Quiz-Quotes

Quiz quotations ("quiz-quotes") are brief passages — a few lines — in Greek and from ancient Greek authors, in other words, real Greek. They typically will be assigned for the same day as longer readings ("beta-readings"), therefore, one to go along with each chapter in the book. For homework, I am asking that you:

• Read the assigned quiz-quote and associated discussion (see below) — as with other assignments, be ready to read the quote out loud in class
• Write a translation of it — use translation notes supplied below
• Write down a brief comment: your course-relevant, quote-relevant thoughts about the passage in question

If you do optional outside research. . .

• Please do NOT use unvetted sites like Google or Wikipedia. Believe me, when you do, it shows
• Use instead either
  • The Oxford Classical Dictionary (PODS logon required),
  • Brill's New Pauly via Brill Online (ditto), or
  • Sources linked to below

Ch1 Quiz-Quote

γνῶθι σαὐτόν

γνῶθι σαὐτόν (gnōthi sauton, also found as γνῶθι σεαυτόν) — so instructed the inscription chisled onto the pronaos, the entry porch, of Apollo's temple at Delphi. Click here for more.

Grammar:

γνῶθι is an imperative (i.e., command form), "Know!!"

σαὐτόν is the direct object (in the accusative case), "thy/your-self" (That's not a smooth breathing over the υ of σαὐτόν. It's a contraction mark.)

Ch2 Quiz-Quote

μηδὲν ἄγαν

Commentary:

μηδέν, from

• μηδέ "not at all" (μή = as in "don't!" commands), +
• ἕν: "one (thing)," hence, ...

μηδέν = "nothing" (in commands, etc.)

ἄγαν = "too much"

Like γνῶθι σαὐτόν, μηδὲν ἄγαν was inscribed onto the pronaos of Apollo's temple at Delphi. Aristotle attributes the saying to the sage Chilo, but we see it in the poet Theognis (335) and in Pindar (fr. 216; see also Pausanias 10.24.1). To do μηδὲν ἄγαν could be described as cultivating moderation. One author (Theognis) says μηδὲν ἄγαν σπεῦδε, literally, "Do not hasten (σπεῦδε) too much," loosely, "Take your time."

This notion, which the Roman poet Horace translates as aurea mediocritas, "the golden mean" (Odes 2.10.5), seems to underlie not just ancient Greek ethics but physics as well, which can view the kosmos, the "orderly whole" that is the universe, as an equilibrium of opposed forces — "nothing in excess."

Ch3 Quiz-Quote

κοινὰ τὰ τῶν φίλων

Greek proverb quoted by, among others, Euripides (Orestes 735), Plato (Phaedrus 279c), and Aristotle ( Eudemian Ethics 1237b33, Nichomachean Ethics 1159b30). You can see below what some of our sources made of it. What do you think of that?

Among other things, this saying served as motto for a kind of 1960s-style communal life. Take, for example, the disciples of Pythagoras. Prompted by their teacher, who had declared the things of friends to be in common, and friendship to be equality (koina ta philōn einai kai philian isotēta), they deposited all their property in a common store (Timaeus FGrH 566 F 13b). Aristotle wrote that "to the extent that there exists a commonality, to that extent, there exists friendship. And rightly so. Hence the truth of the saying, κοινὰ τὰ φίλων" (Nichomachean Ethics 1159b29-31).

Grammar:

κοινὰ τὰ τῶν φίλων

Note that this is a complete sentence. The subject is, as often, marked by the article. Only there is no noun.

The sentence also lacks the verb "to be." But you should understand "to be" (Greek εἰμί, etc.) as present in the idea. The structure (not translation!) of the sentence is, "The SUBJECT IDEA of the POSSESSIVE is/are COMPLEMENT ADJECTIVE." Compare καλὸς ὁ οἶκος, "The house (subject) is (verb understood) beautiful (complement adjective)."

