ὄνος ~ ὄνου (noun m.): donkey
κύκνειος ~ κυκνείου (adj. masc.): swan, swan's
μυῖα ~ μυίας (noun f.): fly
αἴξ ~ αἰγός (noun c.): goat
πάρδαλις ~ παρδάλεως (noun f.): leopard, panther
These are the proverbs (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):
Ὄνου πόκαι.
Κύκνειον μέλος.
Ἔχει καὶ ἡ μυῖα σπλῆνα.
Κἂν αἴξ δάκῃ ἄνδρα πονηρόν.
Θάνατον παρδάλεως ὑποκρίνεται.
Ὄνου πόκαι.
Wool from a donkey.
This is another one of those proverbial fool's errands: you get wool from a sheep, not from a donkey. The word "wool" is usually masculine, πόκος, but the feminine appears persists in this saying. You've seen a variation on this saying in an earlier post with the masculine form: Ὄνου πόκους ζητεῖς.
Κύκνειον μέλος.
Swan song.
The legend of the song that the swan (supposedly) sings just before it dies, having spent the rest of its life in silence, has its own article at Wikipedia: Swan song. (I'll just mention here in passing a wonderful community organization here in Austin where I live: Swan Song: Musical Last Wishes brings musicians to the homes of hospice patients in order to perform for them; I learned about it because a jazz trio came and did a performance for my father.)
Ἔχει καὶ ἡ μυῖα σπλῆνα.
Even the fly has its spleen.
The idea is that even though it is little, the fly can have a big temper. The spleen was the home of angry emotions; compare English "splenetic," meaning irritable, peevish, spiteful, habitually angry. Compare a similar saying about the tiny ant that you saw in a previous post: Ἔχει καὶ χολὴν ὁ μύρμηξ.
Κἂν αἴξ δάκῃ ἄνδρα πονηρόν.
Even a goat will bite a wicked man.
Normally, you don't have to worry about goats, but if you are an evil person: watch out! Even a goat might decide to bite you, sensing your wickedness.
Θάνατον παρδάλεως ὑποκρίνεται.
He's feigning the leopard's death.
In other words, someone is "playing dead" like a leopard. I know a lot of folktales from Africa where the leopard pretends to be dead, and Apostolius, who reports this Greek proverb, also tells a story about leopards using this technique to catch monkeys... in Mauritania, northwest Africa! See Erasmus for details.
And here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too:
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