Questions tagged [ancient-greek]
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Is Hyksos unique, or is there a rule about when κ + σ doesn't equal ξ?
I was trying to find if there was a true analogue to the spelling of Hyksos in Greek without a ξ. Most instances of words with -κσ- in Classical and Hellenistic Greek were compounds with the prefix εκ-...
cmw♦
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Are these transliterations of 11th dynasty names plausibly formed?
Question:
Are Mentophis (Μεντῶφις), Monton (Μωντων), and Anatophis (Ἀνατοφις) plausible Greek (and Latin) names for Mentuhotep, Montu, and Intef respectively?
Background:
Manetho's Egyptian chronicle ...
cmw♦
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Etymology of Acolyte
Why is the Greek word ἀκολουθος borrowed into Latin as acolythus and not acoluthus? Compare Θουκυδιδης and Thucydides.
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How did ἄρρην turn into αρσενικός?
The Greek word for male is αρσενικός. From the Greek Wiktionary page:
αρσενικός < (κληρονομημένο) αρχαία ελληνική ἀρσενικός < ἄρρην / ἄρσην
I translated it with Google Translate:
male < (...
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Pronunciation of Ancient Greek sigma as voiced [z] before voiced consonants
Throughout the development of Ancient Greek, was σ ever pronounced as [z], perhaps when before a voiced consonant, as in ἄσβεστος?
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How did 15th century Dutch “Van Lanckvelt” correspond to neo-Latin “Macropedius”?
The 15th-century Dutch humanist Georgius Macropedius was originally named Joris van Lanckvelt, and his adopted Latin name is generally described as a direct Latinisation of that, without further ...
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What is this word and what is it doing?
I'm reading Ανάβασις by Xenophon. Here Klearchos has basically said: "someone else might want to command at this point".
ὡς δὲ τῷ ἀνδρὶ ὃν ἂν ἕλησθε πείσομαι ᾗ δυνατὸν μάλιστα, ἵνα εἰδῆτε ...
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What is the correct way of referring, in Greek, to Theocritus' third Idyll?
I might want to write, in English, something like, "This passage alludes to Theocritus, Idyll III specifically." I think it would be more natural to write "Idyll III" and not "...
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Four different greek words roughly translated as 'With' - I'm missing one?
I'm not knowledgeable on ancient greek.
I was listening to someone who said in passing that ancient greek has (at least) four different words roughly translated as the English word "With".
...
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Capital and non-capital letters in the Greek alphabet
Is there a reason why only some of the capital and non-capital letters of the Greek alphabet are different?
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Meaning of ἂν here?
I've read that Ανάβασις is quite a good choice for a first Ancient Greek text to read (i.e. relatively simple). This is a bilingual text from somewhere.
Ἀρίστιππος δὲ ὁ Θετταλὸς ξένος ὢν ἐτύγχανεν ...
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Why does "Oedipus Rex" most commonly have a Latin rather than Greek title?
Nearly 2500 years ago, Sophocles wrote the Greek play Oedipus the King.
It was originally titled Oedipus Tyrannus in Greek.
Yet today, it is almost universally known as Oedipus Rex.
Why and when did ...
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How are the sounds of E (ε) and H (η) different in classical Greek pronunciation?
In Athenaze, the pronunciations of E (ε) and H (η) are given as comparable to the English words get and bed, respectively. Other than H (η) being held longer, in my American English pronunciation ...
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Ancient Greek: first declension stem
I’ve been looking for a long time, but I still don’t understand how to get the stem of an Ancient Greek noun that belongs to the first declension.
Almost every book says that for example -ᾱ, -η, -ᾰ (...
ValeriaK
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Greek "datives of agent" in Latin classical prose?
When including the following poetic examples from Horace and Ovid in what turned out to be a long answer to a previous post on datives of agent, I made this hesitant remark: Perhaps I'm wrong but I'd ...
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How do I say "Humanism" in Latin?
Humanism is coined from a Latin root (homo, hominis) and a Greek suffix (-ισμός).
Would there be a "purely Latin" translation of this word?
user12055
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Odyssey A.65: how is περὶ used in περὶ νόον ἐστὶ βροτῶν, περὶ δ᾿ ἱρὰ θεοῖσιν // ἀθανάτοισιν ἔδωκε?