κοινὰ = (predicate) complement nominative neut. plur. adjective: "in common." This is the "complement" element.

τὰ = "the (things)" (nominative plur. neut. article) - note that there is no explicit noun to go with τὰ. But the number and gender of the article makes a noun unnecessary. Neuter plural things.

τῶν φίλων = gen. plur. article + gen. plural noun "of (the) friends" τὰ τῶν φίλων, "the things of friends." Note that the presence of the article marks the subject of the quote.

Ch4 Quiz-Quote

πάθει μάθος

This comes from Aeschylus' Agamemnon, line 177. It is sung by the chorus as they reflect on Zeus as the "supreme victor" in the universe: "I have nothing whereto to liken him, weighing all in the balance, nothing save Zeus" (163-165).

Vocabulary:

πάθει (dative sing.), from τὸ πάθος, τοῦ πάθους (3rd declension). "Suffering" (compare "pathology).

μάθος (take it as nominative sing., though in the larger context it turns out to be acc.). From τὸ μάθος, τοῦ μάθους (3rd declension). "Learning," "knowledge" (compare "mathematics").

Grammar:

πάθει is dative singular (3rd decl.). It's the "dative of means" - how something gets done. "With/by/through/usuing" something are ways to translate the dative of means.

μάθος is an action noun.

So an action, μάθος, accomplished by means of πάθος. Translation? Resonance?

For more on the Agamemnon, and the Oresteia, the trilogy from which the Agamemnon comes, click here.

Ch5 Quiz-Quote

ὁ βίος βραχύς, ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή

This is the opening of the Aphorisms, attributed to Hippocrates of Cos, a medical writer from about 400 BCE (we can't actually be sure which books in the Hippocratic collection are his). The quote continues: "the moment of need is acute, experience treacherous, judgment difficult."

The Aphorisms are a collection of (mostly) disconnected nuggets of wisdom, rules of thumb, etc. for use by physicians, though not necessarily without general relevance. What do you think the saying means? Can you apply it to your life?

Grammar:

Subject-complement sentence without use of the linking verb "to be."

βίος, ὁ, βίου. "life"

βραχύς = "short" (masc. sing. nom.)

τέχνη, ἡ, τέχνης. "art," "skill," "craft"

• Note Ionic dialect form μακρή (in Attic, μακρά)

Read More. . .

• Hippocrates' Aphrorisms @ The Internet Classics Archive
• On Hippocrates (s.v. [6] H. of Cos Greek physician, 2nd half 5th cent. BC"), Corpus Hippocraticum, etc. at Brill's New Pauly
• On Hippocrates @ Encyclopædia Britannica Online
• On the Hippocratic Oath @ PBS

Ch6 Quiz-Quote

νόμος μὲν πάντα κρατύνει

Hippocrates On Seed 1.

Vocabulary:

νόμος, ὁ, -ου. "Law"

πάντα. "Everything" (neut. acc. plur. adjective used as quasi-pronoun)

κρατύνω. "I rule."

Discussion:

This prefaces the Hippocratic treatise on conception: Peri spermatos, or On Seed. The treatise's opening sentence, and the treatise as a whole, reflect what Thomas Kuhn would call a "paradigm shift," what is sometimes thought of as the "intellectual revolution" of 5th century BCE Greek scientific thought. No longer is it assumed that everything happens by virtue of this or that god. Intellectuals are now beginning to assign causality to something they call "nature" (phusis, from phuein, "to grow"; compare Latin natura, English "physics"), meaning the organizing principal that structures the universe and its processes. So, for instance, in the Hippocratic treatise on epilepsy (On the Sacred Disease), the author denies that epilepsy is caused by divine possession. Still, that leaves ample scope for culturally dertermined assumtions like those we seem to encounter in the On Seed.

