List of Greek Phrases / Alpha
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Ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν.
- Ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν.
- Agapate tous echthrous hymōn.
- "Love your enemies!"
Commandment to love one's enemy according to the New Testament. It appears in the context of a text unit that belongs to the mountain speech ( Mt 5-7 EU ) or field speech ( Lk 6 EU ):
- Gospel according to Matthew (5.43-48 EU ): “44 But I say to you: Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who offend and persecute you, 45 so that you can Become sons of your Heavenly Father; for he makes his sun rise on the wicked and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust. "
- Gospel according to Luke (6.27.32-36 EU ): "27 To you who listen to me, I say: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you: You will be children of your Father in heaven."
Ἀγεωμέτρητος μηδεὶς εἰσίτω.
- Ἀγεωμέτρητος μηδεὶς εἰσίτω.
- Ageōmetrētos mēdeis eisitō.
- "Nobody should enter without knowledge of the geometry."
Alleged inscription above the entrance to Plato's Academy based on the testimony of the Neoplatonists . It was important to Plato that his students study geometry because geometry in particular seemed to open up access to the 'realm of ideas', because for him geometry not only dealt with 'real' triangles, squares or circles, etc. - but also with ideals , imaginary figures. Geometry was important to him because he wanted to make it clear that there really had to be a heaven of ideas .
Classes in Plato's Academy were free and the school members saw themselves as a community. In this, and in the strong emphasis on mathematics, there was probably a Pythagorean influence; Plato had got to know the Pythagorean concept of a study and living community in southern Italy, which he then implemented in Athens.
Plato's academy is represented in Raphael's fresco The School of Athens , which glorifies it as the origin of European culture.
Άγιον Όρος
- Άγιον Όρος
Agion Oros
- "Sacred mountain"
Holy Mount Athos ( Άθως ) is an Orthodox monastic republic with autonomous status under Greek sovereignty. The full name is Αυτόνομη Μοναστική Πολιτεία Άγιον Όρος ( Aftonomi Monastiki Politia Agion Oros - Autonomous Monastic Republic of the Holy Mountain ).
Athos is reserved for the chief saint of the Orthodox Church, Mary ; Therefore it has the name το Περιβόλι της Παναγίας ( to perivóli tis Panagías - the garden of the Mother of God ).
Access to Mount Athos is strictly forbidden to women (and to a large extent also to female animals):
"Woman is cast out of this paradise so that man does not lose that paradise."
Ἀγνώστῳ Θεῷ.
- Ἀγνώστῳ Θεῷ
- Agnosto Theo
- Τῷ ἀγνώστῳ Θεῷ.
- Tō agnostō Theō
- "To the unknown god"
This is a quote from a speech given by the Apostle Paul on the Areopagus , in which he expresses his astonishment that he found an altar for the " unknown God " in Athens :
"Διερχόμενος γὰρ καὶ ἀναθεωρῶν τὰ σεβάσματα ὑμῶν εὗρον καὶ βωμόν ἐν ᾧ ἐπεγέγραπτο ἀγνώστῳ θεῷ ὃ οὖν ἀγνοοῦντες εὐσεβεῖτε τοῦτο ἐγὼ καταγγέλλω ὑμῖν"
“Continuously and looking at your cult customs, I also found an altar on which it was written: To the unknown God. So what you piously worship ignorantly, I proclaim to you. "
Paul interpreted the inscription as evidence of the heathen foreshadowing the true God and thus rejected the claim to introduce foreign gods. When the Athenians heard of the resurrection of the dead, some of them openly mocked, others were more polite and went away saying they would hear more about it another time.
The premonition of the deity, which cannot be clearly defined by a name, already speaks from a choir song by the tragedy poet Aeschylus :
- "Zeus, whoever he is, if he likes to be called like that, that's what I call him."
To the Unknown God is the title of a poem by Friedrich Nietzsche that ends with the following verses:
I want to know you, stranger,
you gripping deep into my soul,
my life like a storm
wandering through, you incomprehensible, relative to me!
I want to know you, even serve you.
ἄγραφος νόμος
- ἄγραφος νόμος
- agraphos nomos
- "unwritten law"
An unwritten law is a generally recognized law that is not documented in writing. The term is first attested in a Solonic law. Man-made law presupposes the given order as unwritten law. Customs, traditions and customs also belong to this unwritten law. The Romans, on the other hand, saw both separately: the laws are leges , mores the behavior corresponding to tradition.
In the tragedy of King Oedipus des Sophocles it says in a choral song about the primary obligation of these pre-state laws: “May the fate be granted to me to bring up the venerable purity in all speeches and deeds, the laws of which are there, come from above, in high heaven born whose father is only Olympos , and the mortal male nature did not create them and never forgetting will ever extinguish them, a great God is in them and he does not age. "
Rudolf Hirzel asks whether an unwritten law is a law that was not recorded at all or was not included in the codification of the new law.
Flavius Josephus accuses the Greeks:
“Wasn't even the name νόμος [= nomos] for law known to the Greeks from ancient times, as is evident from the fact that Homer does not use the word in any of his poems. In his day there was nothing like that, but the masses were directed according to vague opinions and by the orders of the king. That is why for a long time only unwritten origins were valid, many of which were changed again depending on [ the ] circumstances. "
The last sentence seems to refer to the long oral case law. Of course, Josephus might be wrong about Homer , because in his day there were laws and the term nomos , but not at the time of the Trojan War.
Ἀεὶ Λιβύη φέρει τι καινόν.
- Ἀεὶ Λιβύη φέρει τι καινόν.
- Aei Libyē pherei ti kainon.
- "Libya always brings something new."
- Ἀεὶ Λιβύη φέρει τι κακόν.
- Aei Libyē pherei ti kakon.
- "Libya always brings something bad."
Quote from Aristotle 's Historia Animalium , in which Libya stands for Africa. In Latin it says with Pliny the Elder :
- " Ex Africa semper aliquid novi "
- "Always something new from Africa."
Pliny was referring to the Roman province of Africa , not the continent that is called today , which was also not identical with the Libya region referred to by Aristotle .
Aristotle declared that the animals of Asia were the wildest, those of Europe the most fearless, and those of Libya the most diverse:
"Because the lack of water brings many different animals together at the drinking points, where they mate and father young."
Ἀεὶ κολοιὸς παρὰ κολοιῷ ἱζάνει.
- Ἀεὶ κολοιὸς παρὰ κολοιῷ ἱζάνει.
- Aei koloios para koloiō hizanei.
- "With a jackdaw there is always a jackdaw."
The German version of this proverb is: “ Gleich und Gleich like to join. “ Plato writes in the fourth book of his Politeia :
- “ Isn't it like this: like to join in the same way? "
In his dialogue with Phaedrus , Plato had Socrates say:
- " Ἥλικα […] δὴ καὶ ὁ παλαιὸς λόγος τέρπειν τὸν ἥλικα · "
- “ As the old saying goes, peers delight their peers. "
- Latin: “ Similis simili gaudet. "(" The like takes pleasure in the like. ")
Ἀεὶ ὁ θεὸς ὁ μέγας γεωμετρεῖ τὸ σύμπαν.
