Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Jan. 25

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 138. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

φυλάσσω ~ φυλάξω ~ ἐφύλαξα: guard, preserve 

ἁμαρτάνω ~ ἁμαρτήσομαι ~ ἥμαρτον: fail, go wrong, err 

δεῖ ~ δεήσει ~ ἐδέησε: must, it is necessary 

φιλέω ~ φιλήσω ~ ἐφίλησα: love, feel affection 

ἐσθίω ~ φάγομαι ~ ἔφαγον: eat, devour 

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

Ἴδια φύλαττε.

Ἁμαρτάνων μετανόει.

Δεῖ φέρειν τὰ τῶν θεῶν.

Οὐδεὶς γὰρ ὃν φοβεῖται φιλεῖ.

Αὐτοὶ χελώνας ἔσθεθ᾿ οἵπερ εἵλετε.

And now, some commentary:

Ἴδια φύλαττε.

Protect what is yours.

This is one of the Delphic maxims recorded by Stobaeus. The form φύλαττε is Attic; the dictionary form of the verb is φυλάσσω. And yes, English "idiot" is from Greek ἴδιος; details at the Wiktionary.

Ἁμαρτάνων μετανόει.

When you make a mistake, change your mind.

In other words: when you make a mistake, learn from your mistake! This is another one of the Delphic maxims, although both of these words went on to have somewhat different meanings in Christianity, where ἁμαρτάνω became a "sin" rather than just a mistake or error, and μετανόει became "repentance," rather than just changing your mind.

Δεῖ φέρειν τὰ τῶν θεῶν.

It is necessary to endure the things of the gods.

In other words: you must endure the things that are sent by the gods; that is your fate, your destiny. The saying is found in Euripides' Phoenician Women.

Οὐδεὶς γὰρ ὃν φοβεῖται φιλεῖ.

No one likes the man whom he fears.

This comes from Aristotle's Rhetoric. Remember that φοβέω is to incite fear, to frighten, while φοβέομαι is to be frightened, to be afraid, to fear, as here.

Αὐτοὶ χελώνας ἔσθεθ᾿ οἵπερ εἵλετε.

Eat the turtles yourselves, you who caught them.

The words were spoken by Hermes to some fishermen who had caught more turtles than they could eat and offered the excess turtles to Hermes as if they were being generous; Hermes was not impressed and rebuked them for their hypocrisy. The Greek proverb was reported by Erasmus and eventually ended up in the Aesopic fable corpus as it was (re)assembled during the Renaissance. Here's a depiction of Hermes from classical Athens:

And here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too :

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