The use of περὶ in verse 65 of Odyssey A is not entirely clear to me, neither in syntax nor in meaning:
πῶς ἂν ἔπειτ᾿ Ὀδυσῆος ἐγὼ θείοιο λαθοίμην,
ὃς περὶ μὲν νόον ἐστὶ βροτῶν, περὶ δ᾿ ἱρὰ θεοῖσιν
...
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Why is ek used instead of para in the Nicene Creed relating to the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father?
Thank you in advance for helping me with a couple of questions I have relating to the words ek and para.
I eventually want to ask why ek is used instead of para in the Nicene Creed relating to the ...
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What is the difference between the Greek words "χρονος" and "καιρος", both meaning "time"?
In my YouTube video explaining why I don't believe in afterlife, I used, among others, the following argument I came up by myself:
Et si homines habent animam quae tempus potest sentire, quomodo id ...
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Has 'παῖς' been used to refer to a girl or woman in ancient greek sources?
Context - the official translations of παῖς commonly go as 'child, especially a boy, slave' witch would imply it being applicable to girls, not just boys, however a friend of mine insists παῖς can ...
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Anyone know where "immorito" comes from?
Just checking since the dictionaria gugulabilia seem to (very occasionally) include immorito (glossed here as "causelessly"; here as "undeſervedly") but never whatever intermediate ...
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Is the Croatian dialectism "regast" (full of cracks) related to Ancient Greek ῥαγή ("rhage", crack)?
What do you guys here think, is the Croatian dialectism "regast" ("full of cracks", in the Kaikavian diealect) or "regav" ("wrinkled", in the Donji Miholjac ...
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When and why did "Σ" make a comeback?
Math uses "Σ", as does modern Greek. But according to Wikipedia, "Σ" disappeared during late antiquity and the Middle Ages:
In handwritten Greek during the Hellenistic period (4th–...
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What are some ancient Greek words from which a word-internal digamma was lost?
It's been 4,000 years since I studied ancient Greek, and the only words I can remember that once contained digammas started with the letter: οἶνος, οἶδα, and so on.
Were there word-internal digammas ...
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What is the verb in Πρωτεσίλαος?
Continuing in my chain of questions about Homeric names, I now understand that Πενθεσίλεια is a "terpsimbrotos" compound. This makes sense to me.
However, Nagy mentions this name alongside ...
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Is Ἀχιλλεύς actually from ἄχος and λαός?
As I mentioned in a previous question, I've been taught that ancient authors associated the name Ἀχιλλεύς (and its many variations) with ἄχος ("pain") and λαός ("people"). After ...
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How is the name "Penthesilea" formed?
The Homeric name Πενθεσίλεια seems to come from πένθος "grief" and λαός "people", presumably meaning something like "grieved by the people". This would be drawing a ...
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Why aren't Latin "sanguis" and Greek "haima", both meaning "blood", considered to be cognates? Latin word-initial 's' corresponds to Greek 'h'
Why aren't Latin "sanguis" and Greek "haima", both meaning "blood", considered to be cognates? The meaning is, as far as I know, exactly the same. And they sound alike. ...
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Proclus' Elements of Theology - Syntax Question
Proclus, Elements of Theology, proposition 123:
ἀλλ᾽ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐξηρτημένων οἷαί πέρ εἰσιν αὐτῶν αἱ ἰδιότητες γνωρίζονται, καὶ τοῦτο ἀναγκαίως.
English Translation:
Nevertheless from the beings ...
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Greek compounds: would "creation of knowledge" be sophogenesis or sophiagenesis?
I'm writing an academic text and trying to find a nice term for the concept of creation/generation of knowledge.
The Greek dictionaries I consulted seem to indicate sophia or sophos would work but I'...
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How would the Gates of Ivory and Horn from the Odyssey be said in ancient Greek and Latin?
How would one say the name of each individual gate from the Gates of Ivory and Horn in ancient Greek and Latin? According to the Odyssey, they are located in the underworld near the Asphodel fields. I ...
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Use of prefix παρά as an intensifier
I can see that the prefix παρά is used frequently as an intensifier with the meaning of "over/excessive" in Modern Greek compound words e.g. παρακοιμάμαι (oversleep), παραχαϊδεμένος (over/...
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Any scholarly views about how someone like Ovidius might have pronounced Greek words?
Μετᾰμορφώσεις
In this word, as can be seen, there is a pitch accent on ω, and also it is generally accepted (per Allen, Vox Graeca) that φ was an aspirated P (pʰ), not a fricative (f).
Are there any ...