- Ἀεὶ ὁ θεὸς ὁ μέγας γεωμετρεῖ τὸ σύμπαν.
- Aei ho theos ho megas geōmetrei to sympan.
- "The great God always applies geometry to everything."
Mnemonic memory verse for the first seven digits of the mathematical constant Pi :
| Ἀεὶ | ὁ | θεός | ὁ | μέγας | γεωμετρεῖ | τὸ | σύμπαν |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | 4th | 1 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 6th |
| 3 letters | 1 letter | 4 letters | 1 letter | 5 letters | 9 letters | 2 letters | 6 letters |
This memorial verse goes back to a statement by Plato :
- " Ἀεὶ ὁ θεὸς γεωμετρεῖ. "(" God always practices geometry. ")
The Greek Nikolaos Hadjidakis formed the following verses from this in 1924:
Αεί ο Θεός ο Μέγας γεωμετρεί,
το κύκλου μήκος ίνα ορίση διαμέτρω,
παρήγαγεν αριθμόν απέραντον,
καί όν, φεύ, ουδέποτε όλον θνητοί θα εύρωσι.
The great God, who always practices geometry,
To determine the length of the circle by its diameter, created
an infinite number,
Whose wholeness, alas, mortals will
never discover.
Ἀετοῦ γῆρας, κορυδοῦ νεότης.
- Ἀετοῦ γῆρας, κορυδοῦ νεότης.
- Aetou gēras, korydou neotēs.
- "The age of an eagle is worth the youth of a crested lark."
In this Zenobios quote (2.38), the crested lark , a small bird similar to a sparrow, is often replaced by a sparrow for reasons of better understanding .
Αἱ γυναῖκες ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις σιγάτωσαν.
- Αἱ γυναῖκες ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις σιγάτωσαν.
- Hai gynaikes en tais ekklēsiais sigatōsan.
- "The women should be silent in the meetings"
This is a controversial sentence from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians , which is in the following context:
“ 34 [Your] wives should be silent in the meetings, because they are not allowed to speak, but to be submissive, as the law also says. Let a woman learn in silence in all submission. To the woman he said, I will greatly increase the toil of your pregnancy; you shall bear children with pain; and your desire will be for your husband, but he will rule over you.
35 But if they want to learn anything, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the congregation. "
In Latin this statement is mostly quoted in the singular:
- Mulier taceat in ecclesia.
- "The woman be silent in the community."
More correct would be:
- Mulieres in ecclesiis taceant.
The German theologian Hans Achelis writes:
“The phrase mulier taceat in ecclesia hardly applied anywhere in church. They exercised all the rights reserved for the spiritually gifted: they taught, baptized, offered the Eucharist, forgave sins. There have certainly been many churches that were ruled by only one woman or women. "
However, he concludes that there is no evidence for this and states that the higher levels were occupied by men.
αἱ Ἡράκλειοι στῆλαι
- αἱ Ἡράκλειοι στῆλαι
- Hai Hērakleioi stēlai
- " The pillars of Heracles "
In ancient times, the Pillars of Heracles were the rock of Gibraltar in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and the mountain Jebel Musa in Morocco.
The Phoenicians called the two promontories that border the Mediterranean Sea, after their sun god, "Pillars of Melkart ". Melkart was later replaced by Heracles by the Greeks . The Greeks believed that this strait would form the end of the world and was once established by Heracles. So it is those pillars that support the sky, that is, of the Titan Atlas , whom Heracles sought out to receive the apples of the Hesperides . But for this he had to briefly relieve the atlas of its burden.
Gustav Schwab retells this story in his legends of classical antiquity as follows:
“Prometheus had advised the demigod not to subject himself to the robbery of the golden fruits, but to send the Atlas to this catch. He himself offered to take on the carrying of heaven for as long as this. Atlas testified willingly, and Heracles put his mighty shoulders under the vault of heaven.
The latter, on the other hand, got up, put the dragon curled around the tree to sleep and killed him, outsmarted the guardians and happily came to Heracles with three apples which he had picked. 'But,' he said, 'my shoulders have felt what it tastes like when the brazen sky does not weigh down on them. I don't want to wear it again in the future. ' So he threw the apples in front of the demigod on the lawn and left him with the unfamiliar, unbearable burden.
Heracles had to devise a ruse to get away. 'Let me,' he said to the sky-bearer, 'just wind a wad of ropes around my head, so that the terrible burden doesn't burst my brain.' Atlas found the demand cheap and, in his opinion, for a few moments, returned to heaven. But he could wait a long time for Heracles to take his place, and the deceiver became the deceived. Because he had hardly picked up the apples from the lawn when he ran away with the golden fruits. "
Non plus ultra (“No more”) is the Latin translation of the saying that Heracles affixed to the pillars of Heracles to mark the end of the world in this place.
αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν
- αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν
- aien aristeuein
- "Always be the best"
With these words, King Hippolochus admonished his son Glaucus in the Iliad when he was sent to the Trojan War :
- αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν καὶ ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι ἄλλων
- "To always be the first and to strive ahead of others."
This idiom is a characteristic of Greek antiquity, which the Swiss cultural historian Jacob Burckhardt described as an agonal principle .
When the Trojans stormed the fortifications of the Greeks, Glaucus and Sarpedon were the first on the wall parapet.
Agôn is the Greek word for competition, and competition was evident in all areas. Hardly any religious festival could do without a sporting competition. The arts were also competed. So called Herodotus some Callicrates as the finest soldiers in the Battle of Plataea . Even war could take such forms:
- “The victor erects the tropaion on the battlefield (the turning mark, the place where the opponent was forced to retreat), but made of wood. The victory should not perpetuate the situation. "
What was the motivation?
- "In victory lies the happiness of the fulfilled moment; it contrasts the impermanence of man with the imperishability of fame."
Today, the phrase serves as the motto of the Scottish University of St Andrews and Boston College , which has this motto in its coat of arms and translated into English with Ever to Excel .
Αἰθίοπα σμήχεις.
- Αἰθίοπα σμήχεις.
- Aithiopa smēcheis
- "You wash an Ethiopian." (Literally: "You rub / wipe an Ethiopian.")
- "Ethiopem lavas."
This saying with the meaning " You are trying to wash a Moor white " was passed down by the satirist Lukian of Samosata . It means something like "You are trying something impossible":
- “Say why are you washing your dark Indian body for free?
Leave your troubles! You never turn night into day. "
Erasmus von Rotterdam writes under the headline Moor wash :
“A Moor does not know. That is the common expression for the fact that someone will not change his being after all. Because what is innate cannot be changed that easily. "
The idiom goes back to a fable of Aesops , in which the story of a man who bought an Ethiopian slave and because he believed the dark color was the result of the negligence of the previous owner, washed and rubbed his face until it did was sore.
The quote collector Georg Büchmann writes in his Winged Words :
- “On Jeremiah 13:23 : 'Can a Moor also change its skin, or a leopard its spots?' is based:
Mohr wash, wash a Mohr white. "
The term Ethiopians ( αἰθίοψ aithiops ) to " Fire Face " ( αἴθειν aíthein , burn 'and ὤψ OPS , face') mean and the legend of Phaethon remember that caused by his crash with the Sun Chariot a world conflagration:
At that time, it is believed, the blood of Ethiopia entered the peoples'
deepest skin and brought the dark color.
