Greek Animal Vocabulary: Sept. 25

Here are today's animal names; it's Group 194. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

κύων ~ κυνός (noun c.): dog 

ὄϊς ~ ὄϊος (noun c.): sheep 

ὄνος ~ ὄνου (noun m.): donkey 

λύκος ~ λύκου (noun m.): wolf 

βοῦς ~ βοός (noun c.): ox, cow 

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

Κύων εἰς τὸν ἴδιον ἔμετον.

Πρίν κεν ὄϊν λύκος ποιμαίνοι.

Ὄνῳ τις ἔλεγε μῦθον, ὁ δὲ τὰ ὦτα ἐκίνει.

Λύκος ἐν αἰτίᾳ γίγνεται κἂν φέρῃ κἂν μὴ φερῃ.

Οὐ δύναμαι τὴν αἶγα φέρειν, ἐπί μοι θέτε τὸν βοῦν.

And now, some commentary:

Κύων εἰς τὸν ἴδιον ἔμετον.

The dog (returns) to its own vomit.

This is a shorter version of a saying you've seen before: Κύων ἐπὶ τὸν ἴδιον ἔμετον ἐπιστρέψας. It comes from the Biblical Book of Proverbs.  Here is the verse in the King James version: As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. From Greek ἔμετος we get English "emetic."

Πρίν κεν ὄϊν λύκος ποιμαίνοι.

Sooner than the wolf shepherds the sheep.

This is an impossibility, ἀδύνατον: the wolf does not shepherd the sheep; the wolf eats the sheep. So, if something is supposed to happen sooner than this impossibility... that means it is never going to happen. Compare the English sayings, "When hell freezes over" or "When pigs fly." For more, see Wikipedia: Adynaton.

Ὄνῳ τις ἔλεγε μῦθον, ὁ δὲ τὰ ὦτα ἐκίνει.

Someone told a story to a donkey, and the donkey moved his ears.

It's foolish to try to talk to a donkey, but that foolish speaker might be encouraged by the donkey wiggling his ears... which donkeys do, of course. (Of course, now we have bots instead of donkeys, and the bots do more than wiggle their ears.) The Roman poet Horace imitates the saying in one of his Epistles: narrare asello fabellam surdo.

Λύκος ἐν αἰτίᾳ γίγνεται κἂν φέρῃ κἂν μὴ φερῃ.

The wolf is blamed whether he takes or doesn't take.

The wolf has been guilty of theft so many times that, even when he hasn't taken something, he's going to get blamed. 

Οὐ δύναμαι τὴν αἶγα φέρειν, ἐπί μοι θέτε τὸν βοῦν.

I can't carry a goat, and you've laid on ox on me.

You can find this one in Plutarch's treatise against borrowing money (English translation); he labels it a proverb, παροιμία.

medieval wolf and sheep

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

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