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Category: Ancient Greek
How did the word “gaster” come to mean “stomach” in Greek?
You mean, there’s a story there? (Checks Frisk.) Hm. Looks like there’s a story there. gastēr “belly” is likely derived from *grastēr, “something that does graō”. Graō in turn is a really, really obscure word for “gnaw, eat”, that shows up once in Callimachus, and that also turns up in Ancient Cypriot, which was an […]
How many Greek words begin with a?
It’s kind of a meaningless question, because vocabulary is productive; but to Vasiliki Baskos’ answer I will add these figures from non-Modern lexica: 19699 from the Liddell Scott lexicon, 2045 from the LSJ supplement; but LSJ does not separate out derived words very well 28405 for the DGE Diccionario Griego-Español, which includes proper names 23487 […]
In the Matrix, why is the Oracle’s message “Know Thyself” in Latin, instead of the original Greek?
Because Latin was always better known in the West than Greek. Greek proverbial expressions are almost uniformly quoted in the West in Latin; e.g. Deus ex machina, not apo mēchanēs theos; Et tu Brute, not kai sy teknon; quod erat demonstrandum, not hoper edei deixai. Gnothi seauton seems to be as prevalent as nosce te […]
What is cod-Greek?
I’ve seen other such expressions, such as cod-Latin, and cod-Spanish. Cod-Latin is a synonym of Dog Latin, a fake Latin used playfully to imitate real Latin. The Wikipedia example is Stormum surgebat et boatum oversetebatThe storm rose up and overturned the boat Illegitimis non carborundum is another such instance. (“Don’t let the bastards get you […]
What are the reasons why Apollo finally befriends Hermes?
People of Quora. Before you read this my answer, read Amy Louisa’s answer. And before you upvote my answer, upvote Amy Louisa’s answer. It would be a bad thing if you upvote the linguist over the classicist. It would be an even worse thing if you upvoted the writing of a Greek screenwriter over the […]
What is the best and most up-to date Ancient Greek-English dictionary?
Depends on your criteria. Biggest & Up to date is not English, but the now online DGE Diccionario Griego-Español . Only goes up to epsilon though, and I don’t see it finishing for another century. Biggest in English remains Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon — though the online editions don’t include the […]
Do Ancient Greek verbs in the Simple Present tense ever imply grammatical modality?
Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges : §1876 on οὗτος μὲν γὰρ ὕδωρ, ἐγὼ δ᾽ οἶνον πίνω for this man drinks water, whereas I drink wine. (habitual) ἄγει δὲ πρὸς φῶς τὴν ἀλήθειαν χρόνος “time brings the truth to light” (gnomic) “προδίδοτον τὴν Ἑλλάδα” they are trying to betray Greece (conative = attempt: […]
What is the translation of Antiochos’ script in the temple of Laodice in Nahavand, Iran?
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/314706?bookid=783&location=1659 Thank you very much, OP, for providing the link. This is in fact the same letter as that other one you provided, Can modern day Greeks understand and read ancient scriptures in ancient ruins (Like this one?) Since you’ve provided a clean transcription I don’t have to squint at, happy to do it: King […]
What did the Greeks know about India before Alexander the Great started his campaigns?
Only what was in Ctesias’ work Indica (Ctesias). The text only survives in quotations from later authors, and in a summary by Photius: Photius’ excerpt of Ctesias’ Indica It was second hand information: Ctesias worked in the Persian court, and relayed fanciful Persian notions of what India was like. Megasthenes, the first Greek author to […]
In Greek, what does the suffix -or mean?
–tōr is an agent suffix: Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges (misscanned) a. The primary suffixes τᾱ, τηρ, τορ, τρο, ευ, denoting the agent or doer of an action, are masculine. … 3. τορ (nom. -τωρ): ῥή-τωρ orator (ἐρέω shall say, ἐρ-, ῥε-), εἴ-ρη-κα have spoken, κτίσ-τωρ founder (κτίζω found, κτιδ-), σημάντωρ commander […]