Greek Proverb of the Day: October 15

Here is today's proverb from the blog with a LOLcat and vocabulary too! This is a repeat of a proverb you've seen before, but the vocabulary list is new. The vocabulary links go to Logeion.

Θεὸς διὰ πάντα τελευτᾷ.

• θεὸς, from θεός.
• διά.
• πάντα, from πᾶς.
• τελευτᾷ, from τελευτάω.

Θεὸς διὰ πάντα τελευτᾷ.

God brings all things to completion.

The words come from Homer's Iliad, when Agamemnon is basically blaming Zeus for his quarrel with Achilles. The word διὰ is not a preposition here; instead, it is functioning as an adverb; later, these adverbs attached themselves to the verbs as prefixes (δια-τελευτάω), but they were more free-floating in Homer. This is called tmesis, "cutting" of the verb; you can read more at Wikipedia: Tmesis. The root of the verb is τέλος, meaning the end or outcome, and you can see that Greek root in English teleology.

And here's a quiz covering the past five cats (answers at the blog only, not in the email):

Ἄλλην ______ βαλάνιζε.

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Ἄλλην δρῦν βαλάνιζε.

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Ἕνα ἀλλὰ ______.

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Ἕνα ἀλλὰ λέοντα.

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____ διὰ πάντα τελευτᾷ.

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Θεὸς διὰ πάντα τελευτᾷ.

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Μακραὶ ______ χεῖρες.

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Μακραὶ τυράννων χεῖρες.

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Κοσκίνῳ ______ ἀντλεῖς.

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Κοσκίνῳ ὕδωρ ἀντλεῖς.

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

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