Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Nov. 19

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 107. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

κακία ~ κακίας (noun f.): vice, dishonor 

πέτρα ~ πέτρας (noun f.): rock 

ψυχή ~ ψυχῆς (noun f.): soul, life 

πατρίς ~ πατρίδος (noun f.): fatherland, homeland 

κοινωνία ~ κοινωνίας (noun f.): association, partnership 

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

Κακίαν μίσει.

Ἀγέλαστος πέτρα.

Καιρὸς ψυχὴ πράγματος.

Οὐδὲν γλύκιον ἧς πατρίδος.

Τίς γὰρ κατόπτρῳ καὶ τυφλῷ κοινωνία;

And now, some commentary:

Κακίαν μίσει.

Hate badness.

This is another one of the maxims that Stobaeus attributes to the Seven Sages; see Wikipedia: Delphic maxims. From the root of the noun κακία (and the adjective κακός), we get English words like cacophony. There is an enormous number of Greek words which are built from this root; see the list at Wiktionary.

Ἀγέλαστος πέτρα.

The un-laughing stone.

This refers to the stone at Eleusis on which the grieving Demeter rested while she searched for her daughter Persephone; see Wikipedia: Abduction of Persephone for that story. Note that the alpha-privative adjective ἀ-γέλαστος does not have a distinct feminine form; instead, the feminine and masculine forms are the same. This is true not just for alpha-privatives but for many other compound adjectives as well.

Καιρὸς ψυχὴ πράγματος.

The right moment is the soul of the matter.

In English, we might say "the heart" of the matter, rather than "the soul." For the wide range of meanings of Greek ψυχή, see the LSJ dictionary entry: soul, spirit, life, self, consciousness. The word gives us all the psych- words in English, like psychology, and Psyche is the lover of Eros / Cupid; see Wikipedia: Cupid and Psyche.

Οὐδὲν γλύκιον ἧς πατρίδος.

Nothing is sweeter than one's fatherland.

The word γλύκιον is comparative ("sweeter"), so it takes a genitive complement: πατρίδος. The words appear in Homer's Odyssey, and so echo on throughout Greek literature, quoted by later authors.

For example, here is a line from the Greek Anthology, with "said Odysseus" at the end: ὡς οὐδὲν γλύκιον ἧς πατρίδος, εἶπεν Ὀδυσσεύς. The complete line in the Odyssey includes parents also:

ὣς οὐδὲν γλύκιον ἧς πατρίδος οὐδὲ τοκήων

Here is the meter:

ὣς οὐ~δὲν γλύκι~ον ἧς ~ πατρίδος ~ οὐδὲ το~κήων

Τίς γὰρ κατόπτρῳ καὶ τυφλῷ κοινωνία;

What partnership can there be for a mirror and a blind man?

You will find this saying included in the dictionary entry for κάτοπτρον. Compare the English saying: "A blind man will not thank you for a looking-glass." For more positive proverbs, though, compare this Hausa proverb from Nigeria: "A blind man does not worry over the loss of a looking glass." Plus this one from Sierra Leone: "Don't ask a blind man why he would buy a mirror; he probably has a use for it."

Psyche in a 14th-century Apuleius ms.

And here's a random proverb too:

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