Questions tagged [ancient-greek]
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Rentiers in Ancient Greece
I've been looking for a Greek equivalent of 'Rentiers' who exploit the economy by lobbying the state e.g. asking the state to give them subsidies for a certain common good (climate change) but ...
4
votes
1answer
60 views
Which is correct? Eugenius or Eugenīus or both?
Checking the dictionary entries for Eugenius, I was surprised to find different vowel quantities depending on whether it was the adjective or the noun. As you can see from the screenshot above, ...
2
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1answer
80 views
What is the correct order for a calendar date, specifically ancient Greek Attic calendar?
In ancient Greek dating format, does the month or day come first in order? In other words, if ancient Greeks were discussing a specific date using the Attic lunisolar calendar, how would they order ...
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2answers
389 views
What would “agenda” be in Ancient Greek?
How should agenda be translated into Greek?
The first thing that comes to my mind is just taking the future passive participle, neuter plural, of ἄγω (ᾰ̓χθησόμενα); however, there is a slight ...
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Is the Italian town Empoli from Greek ἐμπολή, “merchandise?”
Is the italian town-name "Empoli" related to the greek word "ἐμπολή", meaning merchandise, or gain from merchandise?
I met "εμπολή" in the form of "ἐξεμπολημένων&...
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1answer
355 views
Did Plato describe man as “a being in search of meaning”?
I happened upon this Quora question, in which the quote "man, a being in search of meaning" is ascribed to Plato.
Did Plato write this and if so, where? Obviously there are other Platonic ...
4
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1answer
200 views
Is μῆνις cognate with mania?
Pharr (Homeric Greek: a book for beginners, 4th ed.) has on pp. 10 and 281 a statement that μῆνις in Homer would have had an α in most dialects and says that it's cognate with maniac and maniacal. But ...
3
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1answer
59 views
How to express singing a song rather than singing about something
If I'm understanding correctly, άείδω is used with the accusative, and it means to sing about something. In English the object of the verb would be the song, not the thing being sung about. In Greek ...
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4answers
294 views
What monolingual text editions are available?
I am a beginner and making quite good progress with Ovid. Rete utile est.
To start with Ovid I bought the Loeb edition of Metamorphoses, Books 1 to 8. But I anticipate that when I have finished this ...
5
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1answer
153 views
βυκάνη < būcina: vowel reduction undone in borrowings from Latin?
So I've come across this word βῡκάνη, ostensibly borrowed from Latin būcina ('an ox-horn trumpet'), from bou- ('ox') + canere ('to sing'). The lack of vowel reduction is immediately striking; ...
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1answer
68 views
Star age of exploration translation
A while ago I asked about a translation for "star age" to ancient Greek. I ended up with the wording: Astereaon. I am now curious as to what the translation would be for something like: &...
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351 views
Is Greek ἀρά, prayer, cognate with Latin ara, altar?
Is Greek ἀρά, prayer, cognate with Latin ara, altar?
Wiktionary had ἀράομαι, with the etymology pointing to a red-linked ἀρά. I created an entry for ἀρά based on LSJ, but I have no source of ...
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1answer
209 views
Tellus' “briny robes”
I read in Keats' Hyperion:
[...] No, by Tellus and her briny robes!
(Hyperion, 246)
Tellus is a Latin goddess, her Greek counterpart being Gaia.
I am looking for the Greek or Latin source of the ...
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1answer
397 views
Is there any rule for determining whether a verb beginning with ε- will augment to η- vs ει-, or must all verbs' behaviors be memorized?
For instance, the verb ἐλευθερῶ augments to ἠλευθέρουν in the past, whereas the verb ἔχω augments to εἶχον (not ἦχον as might have been predicted).
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1answer
160 views
Homeric hapax legomenon ἐγγεινομαι — is it not real?
There is a 2018 thesis by Alexandra Kozak, "Le Dictionnaire des hapax dans la poésie grecque archaïque, d'Homère à Eschyle," freely downloadable from https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-...
9
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1answer
432 views
What is the ancient Greek word for apprenticeship?
I'm looking for an ancient Greek word that denotes a trainee craftsman's regime of study under a master, I found the word μαθητεία but I'm unsure if that is a word in ancient Greek or only in modern ...
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1answer
50 views
Etymology of εὔκοπος
This seems to be a koine word meaning easy. LSJ has it and the verb κοπάζω, but the English wiktionary didn't have either. I added both to wiktionary. It seems obvious that the etymology of κοπάζω is ...
