Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Dec. 19

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 129. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

δικαίως (adverb): lawfully, justly 

κάτω (adverb): downards, below 

πρός (prep.+acc.): towards, beside 

τό ~ τοῦ (article): the 

ἀπό (prep.+gen.): from 

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

Δικαίως κτῶ.

Ἄνω κάτω πάντα.

Σύροι πρὸς Φοίνικας.

Τὸ Ἱππάρχου τειχίον.

Ἀφ' Ἑστίας ἀρχόμενοι.

And now, some commentary:

Δικαίως κτῶ.

Acquire possessions rightfully.

The word κτῶ is a middle imperative from the verb κτάομαι (it looks especially weird because the word has only one syllable; hence the circumflex). The adverb δικαίως is formed from the adjective δίκαιος which is in turn formed from the noun δίκη meaning order or justice. For the goddess of Justice, see Wikipedia: Dike.

Ἄνω κάτω πάντα.

Everything is topsy-turvy.

You have two adverbs here: ἄνω, meaning "upwards," and κάτω, meaning "downwards." Those words are already familiar to you from their prepositional forms, ἀνά and κατά. This was a popular phrase in ancient Greek; you can see it used here in Demosthenes's speech Against Aristogiton.

Σύροι πρὸς Φοίνικας.

Syrians versus Phoenicians.

As ethnic stereotypes in ancient Greece, both Syrians and Phoenicians had the reputation of being cheats and swindlers, so this saying referred to one gang of swindlers trying to cheat another gang. The preposition πρὸς plus the accusative can mean simply direction "towards" but it can also have the hostile sense of "against," which is the meaning here.

Τὸ Ἱππάρχου τειχίον.

The wall of Hipparchus.

Hipparchus, one of the tyrants of Athens (he was the son of Pisistratus), built a wall and a public gymnasium on the Academy grounds in Athens at great cost, and then forced the Athenians to reimburse him. This saying thus referred to any lavish or expensive project. For more about the tyrant Hipparchus, see Wikipedia: Hipparchus. (Note: this is not Hipparchus the mathematician.) Probably the most famous story about Hipparchus is his assassination by the lovers Harmodius and Aristogeiton.

Ἀφ' Ἑστίας ἀρχόμενοι.

Beginning with Hestia.

The preposition ἀπό drops its final vowel before the following vowel, and the aspiration of Ἑστία changes the pi to phi. This saying refers to the appropriate order in which to do things (compare English "begin at the beginning"), based on the fact that sacrifices to the gods began with a sacrifice to Hestia, the goddess of the hearth; honoring Hestia was honoring the fire of the sacrifice itself. You can find out more about Hestia at Wikipedia.

Hestia

And here's a random proverb too:

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