Αἰθίοπές τε θεοὺς σφετέρους σιμοὺς μέλανάς τε.
- Αἰθίοπές τε θεοὺς σφετέρους σιμοὺς μέλανάς τε.
- Aithiopes te theous spheterous simous melanas te.
- "The Ethiopians say their gods are blunt-nosed and black."
Quote from the writings of the philosopher and poet Xenophanes , who wrote analytically and satirically about the human resemblance of the Greek gods. According to him, it was not the gods who made man, but man who made gods:
- "If the horses had gods, they would look like horses."
The following should be added to the above quote:
- " Θρῆικές τε γλαυκοὺς καὶ πυρρούς φασι πέλεσθαι. "
- "The Thracians claim that theirs have light blue eyes and red hair."
Ἀκαδημίηθεν ἥκεις.
- Ἀκαδημίηθεν ἥκεις.
- Akadēmiēthen hēkeis.
- "You come from the academy?"
- Narrated in the collection of proverbs ( Συναγωγὴ παροιμιῶν ) of Michael Apostolios .
- The humanist Erasmus von Rotterdam writes in his collection of proverbs Adagia :
- “What is meant is a serious, sedate personality or a scholar. That goes back to the school of Plato. But, turned ironically, it can also be said of a conceited person who gives himself the impression of a philosopher through emphatically serious demeanor. "
According to Erasmus, the expression referred to sleek and remarkably well-dressed people who, like the philosopher Plato , attached great importance to a well-groomed appearance.
Plato was also known for fighting laughter. He declares it harmful as it distracts from more important things. His pupil Aristotle at least stated that humans are "the only one who can laugh out of all creatures" and saw it as a means of cathartic discharge of tension.
ἀκίνητος κινῶν
- ἀκίνητος κινῶν
- akinētos kinōn
- "Immobile mover"
Concept of God from ancient philosophy. The causal proof of God assumes that everything that exists in this world is contingent. Since the series of causes cannot be continued indefinitely, a first non-contingent cause ( causa prima ) must exist.
With his metaphysical question about the prima causa (Latin "first cause"), Aristotle criticizes both the common natural religion, which believes in a multitude of gods similar to humans, and the mechanistic and atomistic worldview that does not do justice to the variety of phenomena. His concept of the necessary, but transcendent "first unmoved mover" ( πρῶτον κινοῦν ἀκίνητον ) as the world ground criticizes all original ideas that think of the divine as part of the world.
Άκουσε πολλά και λέγε λίγα.
- Άκουσε πολλά και λέγε λίγα.
- Akouse polla ke lege league.
- "Listen to a lot, say little."
This modern Greek saying is similar to another saying:
- Ακου πολλά, μίλα τα απαραίτητα.
- Aku pollá, míla ta aparétita.
- "Hear a lot and only say what is necessary."
A Babylonian king asked a philosopher how he could rule calmly and got the answer:
- "If you only believe a few!"
The philosopher Demonax replied to someone who asked him how he could manage a province well:
- "When you hear a lot while you say a little!"
Ἀλκυονίδες ἡμέραι
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- Ἀλκυονίδες ἡμέραι
- Alkyonídes hēmérai
- different Attic form: Ἁλκυονίδες ἡμέραι Halkyonídes hēmérai
- " (H) Alkyonic Days "
In ancient Greece, this expression referred to a period of fourteen days in December around the winter solstice when the sea is completely calm. The name is related to the myth of Alkyone and Keyx . One day Keyx was forced to leave his wife to go to the oracle. As feared, the ship sank. Alkyone no longer wanted to live and wanted to drown himself in the sea. But the gods were gracious and turned her into a kingfisher (Greek ἀλκυών alkyon , Attic form: ἁλκυών halkyon ). As she threw herself on her husband's dead body, she found that he too had become a bird.
Since Alkyone was the daughter of the wind god, the kingfisher granted the female kingfisher a fortnight of calm during the breeding season in December. As soon as the offspring hatch, the sea becomes restless again. Hence the saying "alkyonic days" for a quiet interlude in turbulent times.
In this sense, Nietzsche's favorite word halcyonically means something like 'soulfully perfect'. The style in which Also Spoke Zarathustra is written is called halcyon . People who are not "capable and worthy of the same pathos" are excluded from the start:
"Above all, you have to hear the tone that comes out of this mouth correctly, this halcyon tone, in order not to do a pitiful injustice to the sense of his wisdom."
Manfred Schneider's essay Halcyon Tones. Nietzsche the language artist begins with the following words:
“Halcyon is the name of a main entry in Nietzsche's lexicon of euphoric words. It is a symbol of bliss, formed at the same time mythically and musically, saturated with clarity, calm and time that has been stopped. "
ἄλφα καὶ ὦ
- ἄλφα καὶ ὦ
- alpha kai ō
- " Alpha and Omega "
The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet are the epitome of beginning and end. This term occurs in the Revelation of John 22:13: in the following form:
- Ἐγὼ τὸ ἄλφα καὶ τὸ ὦ, ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος .
In the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, the Greek letters are in the middle of the Latin text:
- Ego sum α et ω principium et finis.
- "I am the alpha and omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
The author of the Mystery of Letters explains by way of introduction that he would have become aware of the mystery of the Greek alphabet while studying the Revelation of John through the phrase "I am the Alpha and the Omega" repeated three times . Through an intense prayer for enlightenment, he was transferred to Mount Sinai , where he received a revelation about the secret messages of the letters, which he now wants to pass on to his readers.
In the Advent song In dulci jubilo , "you are the alpha and omega" is sung in Latin at the end of the first stanza:
In dulci jubilo ,
now sing and be happy!
The bliss of our hearts leads
in præsepio
and shines as the sun
matris in gremio .
|: Alpha O et it . : |
ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ
- ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ
- amnos tou Theou
- " Lamb of God "
The Lamb of God has been a symbol for Jesus Christ that has been widespread in Christianity since ancient times. As an Easter lamb , marked with the victory flag, it is a symbol of his resurrection.
This idea relates to the lamb as a sacrificial animal in the Old Testament, especially to the Passover lambs, whose blood was painted on the doorposts on the night of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt at the command of God as a protective symbol before the Angel of Death.
The third song of the servant of God in the prophet Isaiah is also connected with the lamb symbolism, where it says of the servant of God:
- “He was mistreated and depressed, but he didn't open his mouth. Like a lamb brought to slaughter, and like a sheep in the face of its clippers, he did not open his mouth either. "
In the New Testament in particular, the Lamb of God symbolism plays a special role. At two points of the Gospel of John has John the Baptist to Jesus Christ with the words out:
- "See, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
According to the Gospel of John, the crucifixion of Jesus took place at the moment when the Passover lambs were slaughtered.
Ἀνάγκᾳ δ᾿ οὐδὲ θεοὶ μάχονται.
- Ἀνάγκᾳ δ᾿ οὐδὲ θεοὶ μάχονται.
- Anangkā d'oude theoi machontai.
- "Even the gods don't struggle with necessity."
