ἔρις ~ ἔριδος (noun f.): strife, quarrel
χθών ~ χθονός (noun f.): earth, land
εὐχή ~ εὐχῆς (noun f.): prayer, vow
προφήτης ~ προφήτου (noun m.): prophet
δρόμος ~ δρόμου (noun m.): race, running
Ἔριν μίσει.
Ἅπασα δὲ χθὼν ἀνδρὶ γενναίῳ πατρίς.
Ἔργα νέων, βουλαὶ δὲ μέσων, εὐχαὶ δὲ γερόντων.
Οὐδεὶς προφήτης δεκτός ἐστιν ἐν τῇ πατρίδι αὐτοῦ.
Οὐ τοῖς κούφοις ὁ δρόμος καὶ οὐ τοῖς δυνατοῖς ὁ πόλεμος.
And now, some commentary:
Ἔριν μίσει.
Hate strife.
Don't let μίσει fool you: that's the imperative form of an -εω contract verb! From the Greek root μίσ- we get English words like misanthrope and misogyny. Meanwhile, for more about strife personified as a goddess, Ἔρις, see Wikipedia: Eris.
Ἅπασα δὲ χθὼν ἀνδρὶ γενναίῳ πατρίς.
Every land is a homeland to a noble man.
In other words, if you are a worthy person, you can live anywhere in the world as if it were your native land. The words are a fragment from a lost play by Euripides as quoted by the Roman Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus in an essay about why exile should not be considered a bad thing (Musonius himself was exiled to the island of Gyara by the emperor Nero). A fuller version of the passage from Euripides reads: Ἅπας μὲν ἀὴρ αἰετῷ περάσιμος· ἅπασα δὲ χθὼν ἀνδρὶ γενναίῳ πατρίς, "All air can be crossed by the eagle; every land..." From Greek χθὼν we get the -chthon- words in English like chthonic and autochthonous.
Ἔργα νέων, βουλαὶ δὲ μέσων, εὐχαὶ δὲ γερόντων.
Deeds (are) for the young, plans for the middle-aged, and prayers for the old.
This is one of the fragments of Hesiod, and there is a hilarious story in Strabo about Athenodorus Cananites which features a parody of this saying which replaces εὐχαὶ with a different word: ἔργα νέων, βουλαὶ δὲ μέσων, πορδαὶ δὲ γερόντων — the word πορδή means "fart" (and, yes, the Greek and English words are both from the same Indo-European root!). You can read the whole story in Strabo here; just click on "load" to see the English translation side by side with Strabo in Greek.
Οὐκ ἔστιν προφήτης ἄτιμος εἰ μὴ ἐν τῇ πατρίδι αὐτοῦ.
A prophet is not without honor except in his own homeland.
The words come from the Gospel of Mark; the full statement is: οὐκ ἔστιν προφήτης ἄτιμος εἰ μὴ ἐν τῇ πατρίδι αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν τοῖς συγγενεῦσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ αὐτοῦ, adding "and among his relatives and in his own house" at the end. The Gospel of Matthew features a similar saying: οὐκ ἔστιν προφήτης ἄτιμος εἰ μὴ ἐν τῇ πατρίδι καὶ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ αὐτοῦ. You saw the version in the Gospel of Luke in an earlier blog post: Οὐδεὶς προφήτης δεκτός ἐστιν ἐν τῇ πατρίδι αὐτοῦ. Of course English "prophet" is from the Greek προφήτης.
Οὐ τοῖς κούφοις ὁ δρόμος καὶ οὐ τοῖς δυνατοῖς ὁ πόλεμος.
The race (is) not to the swift and the battle (is) not to the mighty.
This saying comes from the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes, and here is the entire verse as rendered in the King James version:
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
You can see Greek δρόμ- in English words like palindrome and hippodrome.
And here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too :
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