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2answers
905 views
Evidence about pronunciation of ευ and αυ in Homeric Greek?
In modern Greek, a word like ευχαριστώ is pronounced like "ef-." The combinations ευ and αυ sometimes have the upsilon pronounced like β and sometimes like φ. (I'm not sure how variable it ...
6
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2answers
779 views
Why -ώς in αἰδώς?
The word αἰδώς means awe, shame, or respect. There are related words such as αἰδοῖος. I feel like I ought to be training my brain to recognize inflections in order to get clues as to meaning, but as ...
5
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1answer
89 views
Subjunctive Protasis and Aorist Indicative Apodosis
ἐὰν μή τις μένῃ ἐν ἐμοί, ἐβλήθη ἔξω ὡς τὸ κλῆμα ... (John 15:6)
μένῃ is present subjunctive and ἐβλήθη is aorist indicative. In many grammar books, there are two types of conditional sentence which ...
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1answer
80 views
Where to place accent after applying diaeresis?
So I have the following elegiac couplet:
κεἱ ψυχή τε πέρην ἐπικεῖται, ἔσχατη ἆσσον,
μεῖνα δ' ἔγωγ’ ἔμπης, ἰσχναΐνων κραδίην.
Theoretically, the latter hemistich in the second verse should have the ...
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1answer
934 views
Did the ancients or medievals have a word for the energy stored in plants?
If you spend a little time gardening, you soon become aware that plants store energy in their roots, which they collect from the Sun through their leaves. By the end of Autumn, perennials usually have ...
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1answer
110 views
A question about accentuation for aorist infinitives
I am learning classical Attic Greek at college, and we recently saw that, in a departure from the typical recessiveness of verbs, the accents for aorist infinitives always falls on the penult ...
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Semantic link between πόνος and πονηρός?
Πόνος means toil or suffering, while πονηρός, derived from it, can mean either that someone toils under oppression or else is knavish, base, or evil. What is the semantic link between toil/suffering ...
5
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1answer
118 views
Translation of Meditations 1.4-5
I've been using the meditations of Marcus Aurelius as practice in reading and translation, and then checking my answers by peeking at a translation by George Long. In 1.4, Marcus Aurelius says:
Παρὰ ...
6
votes
2answers
379 views
Act 1, Act 2, … in a play, in Greek
In an ancient Greek play, what word would we use to refer to the different acts? Μέρος? Λόγος?
Woodhouse doesn't seem to have anything relevant under the noun "act."
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4answers
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Are “μπ” and “ντ” indicators that the word didn't exist in Koine/Ancient Greek?
I am learning Modern Greek on Duolingo, in the hopes that it will help me learn Koine and Ancient Greek, eventually. I have also watched a few other videos, like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/...
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2answers
300 views
Why no relative pronoun in ἄνθρωπος ἐξηραμμένην ἔχων τὴν χεῖρα?
Mark 3:1 has:
Καὶ εἰσῆλθεν πάλιν εἰς συναγωγήν, καὶ ἦν ἐκεῖ ἄνθρωπος ἐξηραμμένην ἔχων τὴν χεῖρα.
In English word order, the final part seems like it would be "a man his hand had had withering.&...
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446 views
Meaning of “τρίχας” in Anacreon's Περι Γέροντος
Here's a poem from Anacreon's Odes:
ΠΕΡΙ ΓΕΡΟΝΤΟΣ
Φιλῶ γέροντα τερπνόν,
Φιλῶ νέον χορευτήν.
Γέρων δ᾽ ὅταν χορεύῃ
Τρίχας γέρων μὲν ἐστιν,
Τὰς δὲ φρένας νεάζει.
From what I've found, τρίχας is the ...
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2answers
432 views
Tables of Greek expressions for time, place, and logic
I'm trying to build my vocabulary in koine using flashcards, and so far have had pretty good success attaining a decent level of reading fluency, e.g., I can get through the first couple of chapters ...
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1answer
158 views
Where does -ι- come from in derivatives of ἅλς (ἁλιάετος, ἁλιαής, ἁλιανθής)?
Many compounds or derivatives of the Greek word ἅλς hals "salt, sea" seem to be built on the form ἁλι- hali-: ἁλιά(ι)ετος "sea-eagle", ἁλιαής "blowing seaward", ἁλιανθής &...
