Daily Greek Proverb Review: Dec. 26

Continuing this two-week review, I'm creating slideshows for self-paced review; today's slideshow is for Groups 107, 108, and 109. Here's the post with the details about how the slideshows work.

The slideshow is embedded in the blog post, and you can also access today's slideshow directly, full-sized view. I hope you will enjoy this method of reviewing the proverbs. And remember: each time you see the English translation on a slide, you can click to access the original blog post with the notes for each proverb.

These are the proverbs, linked back to their blog posts:

• Ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν.
  
• Ἀγέλαστος πέτρα.
  
• Δῶρα πείθειν καὶ θεοὺς λόγος.
  
• Εἰ μὴ δύναιο βοῦν, ἔλαυνε ὄνον.
  
• Εὔχου δυνατά.
  
• Καιρὸς ψυχὴ πράγματος.
  
• Κύριε, ἐλέησον.
  
• Μᾶλλον ὁ Φρύξ.
  
• Μὴ κρίνετε, καὶ οὐ μὴ κριθῆτε.
  
• Ὃ γέγραφα γέγραφα.
  
• Οὐδὲν γλύκιον ἧς πατρίδος.
  
• Πλούτει δικαίως.
  
• Σοφίαν ζήλου.
  
• Τίς γὰρ κατόπτρῳ καὶ τυφλῷ κοινωνία;
  
• Χρόνου φείδου.
  

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

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Random Greek LOLCats

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Here is a Christmas present for all of you learning Greek: Greek LOLCats! I've never made Greek LOLCats before, but I was making Latin LOLCats for the new Latin course, and I decided to try making some Greek LOLCats... and it worked! 

So, below you will see a random Greek LOLCat; the cats appear at random each time the page loads. There is also a random LOLCat in the sidebar of every blog post. There are over 70 cats in there right now, and each cat is linked to the blog post where that Greek saying appears with the English translation and notes. Enjoy! And Merry Christmas, everybody!

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This javascript will work in a blog or website that allows you to add javascript (like Blogger); you will need 400 pixels width for the images to display properly.

<div align="center"><script type="text/javascript"> var display = " " </script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.lauragibbs.net/audio/greek/widgets/greekcats.js"></script></div>

Daily Greek Proverb Review: Dec. 24

As part of this two-week review, I'm creating slideshows to use for self-paced review; today's slideshow is for Groups 104, 105, and 106. Here's the post with the details about how the slideshows work.

The slideshow is embedded in the blog post, and you can also access today's slideshow directly, full-sized view. I hope you will enjoy this method of reviewing the proverbs. And remember: each time you see the English translation on a slide, you can click to access the original blog post with the notes for each proverb.

These are the proverbs, linked back to their blog posts:

• Ἀλύπως βίου.
  
• Ἄμμον μετρεῖς.
  
• Βουλῆς γὰρ ὀρθῆς οὐδὲν ἀσφαλέστερον.
  
• Ἐπὶ δυοῖν ἀγκυραῖν ὁρμεῖ.
  
• Ζεὺς πάντων ἐφορᾷ τέλος.
  
• Κακίαν μίσει.
  
• Κακὸν δῶρον ἴσον ζημίᾳ.
  
• Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται.
  
• Κρῖνε δίκαια.
  
• Μὴ εἰς τὴν αὔριον ἀναβάλλου.
  
• Νοῦν ἡγεμόνα ποιοῦ.
  
• Οἶκος φίλος, οἶκος ἄριστος.
  
• Σεαυτὸν αἰδοῦ.
  
• Στιγμὴ χρόνου πᾶς ἐστιν ὁ βίος.
  
• Τέλος ὅρα μακροῦ βίου.

And here's a random proverb too:

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Daily Greek Proverb Review: Dec. 23

Someone filled out the Latin email subscription form with the email field blank, which means I can't send you the Latin emails. So, if you didn't get a Latin email yesterday or today, that means you are not on the list; just use the form again. I edited the form so an email address is required. Hopefully that will prevent this email snafu in future. :-)

For the next two weeks, we'll be reviewing the vocabulary and proverbs from the past 6 weeks. A friend asked me to find a way to integrate practicing the actual vocabulary forms and English definitions into the review, and I think I have found a way to do that. I'm using a Slideshow! Slideshows are a great way to quiz because it gives you control, allowing you to move forward or backwards based on what you need to repeat.