Quote from the works of the poet Simonides von Keos , which became a proverb. The following modern Greek proverb should also be seen in this context:
- Ανάγκᾳ κα θεοὶ πείθονται.
- "The gods also obey necessity."
As a justification for the rebuke against the tyrant Pittakos , Plato says:
“So violently and through the whole song he fails against the saying of the pittacus. “Therefore I praise and love everyone who does nothing bad, of free choice; but even gods do not resist necessity ”. Again, this is said against the same thing. For Simonides was not so well informed that he had said that he praised those who do nothing bad of free choice, as if there were those who did bad of free choice. At least I believe this, that no wise man is of the opinion that any person is absent from free choice, or accomplishes something bad and bad of free choice, but they know well that all who do evil and bad do it involuntarily. "
Ἀναγκαίην φασὶ εἶναι τὸν ὀφείλοντα καί τι ψεῦδος λέγειν.
- Ἀναγκαίην φασὶ εἶναι τὸν ὀφείλοντα καί τι ψεῦδος λέγειν.
- Anankaiēn phasi einai ton opheilonta kai ti pseudos legein.
- "Anyone who is in debt must necessarily lie."
Quote from the Histories of Herodotus . The historian Herodotus wrote about the peculiarities of the Persians :
“What they are forbidden to do, they are not allowed to speak. The most dishonorable thing about them is lying. In second place is getting into debt, which for many reasons, but especially because, in their opinion, a debtor is necessarily able to lie. "
ἀναγκαῖον κακόν
- ἀναγκαῖον κακόν
- anangkaion kakon
- "necessary evil"
- "Necessarium malum"
The humanist Erasmus von Rotterdam writes about this in his collection of proverbs Adagia :
"This means people who can hardly be done without because in some things one is dependent on their services, but also cannot be tolerated well because they are villains."
Erasmus attributes this expression to a certain Hybreas:
“When Euthydamos had built himself up a kind of tyranny, but on the other hand was quite useful for the city in many respects, so that the advantages and disadvantages were more or less balanced, the rhetor Hybreas said in a speech about him: You are one for our city necessary evil, because we cannot live with you, but neither can we without you. "
The Roman Emperor Alexander Severus called the tax officials a necessary evil, which he originally wanted to abolish, but he came to the conclusion that this could not be done without harm to the state.
Erasmus mentions another necessary evil, the deceiver Publius Cornelius Ruffinus, who is said to have been an excellent general. Fabricius Luscinus said of him that he would rather allow himself to be exploited by him than sold into slavery by the enemy. It can also be applied to wives; because life with them is not pleasant, but without them a state cannot exist.
Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα ...
- Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα ...
- Ạndra moi ẹnnepe, Moụsa ...
- "Tell me, muse , the man ..."
Beginning of the first verse of Homer's Odyssey , which tells in 12,200 hexameter verses how Odysseus , king of the island of Ithaca, wandered around for another ten years after ten years of war. After many adventures, he finally returns home unrecognized as a beggar and finds his house full of suitors who are squandering his property.
With the invocation of the muse begins - after Homer's Iliad - the oldest poetry in Western literature:
Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσε ·
πολλῶν δ 'ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω,
πολλὰ δ' ὅ γ 'ἐν πόντῳ πάθεν ἄλγεα ὃν κάτα θυμόν,
ἀρνύμενος ἥν τε ψυχὴν καὶ νόστον ἑταίρων .
Ạndra moi ẹnnepe, Moụsa, polỵtropon, họs mala pọlla
plạnchthē, epeị Troiẹ̄s hierọn ptoliẹthron epẹrse;
pọllōn d'ạnthrōpọ̄n iden ạstea kaị noon ẹgnō,
pọlla d 'ho g' ẹn pontọ̄ pathen ạlgea họn kata thỵmon,
ạrnymenọs hēn tẹ psychẹ̄n kai nọston hetaịrōn.
In the translation by Johann Heinrich Voss from 1781, the opening verses of the Odyssey read as follows:
Tell me, muse, the deeds of the well-traveled man, who went
so far wrong after the destruction of the holy Troy, saw
many people's cities and learned customs,
and endured so many unspeakable sufferings on the sea,
to save his soul and return his friends.
ἀνδραγαθία
- ἀνδραγαθία
- andragathía
- "Valor and Virtue"
This name of the Calabrian mafia organization 'Ndrangheta is probably a contraction of two Greek words ἀνδρεια andreia (' bravery ') and ἀγαθία agathia (' virtue ') and comes from the Greek dialect Griko, which is spoken in parts of southern Italy .
The members of the 'Ndrangheta are all related by blood.
Ανδρέα ζης, εσύ μας οδηγείς!
- Ανδρέα ζης, εσύ μας οδηγείς!
- Andrea, zis! Esi mas odigis!
- “Andreas, you are still alive! You lead us! "
Andreas Papandreou was arrested, imprisoned and tortured in 1939 by the dictatorship established by Ioannis Metaxas in 1936 , but was later released and was able to leave the country. Papandreou returned to Greece in 1959. In 1963, his father Georgios Papandreou was elected Prime Minister. Andreas Papandreou became the chief economic advisor. He renounced his US citizenship and was elected to parliament in 1964. He was immediately appointed First Minister of State.
His son Georgios Andrea Papandreou was elected chairman of the PASOK (All Greek Socialist Movement) in 2004. In the 2004 elections, the socialists used Papandreou's legacy with this slogan. Nevertheless, PASOK was defeated by the young chairman of the New Democracy , Kostas Karamanlis .
Ἀνέγνων, ἔγνων, κατέγνων.
- Ἀνέγνων, ἔγνων, κατέγνων.
- Anegnōn, egnōn kategnōn.
- "I read, I understood, I rejected."
Words from a letter from the Roman emperor Julian to the leading bishops, with which he rejected Christian doctrine. As the late ancient church historian Sozomenos reports, the bishops replied:
- “ You have read, but not understood; because if you had understood you would not have rejected it. "
Julian's verdict is obviously Caesar's famous saying Ἦλθον, εἶδον, ἐνίκησα. ( Veni vidi vici ) reproduced.
The brief reign of Julian gained importance through his attempt to push back Christianity , which was privileged by Constantine the Great, in favor of the Roman, but especially the Greek, religion and the Eastern mystery cults. Julian was brought up in an Arian-Christian manner, but he also read the writings of the pagan rhetoric teacher Libanios , who was to write his eulogy in 363.
Julian had all of the bishops banished by his predecessor called back from exile in order to stir up internal disputes in the church. Ammianus reports that Julian had the leaders of the hostile sects, whose arguments he knew and mocked, summoned to his palace to enjoy the spectacle of their quarrels.
Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος.
- Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος.
- Anerriphthō kybos.
- "The dice should be thrown."
- "Alea iacta est (o)."
This saying is mostly used with “ The die has been cast! " translated. The often quoted Latin version is Alea iacta est .