Ch7 Quiz-Quote

πολλὰ τὰ δεινὰ κοὐδὲν ἀν- | θρώπου δεινότερον πέλει

Sophocles Antigone 332-333

Vocab-Grammar Commentary:

πολλὰ τὰ δεινά. Take this as a complete thought, a sentence. Mentally add an implied ἐστί. Understand the word δεινά, technically an adjective (check Athenaze "English to Greek Vocabulary"), here as if a noun, the subject of sentence. But we've been working on how to make adjective phrases like this (article plus adjective, e.g., τὸ καλόν) into noun phrases (τὸ καλόν: "the beautiful thing," "that which is beautiful").

• So, what is the gender of δεινά? What number?
• Understand πολλά (adjective) as complement

κοὐδέν = καὶ οὐδέν. (That's not a smooth breathing over the υ of κοὐδέν. It's a contraction mark.)

ἀνθρώπου = "than a person/human being" (the "genitive of comparison"). ἀν- | θρώπου — there's a line break within the word. (This is poetry.)

δεινότερον = "more δεινόν."

πέλει = ἐστι.

This is the start of the famous polla ta deina chorus in Sophocles' Antigone. The chorus goes on to enumerate the achievements of the human intellect: seafaring, agriculture, architecture, medicine - these things set us apart from the beasts. But despite all this, human beings "sometimes embark on good, sometimes on evil" - they've conquered the world around them, but not their own natures. Human beings are, the chorus says, a thing deinon, but which of that word's meanings apply? (δεινός = both "terrible" and "remarkable") Does Hamlet seem to be saying something similar?

"What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?" (Shakespeare Hamlet Act I Scene II).

Ch8 Quiz-Quote

Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ | πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσε.

Homer Odyssey book 1 lines 1-2. Try translating using vocabulary below:

See links to Greg Nagy on oral poetry and Homer:

• Homeric Questions. Chapter 1. "Homer and Questions of Oral Poetry"
• "Oral Poetics and Homeric Poetry"

Ch9 Quiz-Quote

εἶναι δὲ γλυκὺν ὧδε φίλοις, ἐχθροῖσι δὲ πικρόν

Solon fragment 13 line 5. This quote comes from the poetry of Solon (fr. 13.5), Athenian statesman and archon in 594/3 BCE. Having just prayed to the Muses for fame and fortune won honestly, Solon says, ... what??

For Solon, see the CIV reading for chapter 8.

In praying this way, he is echoing what turns out to be the chief moral dictum of ancient Greek popular morality.

Grammar:

Ch10 Quiz-Quote

πολλὰ πιὼν καὶ πολλὰ φαγὼν καὶ πολλὰ κακ᾽ εἰπὼν | ἀνθρώπους κεῖμαι, Τιμοκρέων Ῥόδιος.

Simonides Epigrams 7.348 (from the Greek Anthology). Epitaph for a poet.....

I'm asking you to provide both a literal and an idiomatically colorful free translation. (How do you read the mood of this epitaph?)

Commentary

You'll find here a string of "aorist" (fancy word for past-tense) participles. They look a little like present participles, but have different stems: πίνω means I drink, πιών means having drunk.

The important thing isn't yet to learn how to form these aorist participles (the term "aorist" for a verb tense isd an unfortunate invention of the Stoic school of philosophy). Just to know for now that πιών means "having drunk" and so on for the rest.

The following should help with that....

Simonides Simonides of Ceos (556-468) was a lyric and elegiac poet of international fame. The lines quoted above are his (probably unsollicited) submission for an epitaph for Timocreon of Rhodes - poet and a friend of the Persians during the Persian Wars. (Simonides is known to have criticized his poetry.)

Poetic meter, grammar, vocabulary These lines consitute an elegiac couplet, a standard meter for epitaph. As for grammar and vocabulary, pion ("having drunk"), phagon ("having eaten"), and eipon ("having said") are "second" aorist (i.e., past tense) active participles, similar in form to present active participles. polla kaka and anthropous are both direct objects of the same participle: eipon. keimai ("I lie") is intransitive middle-passive.