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!)
And here's a random proverb too:
No comments:
Post a Comment