On January 10, 49 BC Julius Caesar appears on the Rubicon , the border river to the demilitarized zone around Rome, which no Roman general with his troops was allowed to approach and initially said:
- “ We can still go back; when we cross this little bridge everything will be done with weapons. "
While he was still undecided, a shepherd came, snatched the trumpet from a soldier, crossed the river and sounded the alarm. Caesar then said:
- “ That is where the path leads, where the signs of the gods and the atrocities of the enemy call. The die is thrown. "
In his biography of Pompey, Plutarch reports that Casar's saying was in Greek:
- " Ἑλληνιστὶ πρὸς τοὺς παρόντας ἐκβοήσας, Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος, διεβίβαζε τὸν στρατόν. "
- “ He spoke to those present in a loud voice in Greek, 'Throw up the dice,' and led the army across. "
According to Atheneus von Naukratis , this sentence originally came from the comedy poet Menander . There it says on the subject of marriage:
- Οὐ γαμεῖς, ἂν νοῦν ἔχῃς […]. Δεδογμένον τὸ πρᾶγμ '· ἀνερρίφθω κύβος.
- Ou gameis, an noun echēs […]. Dedogmenon to pragm '. Ἀnerriphthō kybos.
- “ If you have sense, you will not marry [...]. The matter remains to be seen. Throw the dice! "
Ἄνθρωπον ζητῶ.
- Ἄνθρωπον ζητῶ.
- Anthrōpon zētō.
- "I'm looking for someone."
This is what the misanthropist Diogenes of Sinope called out when he was walking across the market square in broad daylight with a lantern in hand and was asked what he was looking for. He further said:
- “ I called people, not scum. "( Ἄνθρώπους ἐκάλεσα, οὐ καθάρματα. )
The 18th century French writer Nicolas Chamfort wrote about this behavior of Diogenes:
“A witty man is lost if he is not also a man of energetic character. If one has the lantern of Diogenes, one must also have Diogenes's stick. "
And Chamfort further stated:
"If Diogenes lived in our time, his lantern would have to be a dazzling lantern."
The Swiss classical philologist Kurt Steinmann writes under the heading Counterfeiters or Umpräger? Diogenes, the philosophical clown :
“The appearance with the lantern is a highlight among his actions as a philosophy clown. A dash of cabaret can be found in most of its open-air demonstrations. Their peculiarity is the « spudogeloion », the mixture of the serious, that is, the moral, and the ridiculously funny. The vast majority of Diogenes' anecdotes stimulate laughter with comedy-specific means: through ridicule and situation comedy, rough fights and funny obscenities. Diogenes takes on the functions of the old comedy, whose once sharp knives had become blunt in the fourth century. "
Ἄνθρωπος μέτρον ἁπάντων.
- Ἄνθρωπος μέτρον ἁπάντων.
- Anthrōpos metron hapantōn.
- "Man is the measure of all things."
This so-called homo- mensura sentence (Latin: homo: human ; mensura: measure ) comes from the sophist Protagoras and has already been interpreted by his contemporary religious opponents as an expression of extreme epistemic relativism:
- “ Man is the measure of all things. Of those who are as they are. Those who are not the way they are. "
The content of the homo-mensura sentence means that there is no universally valid truth. Things are true as they appear to man. However, it is controversial whether this refers to the individual or the human species.
The Austrian political scientist Leopold Kohr writes about this sentence:
“Only one sentence by the Greek philosopher Protagoras has survived in its wording. Despite its brevity, it can hardly be surpassed in importance. Man is the measure of all things. When I got to know this sentence in the Greek class at a Salzburg grammar school, I couldn't do much with it. Only later did I begin to understand that understanding depended on the correct emphasis: the human being is the measure. "
Kohr is of the opinion that Protagoras meant that the individual person stands in the center and deduces from this:
“Everything has to be adapted to people: their house, their property, their institutions, their state, their goals. And since people are small, that means that everything they create has to be limited, that everything has its limits. "
Kohr refers to Aristotle , who in his analogy to the size of the state stated that a larger ship can be a better ship, but a ship that is an inch or a kilometer long is not a bad ship, but no longer a ship than his Size destroys its function.
Ἄνθρωπος μικρὸς κόσμος.
- Ἄνθρωπος μικρὸς κόσμος.
- Anthrōpos microscopic cosmos.
- "Man is a small world."
The philosopher Democritus von Abdera equates man with the universe, which is known under the term microcosm - macrocosm scheme. So man is a cosmos in miniature. The difference between the macrocosm (= all ) and the microcosm (= human) is already mapped out.
According to Democritus there are countless worlds in an infinitely large universe and transfers the thought of atomic movement to the macrocosm. When two worlds collide (similar to the atoms in the microcosm), they perish. Just as the order of the cosmos shows itself in the correct proportion of its parts, so it is with the way of life of man, where the golden mean is also the measure of all things.
In Greek - unlike in German - it is possible that all three words end the same way. This sound figure is called Homoioteleuton ( ὁμοιοτέλευτον ), one of the possible sources that could have led to the development of the final rhyme .
ἀνομάλωσις τῶν οὐσιῶν
- ἀνομάλωσις τῶν οὐσιῶν
- anomalōsis tōn ousiōn
- "Equal Property"
Requirement from the state theory of the pre-Socratic philosopher Phaleas of Chalcedon , as mentioned by Aristotle in his politics . Aristotle describes Phaleas as the first constitutional theorist to see the cause of social unrest in the unjust distribution of property.
According to Aristotle, Phaleas called for all citizens to be financially equal when new states or colonies were founded. For already existing states he recommended the continuous marriage of poor and rich people. Equal land ownership and education should ensure equality of interests.
Ἄξιόν ἐστιν.
- Ἄξιόν ἐστιν.
- Axion estin.
- "It is worthy."
This is the name of an icon of a representation of the Mother of God with a child, which is located on Mount Athos . It escaped the iconoclasts' iconoclasts in the 9th century and is today one of the few pictorial representations from that time. Together with the icon Portaïtissa, it is the most famous of the miraculous icons of Athos. The shining silver Axion estin is the most important icon of Orthodoxy . She left the mountain three times (1963, 1985 and 1987) and was celebrated like a head of state.
According to tradition, the miracle of Revelation through the Archangel Gabriel took place in 982. Protos Seraphim, the spiritual father of Saint Denys of Olympus, told in 148 that at some distance from Athos a virtuous monk lived with his young disciple. One Saturday evening the old monk left his disciple alone. In the evening an unknown monk asked for quarters. In the morning they sang the office together in the chapel . When they came to the ninth ode and the disciple sang the hymn “ More venerable than the cherubim ” in front of the icon of Our Lady , the stranger said:
"It is truly worthy to proclaim you, Mother of God, eternally blessed and perfectly Immaculate, and Mother of our God."
The disciple asked his guest to write down the unknown text. Since they could not find any paper, the stranger engraved the hymn on a stone slab with his finger and said, “ From this day on, all Orthodox should sing the hymn to the Mother of God in this way. “- But the stranger was the Archangel Gabriel .
This Megalynarion is often sung in the Eastern Church liturgy, e.g. B. at the reception and entry of the bishop.
Axion esti is also the title of an oratorio by Mikis Theodorakis with the text by Odysseas Elytis .
Ἅπαξ λεγόμενον
- Ἅπαξ λεγόμενον
- Hápax legómenon
- "Something once said"
Hapax legomenon refers to a word that is only used in a single place in a given corpus . In the New Testament , a Hapax legomenon is an indication that the author has incorporated foreign text material into his text, or that the text has been changed by a later editor.