So, I've made a slideshow which reviews 15 of the proverbs, and the vocabulary is part of the review. The 15 proverbs are divided into 3 sets. Each set starts with 5 slides to read and review... and remember: READ OUT LOUD. Reading out loud is the only way to learn the Greek stress patterns! Then, there are slides with blanks you can use to quiz yourself. You quiz yourself by writing down your answers or filling in the blanks orally. Each proverb has two slides with blanks so you can quiz yourself on both halves of each proverb. 

I hope this Slideshow will help you to do the kind of review that is best for you:

• You can quiz yourself just on the vocabulary.
• You can quiz yourself just on the proverbs.
• Or you can quiz yourself on both!

Also, I'm a big believer in flashcards. You could use this slideshow to prompt you to make flashcards for the proverbs if you have not done that already.

• For vocabulary cards, put the dictionary form and part of speech on one side, and then put the additional forms of the word and English definition on the other side; that way you can quiz yourself both on the forms and on the definitions.
• For proverb cards, divide the proverb in half (almost every proverb has a good halfway point), and write one half on one side and the other half on the other side; that way you can quiz yourself without any English — just Greek!

There are some more tips and suggestions in the Slideshow; here is a link to the Slideshow, and here is a link so you can make a copy of the Slideshow for yourself. If you have your own copy, you can delete cards as you complete them, creating new decks of the proverbs you like best, want to review, etc. etc.

And here's a random proverb too:

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Week 37 Proverb and Vocabulary Review

Review Padlet. Here's a link to the Proverb Padlet that contains the contents of the week's posts... and it displays at random each time you load the Padlet! That way you can use it as a randomizing-reviewer for the week.

And remember: you can put a Padlet on your phone so you can pop up a proverb at random whenever. There's a free Padlet app you can download if you want, but you don't need the app; you can just save the URL to your phone home screen. You can also access all the Padlets here: Padlet-of-Padlets.

Alphabetical Index. Plus here is the list of all of this week's proverbs, alphabetized and linked back to the blog post so that you can access the English translation and commentary as needed. I've also updated the complete list of proverbs (there are now 640 total).

• Ἄδακρυς πόλεμος.
  
• Ἀδελφὸς ἀνδρὶ παρείη.
  
• Ἀεὶ γὰρ εὖ πίπτουσιν οἱ Διὸς κύβοι.
  
• Ἀνδρῶν ἡρώων τέκνα πήματα.
  
• Ἄνευ ξύλου μὴ βάδιζε.
  
• Ἀνεῳγμέναι Μουσῶν θύραι.
  
• Ἄνω κάτω πάντα.
  
• Ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός.
  
• Ἀφ' Ἑστίας ἀρχόμενοι.
  
• Δικαίως κτῶ.
  
• Ἐπ' ἀμφότερα καθεύδεις τὰ ὦτα.
  
• Ἐπαίνει ἀρετήν.
  
• Θάλαττα, θάλαττα.
  
• Κακὰ πλεῖστα πόλει δυσνομία παρέχει.
  
• Μὴ ἴσθι ὡς λέων ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ σου.
  
• Ὅν οἱ θεοὶ φιλοῦσιν ἀποθνῄσκει νέος.
  
• Οὐδὲν γίγνεται ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος.
  
• Πενία δὲ τὴν σοφίαν ἔλαχε.
  
• Ῥήματα ἀντί ἀλφίτων.
  
• Σίδηρον πλεῖν διδάσκεις.
  
• Σύροι πρὸς Φοίνικας.
  
• Τὸ Ἱππάρχου τειχίον.
  
• Τύχην νόμιζε.
  
• Ὑφορῶ μηδένα.
  
• Χρυσὸς ὁ ἀφανὴς τύραννος.
  

Audio. If you would like to do some listening, there is audio for Proverbs 1-500.

And here's a random proverb too:

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Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Dec. 20

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 130. These are proverbs you may have seen before (weeks ago), but this time I am featuring different vocabulary items. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

μηχανή ~ μηχανῆς (noun f.): device, machine 

σίδηρος ~ σιδήρου (noun m.): iron; sword 

τύραννος ~ τυράννου (noun m.): tyrant, despot

θύρα ~ θύρας (noun f.): door 

τέκνον ~ τέκνου (noun n.): child 

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

Ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός.

