Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Oct. 11

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 95. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

δόλος ~ δόλου  (noun m.): trick, craft, cunning 

κόλπος ~ κόλπου  (noun m.): bosom, lap 

οἶνος ~ οἴνου  (noun m.): wine 

ἄνθρωπος ~ ἀνθρώπου  (noun m.): person, human bein 

ὕπνος ~ ὕπνου  (noun m.): sleep 

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

Δόλον φοβοῦ

Εἰς κόλπον πτύειν.

Ὁ οἶνος οὐκ ἔχει πηδάλια.

Ἄνθρωπος ἀνθρώπῳ δαιμόνιον.

Ὕπνος τὰ μικρὰ τοῦ θανάτου μυστήρια.

Laura Gibbs · Greek Proverbs: 095

And now, some commentary:

Δόλον φοβοῦ.

Fear deceit.

Don't let φοβοῦ fool you; it's the imperative form of a contract deponent verb, middle voice (φοβέομαι). This is one of the maxims that the anthologist Stobaeus attributed to the Seven Sages of Greece; you can find out more at Wikipedia: Seven Sages. You can also find out more about Stobaeus at Wikipedia.

Εἰς κόλπον πτύειν.

To spit into one's cloak. 

This was something done to ward off a bad omen or to counteract magic. According to one of the idylls of Theocritus, you had to spit three times: ὡς μὴ βασκανθῶ δὲ τρὶς εἰς ἐμὸν ἔπτυσα κόλπον, "so that I wouldn't be bewitched, I spit three times into my cloak." You can find out more about this idyll at Wikipedia: Theocritus VI.

Ὁ οἶνος οὐκ ἔχει πηδάλια.

Wine has no oars.

In other words, when you drink, you lose control of yourself, just as you cannot control a ship without oars. Metaphorically, the word πηδάλια could also be used to mean the reins of a horse: ἱππικὰ πηδάλια. From Greek οἶνος we get the words oenophile and oenology.

Ἄνθρωπος ἀνθρώπῳ δαιμόνιον.

One person is a divine spirit to another.

The idea here is that one person can help another person in a way that is so valuable that it is as if that person is a god. Translating the Greek word δαιμόνιον is notoriously difficult; the word has its own Wikipedia article, specifically with reference to Socrates's use of δαιμόνιον: Wikipedia: Daimonion. Erasmus renders the saying in Latin as Homo homini deus, Man is a god to man.

Ὕπνος τὰ μικρὰ τοῦ θανάτου μυστήρια.

Sleep is a small mystery of death.

Many cultures have proverbs related to the eerie similarity of sleep and death, and in Greek mythology, the gods Ὕπνος and Θάνατος are brothers, the fatherless sons of Night, Νύξ. You can find out more at Wikipedia: Hypnos and Thanatos. From these Greek roots we get English words like hypnotize and euthanize. From the root in Greek μυστήρι- we get English mystery.

This is Waterhouse's painting of Sleep and His Half-Brother, Death:

And here's a random proverb too:

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