Some writers are also famous for their Hapax legomena. These include B. Jean Paul , or Kurt Schwitters .
- Autogyos ( αὐτόγυος ), the word for a specific plow, is only found in Hesiod and it is unclear what kind of plow it is actually.
- Panaorios ( παναώριος ), the word for an inconvenient time, is one of many Hapax legomena in the Iliad and refers to a child who is destined to die prematurely, i.e. too early.
ἀπὸ μηχανῆς Θεός
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- ἀπὸ μηχανῆς Θεός
- apo mēchanḗs Theos
- "God from the machine"
God out of the machine, Deus ex machina , originally referred to the appearance of a deity with the help of stage machinery. In ancient tragedy, there were conflicts that could not always be resolved from the plot. The solution came from the outside through the surprising intervention of a deity who hovered in a hoist above the stage.
In Dion Chrysostom (approx. 100 AD) the sentence is mentioned in relation to Socrates' behavior:
" (14) [...] ὑπὸ ἀπορίας ἀνῆγον ἐπί τινα λόγον ἀρχαῖον, λεγόμενον ὑπό τινος Σωκράτους, ὃν οὐδέποτε ἐκεῖνος ἐπαύσατο λέγων, πανταχοῦ τε καὶ πρὸς ἅπαντας βοῶν καὶ διατεινόμενος ἐν ταῖς παλαίστραις καὶ ἐν τῷ Λυκείῳ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἐργαστηρίων καὶ κατ ἀγοράν ' ὥσπερ ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός , ὡς ἔφη τις. ”
“ (14) [...] in a hopeless situation I took refuge in an old word that was said by a certain Socrates, and that the latter did not cease to say, everywhere and to everyone, screaming and declaiming, in the sports facilities and in the Lykeion in the workshops and on the market, as it were as a god from the machine , as someone remarked. "
Plutarch (approx. 100 AD) named in this context a “prayer machine ” ( μηχανὴν ἄρας mēchanḗn aras ), d. H. a machine in which an actor portraying God answers prayers:
"[10] ἔνθα δὴ Θεμιστοκλῆς ἀπορῶν τοῖς ἀνθρωπίνοις λογισμοῖς προσάγεσθαι τὸ πλῆθος , ἐν τραγῳδίᾳ ὥσπερ μηχανὴν ἄρας , σημεῖα δαιμόνια καὶ χρησμοὺς ἐπῆγεν αὐτοῖς."
"[10] Often times when Themistocles saw no way to reason the crowd to his side, he would show them supernatural signs and prophecies, like a prayer machine in tragedy."
Michael Apostolios (15th century) listed the word in his collection of ancient sayings:
“Ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεὸς ἐπιφανείς.”
"You appear like a god from the machine."
Ἀποθανεῖν θέλω.
- Ἀποθανεῖν θέλω.
- Apothanein thelo.
- "I want to die."
- Petron gives this sentence in his novel Satyricon as the saying of the Sibyl of Cumae . Trimalchio relates that in his youth he saw boys who asked the Sibyl what she wanted, and she answered with this sentence. As you can read in Ovid , the Sibyl of Apollo had wished for an excessively long life, but forgot to ask for eternal youth.
Ἀποπουδοβαλία
- Ἀποπουδοβαλία
- Apopoudobalia
- "Throwing the ball away with your foot"
Apopudobalia is a fictitious encyclopedia article contained in the first edition of the antiquarian reference work Der Neue Pauly (also casually called "U-Boot" ). The article was written by Mischa Meier . The deliberately incorrect entry is now considered to be one of the most famous “submarines” in modern lexicography.
According to the encyclopedia, Apopudobalia is said to have been an ancient sport that could be considered a forerunner of the modern football game . The word formation "Apopudobalia" is an ancient Greek art translation for "football", which violates the rules of Greek word formation.
Ἄριστον μὲν ὕδωρ.
- Ἄριστον μὲν ὕδωρ.
- Ariston men hydōr.
- “The best is water.” Pindar , Olympic Odes .
- The sentence is a common inscription on fountains, e.g. B. over the pump room of the British spa Bath .
- In Pindar's ode to Hieron the tyrant of Syracuse for his racehorse victory in the 476 Olympics, it says:
The best though is water. But
gold is shining fire,
since it shines brightly at night from the man-praising wealth.
But if you are compelled to boast competitions
, my dear heart,
just look out for the sun,
not a warmer star that shines through the lonely sky during the day -
and no competition than that of Olympia we will call better.
- This is by no means about the price of water as the arché of the world - an error that stems from the fact that the first verse of this ode is often mistakenly passed off as a sentence by Thales - but with these comparisons Pindar means: water is more delicious than anything else, but gold sparkles brighter than other metals, but the sun outshines the other stars - and the Olympic Games are also the most important competitions of the Greeks.
- The round of "holy games" also includes:
- the Pythian Games (in honor of the Pythian Apollo in Delphi )
- the Nemean Games (in honor of Zeus at Nemea and Argos )
- the Isthmian Games (in honor of Poseidon on the Isthmus of Corinth )
- the Panathenaia (in honor of Athena , the patron goddess of Athens )
- See also: Μᾶτερ ὦ χρυσοστεφάνων ἀέθλων, Οὐλυμπία
αρματολοί και κλέφτες
- αρματολοί και κλέφτες
- armatoli ke klephtes
- "Gunmen and Thieves"
Term for irregular Greek militiamen in the Ottoman Empire during the Greek Revolution : Armatoles ( Αρματολοί ) and klepht ( Κλέφτες ).
The Armatolen (local militias) were rebels against the ruling Ottomans. They were initially militia units that consisted of Christian Greeks and were entrusted by the Ottoman rulers with police tasks in certain districts (Greek Αρματολίκια ). From the 17th century onwards, they increasingly turned against state power. In 1721 they were officially dissolved and replaced by Islamic subjects.
The Kleften (revolutionary robbers) were originally recruited from Greeks who for various reasons evaded Turkish justice and went to the mountains. In the course of time they changed from robber gangs to resistance fighters. Their free life found expression in folk songs and lives on in songs and legends.
Ἁρμονίη ἀφανὴς φανερῆς κρείττων.
- Ἁρμονίη ἀφανὴς φανερῆς κρείττων.
- Harmoniē aphanēs phanerēs kreittōn.
- "Hidden harmony is better than the obvious."
Quote from the fragments of the philosopher Heraclitus , to which the American author Roger van Oech in his book What would Heraclitus do? writes:
- “Why did Heraclitus find the joining of the 'seemingly unlinked' so wonderful? Perhaps he had recognized that ideas lose their power and lead to more and more easily predictable results if they are seen and used again and again in the same constellation. "
But if you combine ideas, you get aha-moments .
Αρχαίον Πνεύμ 'αθάνατον
- Αρχαίον Πνεύμ 'αθάνατον
- Archéo Pnewm 'athánaton
- "Ancient Immortal Spirit"
Opening words of the Olympic hymn ( Ολυμπιακός Ύμνος ), the text of which was written by Kostis Palamas for the 1st Modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 . It is the only official Olympic festival music and has the status of a national anthem . The text of the first stanza is:
Αρχαίον Πνεύμ 'αθάνατον, πατέρα αγνέ
του ωραίου, του μεγάλου και τ'αληθινού,
κατέβα, κι άστραψ'εδώ πέρα φανερώσου
στην δόξα της και δικής σου γης τ'ουρανού.