Σίδηρον πλεῖν διδάσκεις. 

Χρυσὸς ὁ ἀφανὴς τύραννος.

Ἀνεῳγμέναι Μουσῶν θύραι.

Ἀνδρῶν ἡρώων τέκνα πήματα.

And now, some commentary:

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 μηχανή we get English mechanical, and also (via Latin) machine.

Σίδηρον πλεῖν διδάσκεις.
You're teaching iron to float.
This is a proverbial fool's errand: iron is never going to float. At least, that's what the Greeks thought about iron. Later on, of course, iron did learn to float! You can read about the history of iron-hulled sailing ships at Wikipedia.

Χρυσὸς ὁ ἀφανὴς τύραννος.
Gold is the invisible tyrant.
The adjective ἀφανὴς is an alpha-privative: ἀ-φανὴς, in-visible. From Greek τύραννος, we get English "tyrant." The etymology of the Greek word is obscure; here are some possible etymologies.

Ἀνεῳγμέναι Μουσῶν θύραι.
The doors of the Muses (are) open.
In other words: everyone has access to the arts; it is not a private privilege. The Greek θύρα is from the Indo-European root dʰwer, making it cognate with English "door." From Greek Μοῦσα we get English museum and music. You can find out more about the Μοῦσαι at Wikipedia: Muses.

Ἄνδρῶν ἡρώων τέκνα πήματα.
The children of heroes (are) calamities.
In other words, you cannot predict the quality of a person based on who their fathers are; heroes' children do not always turn out to be heroes — sometimes just the opposite. Erasmus includes this saying in his Adagia.

Muses

And here's a random proverb too:

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Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Dec. 19

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 129. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

δικαίως (adverb): lawfully, justly 

κάτω (adverb): downards, below 

πρός (prep.+acc.): towards, beside 

τό ~ τοῦ (article): the 

ἀπό (prep.+gen.): from 

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

Δικαίως κτῶ.

Ἄνω κάτω πάντα.

Σύροι πρὸς Φοίνικας.

Τὸ Ἱππάρχου τειχίον.

Ἀφ' Ἑστίας ἀρχόμενοι.

And now, some commentary:

Δικαίως κτῶ.

Acquire possessions rightfully.

The word κτῶ is a middle imperative from the verb κτάομαι (it looks especially weird because the word has only one syllable; hence the circumflex). The adverb δικαίως is formed from the adjective δίκαιος which is in turn formed from the noun δίκη meaning order or justice. For the goddess of Justice, see Wikipedia: Dike.

Ἄνω κάτω πάντα.

Everything is topsy-turvy.

You have two adverbs here: ἄνω, meaning "upwards," and κάτω, meaning "downwards." Those words are already familiar to you from their prepositional forms, ἀνά and κατά. This was a popular phrase in ancient Greek; you can see it used here in Demosthenes's speech Against Aristogiton.

Σύροι πρὸς Φοίνικας.

Syrians versus Phoenicians.

As ethnic stereotypes in ancient Greece, both Syrians and Phoenicians had the reputation of being cheats and swindlers, so this saying referred to one gang of swindlers trying to cheat another gang. The preposition πρὸς plus the accusative can mean simply direction "towards" but it can also have the hostile sense of "against," which is the meaning here.

Τὸ Ἱππάρχου τειχίον.

The wall of Hipparchus.

Hipparchus, one of the tyrants of Athens (he was the son of Pisistratus), built a wall and a public gymnasium on the Academy grounds in Athens at great cost, and then forced the Athenians to reimburse him. This saying thus referred to any lavish or expensive project. For more about the tyrant Hipparchus, see Wikipedia: Hipparchus. (Note: this is not Hipparchus the mathematician.) Probably the most famous story about Hipparchus is his assassination by the lovers Harmodius and Aristogeiton.

Ἀφ' Ἑστίας ἀρχόμενοι.

Beginning with Hestia.

The preposition ἀπό drops its final vowel before the following vowel, and the aspiration of Ἑστία changes the pi to phi. This saying refers to the appropriate order in which to do things (compare English "begin at the beginning"), based on the fact that sacrifices to the gods began with a sacrifice to Hestia, the goddess of the hearth; honoring Hestia was honoring the fire of the sacrifice itself. You can find out more about Hestia at Wikipedia.

Hestia

And here's a random proverb too:

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