Greek Proverbs: January 13

Here are today's Greek proverbs with LOLCats! These are repeats of previous proverbs, but now with illustrations (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):

Γαλῇ χιτών.
A gown for a weasel.
More specifically, this means a wedding gown, and the proverb thus refers to something that is useless or absurdly inappropriate: the weasel was supposed to be an old maid in ancient Greece, a spinster who never married, and so she had no need for a wedding gown.

Μῶρα γὰρ μῶρος λέγει.
For a fool speaks foolish things.
The words are spoken by Teiresias who, together with Kadmos, is rebuking Pentheus (Kadmos's grandson), in Euripides' Bacchae. Erasmus includes this saying in his Adagia: Stultus stulta loquitur.

 

Νοῦν ἡγεμόνα ποιοῦ.
Make your mind your leader.
These words are attributed to Solon by Diogenes Laertius; you can read more about Solon at Wikipedia.
The verb ποιοῦ here is also a middle imperative, and from the Greek ἡγεμὼν, we get English hegemony. This always reminds me of the opening lines of the Buddha's Dhammapada: "Mind precedes thoughts, mind is their chief, their quality is made by mind..."

Πᾶς τις τὰ ἑαυτοῦ ἀγαπᾷ.
Each person loves the things that are theirs.
Compare the English saying "To each his own," which renders the Latin cuique suum, "to each their own." The inclusion of ἀγαπᾷ here aligns it with cuique suum placet, "to each their own is pleasing."

Γλυκὺς ὕπνος τοῦ δούλου.
Sweet is the sleep of the slave.
The words come from the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes. Here is the full verse in the King James version: The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. From the Greek root γλυκ- we get all the scientific terms formed with glyc- in English like hypoglycemia or nitroglycerin.

And to finish up, here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too:

---

---

---

Click here to subscribe/unsubscribe to the email list.

---