7
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1answer
143 views
What is the difference between ἀρχαῖος and παλαιός?
What is the difference between the two adjectives ἀρχαῖος and παλαιός?
In particular, what word would fit the best to mean "history" between ἀρχαιολογία and παλαιολογία?
3
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1answer
238 views
What is the word for knowledge in Greek?
I read that there are two version depending on intrinsic value. So that it is either intellectual knowledge or divine knowledge, knowledge from within. And is there a difference between Ancient Greek ...
6
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1answer
752 views
Why the π in ἀπιεῖ?
I wanted to pick a -μι verb to use as a paradigm to memorize for Homeric and koine, so I thought I would use ἀφίημι. I looked up the present-tense conjugation on U Chicago's morpho utility, and then ...
3
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1answer
48 views
Scansion of a Greek line from Babrius 20
In Babrius fable 20 it says:
θεῶν ἀληθῶς προσεκύνει τε κἀτίμα.
The piece is written in Choliambic style, and I can't figure out how to scan this line.
The problem is that there are two consecutive ...
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1answer
295 views
Is ὀργίζω, to anger, cognate with ὄργια, a secret rite or ritual?
Is ὀργίζω, to anger, cognate with ὄργια, a secret rite or ritual? Wiktionary has a red link from the uncommon modern word to a not-yet-existing page for the ancient word (with accents). It seems at ...
6
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1answer
723 views
What construction is “διδαχή?”
There is an interesting early Christian document called the Διδαχή, translated into English as "The Teaching." The word seems to be classical, not just Koine. Is this some kind of more ...
6
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1answer
243 views
Regency of πίνω in Anacreon's ode Πάντα πίνει
The following poem is from the Odes of Anacreon:
ἡ γῆ μέλαινα πίνει,
Πίνει δὲ δένδρε’ αὐτήν
Πίνει θάλασσα δ’αὔρας,
Ὁ δ’ἤλιος θάλασσαν,
Τὸν δ’ἤλιον σελήνη.
Τί μοι μάχεσθ’ ἑτῖροι,
Καὐτῷ θέλοντι πίνειν;
...
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2answers
648 views
Where does the final -ς in genitive feminine singularis -ᾱς/-ης/τῆς come from?
The declination pattern for the case endings, as well as the article ὁ, ἡ, τό, seems to fairly closely match that of the grammatical endings you find in Latin:
Case
Latin
Greek
Latin
Greek
Latin
...
6
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2answers
361 views
What is the difference between the accent on q and the accent on semicolon?
Background
In the very helpful document ‘Typing ancient (polytonic) Greek in a Windows environment’, there is a noticable difference between the accent shown where the English keyboard Q key is, as ...
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1answer
76 views
reference for the greek word παστός as ritual coffin for initiation rites
In this link, it is mentioned in the introduction that one of the meanings of the word ΄παστός' is that of a "coffin for priests used in initiation rites in remembrance of the death of the god ...
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1answer
89 views
Who is the ancient author “Dion.” writing in Greek on bankruptcy law?
I have a book on the old Roman law (Twelve Tables) citing a Greek source for a detail on the bankruptcy/execution law. It is named "Dion." but I did not find a fitting work of a "...
7
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1answer
139 views
Composition of a word ἡμιόλιος
The Ancient Greek word ἡμιόλιος means literally "one and a half", referring to the ratio 3:2 and the interval of a perfect fifth in music. I wonder how this word is composed of:
is it
ἡμι- (...
3
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0answers
81 views
Was the letter phi used in Latin?
Is there any evidence of the Greek letter phi being borrowed to write Latin words of Greek origin as φilosoφia for example?
The question is not restricted to Classical Latin.
6
votes
2answers
1k views
The pronunciation of Eta (η)
I have visited some sources and I can't finally understand that Eta (η) in Ancient Greek pronounced like 'eɪ' (delay), or like 'eə' (hair). In fact, should we say an 'ɪ' at the end of pronouncing η, ...
4
votes
1answer
119 views
How to render a translation similar to this phrase in the Odyssey
It says in the Book 6, line 160, of the Odyssey: "οὔτ᾽ ἄνδρ᾽ οὔτε γυναῖκα: σέβας μ᾽ ἔχει εἰσορόωντα." But if I wanted to change roughly to: I have never laid eyes on anyone but you. How ...