In the German translation:
Ancient immortal spirit, true father of
beauty, greatness and truth,
descend, reveal yourself to us here as lightning
In the glory of your world, your heaven.
Ἀρχὴ ἥμισυ παντός.
- Ἀρχὴ ἥμισυ παντός.
- Archē hēmisy pantós.
- "The beginning is half of the whole."
This saying is cited as proverbial by Plato and Aristotle .
Aristotle even has the enhanced version:
- "(The beginning) is, it seems to me, more than half."
The following sentence by the poet Hesiod should be seen in this context :
- " Πλέον ἥμισυ παντός. pléon hēmisy pantós. "
- “ Half is more than the whole. "
Ἀρχὴ μεγίστη τοῦ βίου τὰ γράμματα.
- Ἀρχὴ μεγίστη τοῦ βίου τὰ γράμματα.
- Archē megístē tou bíou ta grámmata
- "The best beginning in life are the letters."
This quote is originally attributed to Heraclitus:
- “ The real beginning of life is scripture. "
As an Aristotle quote and exercise text, it can be found on an ancient Greek writing board in capital letters " ΑΡΧΗ ΜΕΓΙΣΤΗ ΤΟΥ ΒΙΟΥ ΤΑ ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΑ " and indicates the meaning of the writing .
According to other sources, this quote is also attributed to the philosopher Heraclitus . Thousands of years later, the German poet Johann Gottfried Herder wrote: “ Man is the animal that has writing. "
ἄσβεστος γέλως
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- ἄσβεστος γέλως
- ásbestos gélōs
- "Inextinguishable laughter"
The so-called Homeric Laughter describes the hearty laugh that Homer lets the Olympic gods sing. Both times the reason for this was the god Hephaestus :
In the Odyssey (VIII, 326), Hephaestus had caught his wife Aphrodite and her lover Ares in a net that he had placed over his marriage bed, and then called the other gods to join them. In the translation by Johann Heinrich Voss , Hephaestus complains with these words:
Father Zeus, and you others, immortal blessed gods!
Come and see the hideous obnoxious outrage:
But the other gods only burst out laughing:
And a long laughter rang out from the blessed gods.
In the Iliad (I, 599) the immortals are amused by the panting walk of Hephaestus, who has just defused a dispute among the gods and is now busy pouring out nectar .
ασθενής στο γύψο
- ασθενής στο γύψο
- asthenis sto gypso
- "Patient in plaster"
Allegory with which the junta leader Giorgios Papadopoulos compared Greece in his speeches and at the same time presented himself as a doctor who wanted to heal the sick:
“We are dealing with a sick person whom we have placed on the operating table. And if the surgeon does not tie the patient to the operating table during the operation, he may lead him to death instead of restoring his health. We have to tie him up so that he can survive the operation safely! "
Specifically, this meant that thousands of opponents of the regime were arrested or even flown to the prisoner island of Gyaros in a helicopter .
ἄσυλος τόπος
- ἄσυλος τόπος
- asylos topos
- "safe place"
The word asylum is derived from σῦλος ('robbed') with alpha privativum , d. H. untouched, and denotes a place of refuge as well as protection from danger and persecution. Hikers, refugees and pilgrims found protection in the asylum.
The classical philologist Karl-Wilhelm Weeber writes about this term:
“The ancient Greek term asylum was both broader and narrower. More comprehensive, because he did not restrict the protection against being 'continued forcibly' ( σῦλος , sylos , denied by the alpha privativum placed in front of it) to a specific motive of his asylum request, narrower, because he essentially focused on holy places such as temples and altars related. Anyone who fled there - in the care of a deity - was not allowed to be removed by force from the ἄσυλος τόπος , ásylos tópos , the 'inviolable place'. If someone disregarded this cultic protection order, he incurred heavy guilt before the gods. "
This asylum ( ἀσυλία ) was a privilege that a polis , a sanctuary, individuals or associations of people could acquire and should guarantee protection from violent attacks. It also applied to fugitive slaves and criminals.
In order to grant aliens legal protection abroad, asylums later emerged as places of refuge in intergovernmental agreements. The city founder Romulus opened the city of Rome as an asylum "in order to win more residents" and accepted that there were also shady figures among the new citizens. The historian Livy even sees this positively:
- “ That was the first approach to the starting size. "
ἄτομος ὕλη
- ἄτομος ὕλη
- átomos hylē
- "Indivisible matter"
The term atom was coined by the natural philosopher Democritus , who suggested that the world consists of indivisible particles. Besides that, there is only empty space. All properties of the substances can be explained by the repulsion and attraction of these small particles. However, this idea was rejected by his contemporaries because the world was viewed as something divine and so his theory went unnoticed for almost two millennia.
His (and his teacher Leukippus ) theory was, however, also flawed. The atoms are indivisible and already have the properties of the matter that is made up of them: smooth objects should be made up of round atoms, rough objects of square atoms. It is not clear, however, which ideas are from Leukippus and which from Democritus, since no writings from Leukippus have survived.
The idea that the world could be built up from a few elements was already found in Thales von Milet (“ Everything is water ”) and Anaximander von Milet ( Apeiron as invisible primary material).
Democrit's philosophical opponent was above all Empedocles , who founded the doctrine of the four elements fire, earth, air and water. Important philosophers like Plato and Aristotle rejected atomism because they believed the existence of an empty space to be inconceivable.
See also: “ Ζῇ πῦρ τὸν γῆς θάνατον καὶ αὴρ ζῇ τὸν πυρὸς θάνατον, ὕδωρ ζῇ τὸν ἀέρος θάνατον, γῆ τὸν ὕδατος. "( " The fire of the earth lives death and the air lives fire death, the water lives the air death, the earth that of the water. " )
ἀτρεκές
- τὸ δ 'ἀτρεκὲς ἐν βαθεῖ ἐστιν
- to d 'atrekes en bathei estin
- "The truth lies in the depths," that is, in secret.
With these words, Johannes Lydos resignedly states that none of the different and contradicting theories he referred to about the reasons for the Nile threshold have been proven to be correct. He expressly describes this sentence as logion ( saying ), so that we have a proverb in front of us that expresses a skepticism expressed in philosophy (and probably also in everyday life) about the recognizability of truth.
Αὐτὸς ἔφα.
- Αὐτὸς ἔφα.
- Autós éphā.
- "He said it himself."
Cars epha , Latin " Ipse dixit " ( " He himself has said it. ") In the sense of " Magister dixit " ( " The Master has said it. "), Is a term which the student and follower of Pythagoras of Samos used and thus believed to provide irrefutable evidence to confirm the truth of a thesis. This phrase is also quoted in a Scholion in Aristophanes ' drama The Clouds .
