Greek Animal Vocabulary: July 8

Here are today's animal names; it's Group 180. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

ὗς ~ ὑός (noun c.): pig, boar 

γαλέη ~ γαλέης (noun f.): weasel 

μῦς ~ μυός (noun m.): mouse 

ὄρνις ~ ὄρνιθος (noun c.): bird 

ἐχῖνος ~ ἐχίνου (noun m.): hedgehog 

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

Ὗς ὀρίνει.

Γαλῇ στέαρ.

Μῦς πίσσης γεύεται.

Ὄρνιθος γάλα ζητεῖς.

Ἐχῖνος τὸν τόκον ἀναβάλλει.

And now, some commentary:

Ὗς ὀρίνει.

The boar provokes (trouble).

This pithy little Greek saying is a bit hard to translate into English without an explicit object for the verb. The idea is that a boar or wild pig is like a violent or argumentative person who stirs things up, causing trouble. The word ὗς can refer either to a wild pig or a domesticated pig.

Γαλῇ στέαρ.

Fat for a weasel.

This is a saying about giving someone exactly what they want; a weasel will gladly eat the fat that you feed her. For an opposite sort of saying, where you are offering something to someone who doesn't appreciate it, see the previous post about wine for frogs: Βατράχοις οἰνοχοεῖς.

Μῦς πίσσης γεύεται.

The mouse is tasting the pitch.

The idea is that the pitch is part of a mousetrap: as soon as the mouse tastes the pitch, he's caught and cannot escape. Compare the English idiom about catching fish: "he's taken the bait." You've seen an Attic version of this saying in a previous blog post, citing Demosthenes. The saying also appears in one of the Idylls of Theocritus, where it is put into the first-person plural: μῦς γεύμεθα πίσσας, "we (like) the mouse have tasted pitch."

Ὄρνιθος γάλα ζητεῖς.

You're trying to get milk from a bird.

This is one of the fool's errands: there are a lot of animals that you can milk, but you are wasting your time trying to get milk from a bird. Compare the English sayings about "hen's teeth" or "blood from a stone."

Ἐχῖνος τὸν τόκον ἀναβάλλει.

The hedgehog postpones giving birth.

Hedgehogs are prickly, so the idea here is that it's hard to give birth to a prickly baby. So, the hedgehog puts off giving birth... but this is not a good strategy because the baby keeps getting more and more prickly. Poor, foolish hedgehog! By trying to avoid something unpleasant, her procrastination just makes it worse.

A wonderful illustration for Ὗς ὀρίνει from the medieval Luttrell Psalter (thanks to Sententiae Antiquae this):

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

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