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Category: Ancient Greek
Why are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd declensions called this way?
The Ancient Greek (Roman-era) grammarians, Dionysius Thrax and Aelius Herodianus, were giants that we are in debt of for a lot of our understanding of grammar, and traditional grammar comes from them. But they did not quite get declensions. They certainly did not get the number of declensions in Greek down to something manageable. We […]
What is the difference between η and ᾱ in classical Greek (first declension FEM nouns)?
Dialectal. To clarify, the question is about the nominative singular ending of first declension feminine nouns. Some of those nouns end in a short -ă, and they’re accented accordingly on the antepenult: thálassa “sea”. The remainder end in either a long -ā or a long -ē. The difference in Classical Greek is a matter of […]
Where does the Greek quote “βίᾳ ἤρχεσαν οἱ τριάκοντα τῶν Ἀθηναίων και τὸν δῆμον ἤδη κατελελύκεσαν” come from?
The quote as given does not appear in the Ancient canon, or even the Mediaeval canon. Nor in fact does the phrase βίᾳ ἤρχεσαν “they had ruled with force”. The phrase is a little odd; it’s very much a tendentious summary of what happened in Athens with the Thirty Tyrants, which would be out of […]
Why was Heracles named after Hera, when his real mother was Alcmene?
The in-universe explanation (to treat Greek mythology like fantasy fiction, and that’s not that absurd really) is He was renamed Heracles [“glory of Hera”] in an unsuccessful attempt to mollify Hera. (Heracles – Wikipedia) Stepping behind the curtain, in his monograph on Greek religion (p. 322), Walter Burkert says the name might be a coincidence; […]
Why were the Ionian Greeks called the Ionians Greeks when the Sea of Ionia is on the other side of Greece?
To elaborate on Niko Vasileas’ answer and Michael Anderson’s answer: Nominative Iōn, Genitive Iōn-os, Adjective Iōn-ikos or Iōn-ios refers to the tribe of Ionians. Adjective Iŏn-ios refers to the sea, and is traditionally derived from the lover of Zeus, Io (mythology): Nominative Iō, Genitive Ious < *Iŏ-os. Io, transformed into a cow, is supposed to […]
What was Socrates’ original word for marrying?
Did Socrates really say “if you get a bad wife, you’ll become a philosopher” in any original texts like Plato’s or Xenophon’s dialogue? Two sources named: John Uebersax’s answer to Did Socrates really say “if you get a bad wife, you’ll become a philosopher” in any original texts like Plato’s or Xenophon’s dialogue? Diogenes Laertius, […]
Are Ancient Greek ο declension masculine and α feminine the most perfect declensions?
Fascinating question. I mean, adjectives and nouns have declensions, and so do articles and pronouns. If an article is going to have a declension, better it have a declension that’s strongly associated with genders (since gender signalling is a core function of adjectives), than the third declension, which did not differentiate masculines and feminines. The […]
Could I just treat Ancient Greek adjectives like nouns?
Historically, the distinction between adjectives and nouns is a fairly recent one—not entrenched before the 18th century. The classical grammars referred to nominals, which included adjectives and nouns. In addition, Greek, unlike English but like many other languages, can routinely use adjectives on their own without a noun. In fact, neuter adjectives were how Classical […]
What did Socrates mean when he said, “The unexamined life is not worth living”?
Not quite “not worth living”. The Greek is more absolute than that. I’ve been feeling guilty about Nick Nicholas’ answer to Since the active and middle voices of the 2nd aorist forms of “to stand” are intransitive (ἵστημι – ἔστην vs ἐστάμην), are these forms synonymous?, where I basically dismissed nuance in Ancient Greek as […]
Have the Eclogues and Florilegium of Stobaeus been translated into English?
To confirm what Alberto Yagos said: The best Princeton’s database of Byzantine translations has is Iamblichus’ Life of Pythagoras, or, Pythagoric life, which includes some sentences by Stobaeus. Here’s some bits translated online: The Gentle Exit ” Stobaeus Extracts Sentences and Precepts. By bits, I mean one paragraph. Here’s Roger Pearse, Patristic blogger, asking the […]