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Masculine κραδίας? Methodology for figuring out if a lemma is fictional?
There are projects like Project Perseus and PROIEL that have created open-source databases in which the grammatical structures of Greek and Latin texts are completely analyzed. They were made by ...
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Why study a classical language?
This is admittedly a variation on why study Latin (see Related questions below), but there is specific aspect/motivation that I would like to explore deeper.
Often cited reasons for studying classical ...
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What is the story of Latin letters U, V?
I recently saw a video stating that when the Romans imported the upsilon(Y) from Greek, they cut the the bottom line from Y and remained V which was not read as V as we know but U. So
V(letter) = U(...
Bogdan Floareș
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Compounds in -ια and -σις
I greatly enjoy finding properly constructed (i.e. non hybrid grammatically ancient) equivalents to pseudo-classic neologisms.
That is the background.
I was wondering what the proper translation would ...
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Principles of forming epic poem titles from words
Could someone point me to a reliable source towards how are the -ας/-ις/etc. suffixes are applied to form the titles of epic poems?
For example, why Ίλιον > Ἰλιάς but Ἀχιλλεύς > Ἀχιλληΐς, and ...
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Aristotle's "Man is a political/social animal" original Greek words
The following sentence by Artistotle is well-known:
Man is a political/social animal.
His original words are:
διότι δὲ πολιτικὸν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ζῷον πάσης μελίττης καὶ παντὸς ἀγελαίου ζῴου μᾶλλον, ...
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Is there a zeroth Greek number noun below trias, dyas, monas?
I gave a list number-based nouns borrowed from Greek as an answer to a question on using numbers as nouns:
monas, dyas, trias, tetras, pentas, hexas, heptas, octas, enneas, decas…
One can conceivably ...
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Which inflections of these participles are these, and why?
I'm following an ancient Teach Yourself Ancient Greek course. This is from a (presumably highly simplified) version of Xenophon's account of Spartan education:
βελτιον γαρ ἐστιν, ὡς φασιν, ὀλιγον ...
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Diogenes quote about poisoned honey
I am trying to locate the source and original Greek of this quote attributed to Diogenes:
"A beautiful whore is like poisoned honey".
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What are the ways in which Greek print might indicate diaeresis?
When two vowel letters that normally form a diphthong, such as αι, are meant to be pronounced as two syllables, how is this normally indicated in modern printing of Ancient Greek?
Is a trema ever used,...
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How to translate Ἀγαθῶν ἓνεκα οὐ γίνεσθαι
How should the following (highlighted) quote of Socrates be translated?
Here's the relevant sentence:
Thus Socrates said of the Civil law, Ἀγαθῶν ἓνεκα οὐ γίνεσθαι.
I came up with the following in ...
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How to understand the phrase "Διὸς μεγάλου διὰ βουλάς" from Hesiod's Theogony?
πεύθετο γὰρ Γαίης τε καὶ Οὐρανοῦ
ἀστερόεντος οὕνεκά οἱ πέπρωτο ἑῷ ὑπὸ παιδὶ δαμῆναι,
καὶ κρατερῷ περ ἐόντι, Διὸς μεγάλου διὰ βουλάς
--- Theogony 463~465
For he had heard from Earth and starry Sky ...
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Can ἐρισθενέος mean "almighty"?
Someone claims that ἐρισθενέος Κρονίωνος (line 4 of Hesiod's Theogony) means "the almighty son of Cronos" as part of his argument that the ancients believed Zeus was the One (related ...
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What is this form?
Τὴν πεπρωμένην δὲ χρὴ
αἶσαν φέρειν ὡς ῥᾷστα, γιγνώσκονθ' ὅτι
τὸ τῆς ἀνάγκης ἔστ' ἀδήριτον σθένος.
What is this declension?
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Did the use of the middle with the semantics of the passive continue as late as koine?
My understanding of the history is that PIE had active and middle voices, while the passive was a later innovation. Therefore it seems that in the early language as preserved in Homer, we see the ...
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Ancient Greek: how worried do I need to be about "long" and "short" accents?
I've been learning for a couple of months now, from a rather ancient book, which blissfully ignores all questions of accents.
But I recently found out about them (with help from Luke Ranieri among ...
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Relationship between συμφορά and συμφέρω
A συμφορά generally means a "misfortune"; συμφέρω, however, is unambiguously positive: "to be beneficial."
It's a little strange that τὰ συμφέροντα and συμφορά are (essentially) ...
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