

Diogenes and Alexander

And here's a random proverb too:

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Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Oct. 3

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 89. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

οὐδείς ~ οὐδενός (adj. masc.): nobody, no one 

ἕτερος ~  ἑτέρου (adj. masc.): other, another 

ἄλλος ~ ἄλλου (adj. masc.): other, another 

κακίων ~ κακίονος (adj. masc.): worse 

χρηστός ~ χρηστοῦ (adj. masc.): useful, good 

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

Οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ θεός.

Τὸν ἕτερον πόδα ἐν τῃ σορῷ ἔχων.

Ἄλλων ἰατρός, αὐτὸς ἕλκεσιν βρύων.

Οἱ γὰρ κακοί, κακίους ἐπαινούμενοι.

Δίκαιος εἶναι μᾶλλον ἢ χρηστὸς θέλε.

And now, some commentary:

Οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ θεός.

No one is good except one, God.

The words are from the Gospel of Mark; it comes from a dialogue when someone has petitioned Jesus, addressing him as διδάσκαλε ἀγαθέ, "good teacher," and Jesus rebukes him with these words, saying that God alone is good. Notice the nice pairing of words which works the same in both Greek and English: οὐδ-εὶς, "no-one" and εἷς, "one."

Τὸν ἕτερον πόδα ἐν τῃ σορῷ ἔχων.

Having the other foot in the coffin.

In other words, one foot is still here among the living, but the other foot is already in the coffin; i.e. someone is as good as dead already. Compare the English saying, "having one foot in the grave." The phrase appears in Lucian, who marks it as proverbial with the word φασίν ("they say"): τὸν ἕτερον πόδα, φασίν, ἐν τῇ σορῷ ἔχων. Erasmus cites another variation on this saying, also from Lucian: τὸν ἕτερον πόδα ἐν τῷ πορθμείῳ ἔχοντα, "having the other foot already in the ferry-boat" (i.e. the ferry-boat of Charon, crossing the river Styx).

Ἄλλων ἰατρός, αὐτὸς ἕλκεσιν βρύων.

A doctor for others, himself covered with festering sores.

This is a "physician, heal thyself!" type of saying. Specifically, it is the punchline of an Aesop's fable in which the fox mocks the frog for claiming to be a doctor when the frog cannot cure his own skin disease. In some versions the fox mocks the frog not just for his skin but also for his hobbled way of walking, as you can see in these different English versions of the fable.

Οἱ γὰρ κακοί κακίους ἐπαινούμενοι.

Wicked people when praised become even more wicked.

The phrase comes from Philostratus's Life of Apollonius. A similar saying also appears in the so-called Sentences of Sextus, a Hellenistic collection of Greek aphorisms that was popular among Christian writers: κακοὶ κολακευόμενοι κακίους γίνονται, "the wicked, when flattered, become more wicked."

Δίκαιος εἶναι μᾶλλον ἢ χρηστὸς θέλε.

Strive to be righteous rather than useful.

Δίκαιος εἶναι μᾶλλον ἢ δοκεῖν θέλε.

Strive to be righteous rather than to seem (to be righteous).

This is one of the monostichs (one-liners) of Menander, and I am presenting it in two versions here because I am convinced that the second version, with δοκεῖν, is the correct version, even though it appears in none of the extant manuscripts. The usual version with χρηστὸς does not make a lot of sense, and it also has no elegance to it. The version with δοκεῖν is a more profound statement, contrasting being with seeming to be, and it also has a nice sound quality with δίκαιος ~ δοκεῖν. You can read an argument in defense of the emendation here: Further Thoughts on Menandri Sententiae by Vayos Liapis, who argues that χρηστὸς was originally a marginal gloss which then insinuated itself into the text itself, displacing δοκεῖν. So, the version you will find in all the modern editions of Menander does say "Δίκαιος εἶναι μᾶλλον ἢ χρηστὸς θέλε" — but I'm pretty sure if we could ask Menander he would say instead: Δίκαιος εἶναι μᾶλλον ἢ δοκεῖν θέλε.

Aesop's fable of the fox and the frog

And here's a random proverb too:

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Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Oct. 2

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 88. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

πρεσβύτερος ~ πρεσβυτέρου (adj. masc.): older, elder

κακός ~ κακοῦ (adj. masc.): bad, evil, wicked 

βαρύτερον ~ βαρυτέρου (adj. neut.): heavier 

ἰδία ~ ἰδίας (adj. fem.): one's own, private; peculiar 

χρήσιμον ~ χρησίμου (adj. neut.): useful 

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

Πρεσβύτερον σέβου.

Κακοῦ κόρακος, κακὸν ᾠόν.

Πενίας βαρύτερον οὐδέν ἐστι φορτίον.

Ἰδίας νόμιζε τῶν φίλων τὰς συμφοράς.

Νοῦς ἐστι πάντων ἡγεμὼν τῶν χρησίμων.

And now, some commentary:

Πρεσβύτερον σέβου.

Respect the elder.

This admonition is attributed to Chilon of Sparta, one of the Seven Sages of ancient Greece, and it is included among the so-called Delphic maxims; you can find out more at Wikipedia. The word πρεσβύτερος is the comparative form of πρέσβυς, "old." You can see this Greek root in the English word "presbyterian," and it is also the origin of the word "priest."

Κακοῦ κόρακος κακὸν ᾠόν.

Bad egg of a bad crow.

Compare the English saying, "A chip off the old block," but with negative connotations. At Wikipedia, you can read a funny anecdote about the rhetorician Corax of Syracuse, whose name Κόραξ means crow; when Corax and a student who refused to pay his tuition got involved in a lawsuit, the judge got so angry at both of them that he threw them out of court, proclaiming "Κακοῦ κόρακος κακὸν ᾠόν," with Corax being the bad crow, κακός κόραξ, and his pupil being the bad egg, κακὸν ᾠόν. In his Natural History, Aelian reports the proverb, claiming that crow-fathers were notorious for eating their offspring.

Πενίας βαρύτερον οὐδέν ἐστι φορτίον.

No load is heavier than poverty.

The word βαρύτερον is a comparative form of the word βαρύ, "heavy," hence the genitive form πενίας: heavier than poverty. The noun φορτίον, a "load" or something you carry, is from the verb φέρω, "carry." From the Greek root in βαρύ we get words like baritone and barometer.

Ἰδίας νόμιζε τῶν φίλων τὰς συμφοράς.

Consider your friends' misfortunes as your own.

This is one of Menander's monostichs (one-liners):

Ἰδίας | νόμι||ζε τῶν | φίλων || τὰς συμ|φοράς.

From the Greek root ἰδί- we get the English word idiot; here's how that happened: ἴδιος, "personal, private, one's own," gave rise to the Greek word ἰδιώτης, meaning "a private citizen, layman, non-professional," i.e. someone without skilled knowledge, and hence English "idiot." For more about this etymology, see Wikipedia: Idiot. You can also see the same root in words like idiom and idiosyncrasy.

Νοῦς ἐστι πάντων ἡγεμὼν τῶν χρησίμων.

The mind is chief among all useful things.

In other words, the mind is the most useful thing of all! This is yet another of Menander's one-liners:

Νοῦς ἐσ|τι πάν||των ἡ|γεμὼν || τῶν χρη|σίμων.

The adjective χρήσιμον, "useful," is related to the verb χράομαι, to use, to make use of. From Greek ἡγεμὼν we get the English word hegemony.

The Seven Sages

And here's a random proverb too:

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