Thursday, May 28, 2026

Greek Proverbs: May 28

Here are today's Greek proverbs with LOLCats! These are repeats of previous proverbs, but now with illustrations... and with a quiz too! See how you do on the questions up top, and then try them again down below after you've read through the proverbs (the quiz results display only at the blog, not in the email):

______ γεωργεῖν.
reveal/hide answerἈνέμους γεωργεῖν.

______ μὴ πίστευε.
reveal/hide answerΤύχῃ μὴ πίστευε.

Νέα ______.
reveal/hide answerΝέα χελιδών.

______ πέτρα.
reveal/hide answerἈγέλαστος πέτρα.

Ἀπὸ ______ θεός.
reveal/hide answerἈπὸ μηχανῆς θεός.


Ἀνέμους γεωργεῖν.
To farm the winds.
This is another proverbial fool's errand. You are supposed to farm the earth, which is literally what the word means: the γεωργός, "farmer," is someone does work ἔργον on the earth γεω-. Nothing will come of farming the winds. Of course, now in the 21st century we do have wind-farms! From the Greek word ἄνεμος we get English "anemometer" which measures the speed of the wind. And from Greek farming, we get the name George in English.

Τύχῃ μὴ πίστευε.
Don't trust in luck.
This is one of the so-called Delphic maxims recorded by Stobaeus; you can find out more at Wikipedia.

Νέα χελιδών.
A new swallow.
The swallow was the proverbial herald of spring, and so the new swallow referred to the advent of springtime (see Aristophanes' Knights). In connection with this saying, Erasmus cites an ancient song from Rhodes: Ἦλθε, ἦλθε χελιδών, καλὰς ὧρας ἄγουσα καὶ καλοὺς ἐνιαυτούς, "Come, come, swallow, bringing good seasons and good times." This Greek folk song even has its own article at Wikipedia: Swallow song of Rhodes. From the same Greek root in νέα, we get all the neo- words in English like neolithic, neologism, etc.

Ἀγέλαστος πέτρα.
The un-laughing stone.
This refers to the stone at Eleusis on which the grieving Demeter rested while she searched for her daughter Persephone; see Wikipedia: Abduction of Persephone for that story. Note that the alpha-privative adjective ἀ-γέλαστος does not have a distinct feminine form; instead, the feminine and masculine forms are the same. This is true not just for alpha-privatives but for many other compound adjectives as well.

Ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός. 
God from the machine.
This is better known in its Latin form: Deus ex machina. The machine in question is the crane used in ancient Greek theater to lower a god onto the stage, and the phrase refers to some unexpected event; find out more at Wikipedia: Deus ex machina. From Greek θεός we get English theology, the name Theo, and many other words.

______ γεωργεῖν.
reveal/hide answerἈνέμους γεωργεῖν.

______ μὴ πίστευε.
reveal/hide answerΤύχῃ μὴ πίστευε.

Νέα ______.
reveal/hide answerΝέα χελιδών.

______ πέτρα.
reveal/hide answerἈγέλαστος πέτρα.

Ἀπὸ ______ θεός.
reveal/hide answerἈπὸ μηχανῆς θεός.


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









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