Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Greek Animal Vocabulary: July 10

Here are today's animal names; it's Group 181. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

ὄφις ~ ὄφεως (noun m.): snake 
κόραξ ~ κόρακος (noun m.): crow 
γλαύξ ~ γλαυκός (noun f.): owl 
ὗς ~ ὑός (noun c.): pig 
κύων ~ κυνὸς (noun c.): dog 

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

Ὄφεως ὄμμα.

Λευκὸς κόραξ.

Ἀετὸν γλαυκὶ συγκρίνεις.

Ὗς πότ᾽ Ἀθηναίαν ἔριν ἤρισεν.

Αὑτὸν οὐ τρέφων κύνας τρέφεις.


And now, some commentary:

Ὄφεως ὄμμα.
The eye of a snake.
This proverbial phrase refers to someone who has a particularly sharp and piercing gaze. 

Λευκὸς κόραξ.
A white crow.
This is a proverbial impossibility, much like we use the phrase "black swan" in English (based on Latin niger cycnus), which even has its own Wikipedia article: Black swan theory.

Ἀετὸν γλαυκὶ συγκρίνεις.
You're comparing an eagle to an owl.
Like the snake (see above), the eagle was supposed to have especially acute eyesight, while the owl was supposed to have especially poor eyesight (that is why, supposedly, owls avoid the light of day). So, this is like "mixing apples and oranges" — only a fool would compare an eagle to an owl!

Ὗς πότ᾽ Ἀθηναίαν ἔριν ἤρισεν.
The pig once challenged Athena to a contest.
Literally, "the pig challenged an Athenian challenge." This is a line from the poet Theocritus; hence the poetic phrasing.  An ancient commentator on the poem noted this variation: Ὗς ὢν πρὸς Ἀθήνην ἐρίζεις, "you, though being a pig, are contending against Athena." The idea is that the pig is, as we say in English, "swine," rude and uneducated, the opposite of Athena in every way.

Αὑτὸν οὐ τρέφων κύνας τρέφεις.
Not being able to feed yourself, you are feeding your dogs.
In other words, you are living beyond your means. The dogs in this proverb stand for hunting dogs along with all the other accoutrements of an extravagant lifestyle: horses, servants, etc., all those "extra" mouths to feed.

dogs-ancient-rome-Canes pastorales

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




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