" He said it himself " was regarded by Pythagoras' disciples as an unshakable argument in disputes, stifled all discussions and became the classic formula of blind belief in authority. In addition to high intelligence, Pythagoras required his students to be introverted and, according to his biographer Iamblichos , carried out a kind of personality test in search of students with agile but non-rebellious minds who willingly accepted his teachings. It was more important to him that they be silent than that they talk; so he looked for shyness as a hallmark of introversion .
Aristophanes used the superlative αὐτότατος in his comedy Plutos ironically in the sense of “very personal” or “very bodily”. The Latin superlative "ipsissimus" was also used in the same comic sense, e.g. B. von Plautus in his comedy Trinummus .
The American author Howard Bloom writes under the heading Know Yourself - Pythagoras, Subcultures and the Psycho-Bio-Circuit :
“His followers did not question his orders, but curbed their will with a sentence that comes from slaves: 'autos epha ipse dixit', which is usually translated 'he said it himself'. In other words: 'It is true because Pythagoras said it.' "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eliae in Porphyrii Isagogen et Aristotelis Categorias commentaria, ed. v. Adolf Busse , Berlin 1900 (= Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca Vol. 18/1), 118.18 f. Ioannis Philoponi in Aristotelis de anima libros commentaria , ed. Michael Hayduck , Berlin 1897 ( = Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca Vol. 15), 117,27. See Renzo Tosi, Dizionario delle sentenze latine e greche, 14th edition, Milan 2000, p. 177
- ↑ Carl Fredrich: Before the Dardanelles, on ancient Greek islands and on Mount Athos . Berlin 1915, p. 10.
- ↑ Acts 17, 22-31 EU
- ↑ Aeschylus, Agamemnon 160-162
- ↑ Friedrich Nietzsche : To the unknown God . Quoted from Lyrikwelt.de ( Memento from October 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Andokides : Speech on the Mysteries 85 ff.
- ↑ Greek νόμοι ὑψίποδες , an untranslatable Hapax legomenon
- ↑ Sophocles, Oedipus 863-872
- ↑ Flavius Josephus, Gegen Apion II, 15 (text edited and explanation in square brackets and insertion in angle brackets added)
- ↑ Georg Brunold : Kursbuch: A picture from the focus of the disease. In: ZEIT ONLINE . February 6, 2008, accessed December 16, 2018 .
- ^ Plato , Politeia IV.
- ↑ Plato , Phaedrus 240c.
- ↑ David Blatner: Pi, magic of a number , Reinbek: Rowohlt, 2000. ISBN 3-498-00609-6 (p 117)
- ↑ Bibel-Online.net - 1 Corinthians 14 (Luther 1912) ; see also at Bibleserver.com : 1 Cor 14,34,35 EU
- ↑ Gustav Schwab : The most beautiful sagas of classical antiquity
- ↑ Ilias 6,208 and 11,784 in the translation of Johann Heinrich Voss
- ↑ a b Stephan Speicher, August 7, 2004: The competition and the Greeks. Always be the first and strive ahead of the others ( Memento from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Pictures-A, B, C, with some reading exercises, memorial sayings and prayers for children . Stralsund 1788. gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de
- ↑ Quoted from Erasmus von Rotterdam : Adagia
- ↑ Erasmus of Rotterdam : Adagia , 38
- ↑ Fables of Antiquity. Greek - Latin - German . Edited and translated by Harry C. Schnur , revised by Erich Keller. P. 51 books.google , Greek P. 50 books.google
- ↑ Georg Büchmann : Winged words , 19th edition (1898), p. 46 susning.nu . See also Jeremiah 13:23 ESV
- ↑ Ovid , Metamorphosen 1,747–2,400, http://www.gottwein.de/Lat/ov/met02.php
- ↑ a b Erasmus of Rotterdam : Selected writings . Volume 7. Scientific Book Society. 1972
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphosen 11, 410-748
- ^ Villa H. Beletage ( Memento from July 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Revelation of John , 1,8; 21.6; 22.13.
- ^ In dulci iubilo - Wikisource
- ↑ Exodus 12
- ↑ Isaiah 52:13 ff.
- ↑ Gospel according to John , 1.29 and 1.36
- ↑ Simonides from Keos 8:20
- ^ Friedrich Schleiermacher: Plato's works - Protagoras on project Gutenberg-DE ; Accessed June 11, 2020
- ↑ Herodotus , Histories . Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1971 (1,138,1)
- ^ Strabo , book 14
- ^ Gellius , 4th book and Cicero : About the speaker , 2nd book
- ↑ Bartels: Veni, vidi, vici
- ↑ Plutarch , Pompejus 60
- ^ Atheneus of Naukratis , Banquet of the Scholars XIII, 8
- ^ Diogenes Laertius , Lives and Opinions of Famous Philosophers VI, 68
- ↑ Nicolas Chamfort : Maxims and Thoughts (No. 277)
- ↑ Nicolas Chamfort: Maxims and Thoughts (No. 123)
- ↑ Diogenes in the barrel - counterfeiter or remaster? Diogenes, the philosophical clown ( Memento from February 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Quoted by Plato in Theaetetos 152a.
- ↑ a b http://www.schule.at/dl/KernfragenGR2006.pdf
- ↑ Aristotle, Politics 2.7
- ↑ Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints , Article Gabriel (accessed on June 26, 2020).
- ↑ DION chrysostome, Sur l'exil (discours 13; traduction anglaise), paragraphs hold 10-14. In: HODOI ELEKTRONIKAI / Itinera Electronica: You texte à l'hypertexte. (ancient Greek, English).
- ↑ Plutarch, Parallel Biographies : Life of Themistocles (Wikisource, Greek)
- ↑ Michael Apostolios: Συναγωγὴ παροιμιῶν. Ἀρχὴ τοῦ αʹ στοιχείου . In: Bibliotheca Augustana .
- ↑ Petron , Satyricon 48
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 14, 130-153
- ↑ Pindar , Olympic Odes 1.1
- ↑ Pindar , Olympic Oden 1.1-10
- ↑ Roger van Oech: What would Heraclitus do? . Bern, Munich, Vienna: Scherz Verlag, 2001. P. 61
- ^ Plato , Laws 6. 753 e
- ↑ Aristotle , Politics 5, 4. 1303 b 29
- ^ Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1, 7th 1098
- ↑ Works and Days 40
- ↑ Aristotle : Ἀλέξανδρος Γ 'ὁ Μακεδών
- ^ Johann Heinrich Voss: Iliad
- ↑ Deutschlandfunk, calendar sheet: Putsch in the motherland of democracy - 40 years ago the Greek military rose
- ^ Karl-Wilhelm Weeber : Muses on the phone . Primus. Darmstadt 2008. ISBN 978-3-89678-359-2
- ^ Livy , Ab urbe condita I 8,6
- ↑ Johannes Lydos , de mensibus (About the months) 4,107 (p. 146 W)
- ↑ Cicero , De natura deorum . See in Wikisource: liber I, 10 .
- ↑ Aristophanes , The Clouds 195.
- ↑ Aristophanes, Plutus 83
- ↑ Plautus, Trinummus 988
- ↑ Howard Bloom: Know Yourself - Pythagoras, Subcultures, and the Psycho-Bio Circuit. In: Telepolis . February 3, 1999 (translation by Florian Rötzer).