List of Greek Phrases / Rho

Rho

Ῥαδαμάνθους ὅρκος

Ῥαδαμάνθους ὅρκος

Rhadamanthous orkos

"Oath of Rhadamanthys"

Latin " Rhadamanthi iuramentum "

Rhadamanthys was a mythological judge over the dead who is said to have previously introduced an excellent code of law as ruler of Crete, which the Spartans later copied. But he was expelled from Minos and fled to the southern Aegean Islands, where the people made him king out of respect for his legislation.

After his death, Rhadamanthys, together with Minos and Aiakos , judged the shadows of the deceased in the underworld . On the other hand, he is the ruler of the Elysion in the Odyssey, who judged when the shadows of the deceased quarreled.

Plato writes with admiration how Rhadamanthys made his judicial decisions:

“For he saw that the people of his time were filled with a belief in the existence of the gods and their bodily rule, as was natural at a time when so many of them had themselves descended from gods, including Rhadamanthys even belonged, as the legend goes. Accordingly, he now seems to have thought that one should not entrust the decision of legal cases to people, but to the gods themselves, and as a result they were decided by him quickly and easily. He had the contending parties swear an oath on every point in dispute and thus put an end to right-hand trades quickly and safely. "

But now, says Plato, when many people do not believe in gods, this trick would no longer work.

Ῥαμνούσιος εἶ.

Nemesis statuette

Ῥαμνούσιος εἶ.

Rhamnusios egg.

"You are a Rhamnusian."

Latin " Rhamnusius es. "

Rhamnusia is the nickname of Nemesis , the goddess of "just anger", who was especially venerated in the Attic town of Rhamnus. Hence its nickname Ραμνούσια Νέμεσις (Rhamnousia Nemesis) .

Her statue had been carved by Phidias from a block of marble that the Persians had brought with them to form a sign of victory when the Greeks were defeated.

Above all, Nemesis punishes human hubris and disregard for Themis , the goddess of law and morality.

Ῥανὶς ἐνδελεχοῦσα κοιλαίνει πέτραν.

Ῥανὶς ἐνδελεχοῦσα κοιλαίνει πέτραν.

Rhanis endelechousa koilainei petran.

"Constant dripping wears away the stone."

This is a quote from the poet Choirilos of Samos , about which the humanist Erasmus von Rotterdam writes in his collection of proverbs Adagia :

“In this word lies the doctrine that perseverance makes the hardest brittle and the most difficult possible, since something as light and soft as a drop of water is capable of hollowing out the hardest rock, which can hardly be reached with iron tools. Pliny reports that there are pebbles that have been completely removed from the ants' feet, and for him this is the most impressive example of the power of perseverance. "

Lucretius gives this teaching verbatim in Latin:

" Stilicidi casus lapidem cavat. " ( " The falling of the drop wears away the stone. " )

Ovid summarizes this idea in his Ars amatoria (I, 475 f) in an elegiac distich :

Quid magis est saxo durum, quid mollius unda?
Dura tamen molli saxa cavantur aqua.

What's harder than rock? What is softer than water?
Still, hard rocks are hollowed out by the soft water.

In his letters from exile he quotes this sentence as follows:

" Gutta cavat lapidem, consumitur anulus usu. "

"The drop wears out the stone, the ring is worn out with use."

Much later it became:

" Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed saepe cadendo. "

"The drop undermines the stone, not through its force, but through its frequent falling."

In Giordano Bruno's comedy Il candelajo ( The light overcoat ) states:

Gutta cavat lapidem non bis, sed saepe cadendo:
Sic homo fit sapiens, bis non sed saepe legendo.

The drop wears away the stone, not by falling twice, but by falling more often:
this is how man becomes wise, not by reading twice, but by reading more often.

In Bertolt Brecht's poem The Legend of the Origin of the Book Taoteking on Laotse's Path into Emigration , the boy says to the customs officer:

Said the boy: 'That the water in motion' in
time conquers the hard stone.
You understand that the hard is subject to.

In modern Greek it says « Φασούλι το φασούλι γεμίζει το σακούλι. »( " The bag fills up bean by bean. " )

See also: “ Σήψει καὶ πέτρην ὁ πολὺς χρόνος. "

Ῥαχὴλ κλαίουσα τὰ τέκνα αὐτῆς.

Guido Reni: child murder in Bethlehem (detail)

Ῥαχὴλ κλαίουσα τὰ τέκνα αὐτῆς, καὶ οὐκ ἤθελε παρακληθῆναι, ὅτι οὐκ εἰσίν.

Rhachēl klaiousa ta tekna autēs, kai ouk ēthele paraklēthēnai, hoti ouk eisin.

"Rachel wept for her children and did not want to be comforted because it was over with them."

From the account of the child murder in Bethlehem in the Gospel according to Matthew . The evangelist Matthew quotes the prophet Jeremiah and tells that when Herod found that he had been betrayed by the wise men, he became very angry and had all male children in Bethlehem who were younger than two years old killed.

When King Herod of Judea heard about the birth of a new king of the Jews through the magicians from the east , he asked the wise men of Israel where this birth had taken place. They identified Bethlehem as the place of birth. The prophet Micah says:

“But you, Bethlehem-Efrata, so small among the districts of Judah, from you one will emerge for me who is to rule over Israel. Its origin lies in the distant past, in days long past. "

Bethlehem was the city of David , to whom God had promised that his descendant would inherit the throne for ever. After the magicians had not told him what they had found on their way back as requested, Herod became angry and decided to eliminate the competitor by killing all boys under two years of age in Bethlehem. However, Joseph was meant in a dream to flee to Egypt so that Jesus could avoid child murder.

ραχοκοκαλιά του λαού

ραχοκοκαλιά του λαού

Rachokokalia tou laou

"Backbone of the people"

Propagandist name of the Greek military junta for the peasant class. In contrast to other slogans of the junta, which were otherwise held in Katharevousa , this name is in the vernacular Dimotiki , probably so that the less educated peasants understood this slogan themselves.

The leader of the colonels, Giorgios Papadopoulos , who himself was of peasant origin, found the most support among the peasants and promoted this by issuing agricultural loans and promoting rural areas.

Ῥῆμα παράκαιρον τὸν ὅλον ἀνατρέπει βίον.

Ῥῆμα παράκαιρον τὸν ὅλον ἀνατρέπει βίον.

Rhēma parakairon ton holon anatrepei bion.

"One word at the wrong time upsets the whole of life."

Sentence from the Monosticha of the poet Menander , which can be seen in connection with the following:

Ῥοπή 'στιν ἡμῶν ὁ βίος, ὥσπερ ὁ ζυγός.

"Like a scale, life keeps its balance."

Both sentences aim to ensure that happiness can easily be on the brink.

ῥήματα ἀντὶ ἀλφίτων

ῥήματα ἀντὶ ἀλφίτων

rhēmata anti alphitōn

"Words instead of flour"

Latin " (Ne) verba pro farina. "

This proverbial phrase means something like "promise a lot and give nothing" . A German equivalent is:

"Have bubbles and flour in your mouth."

In his collection of proverbs, Adagia, the humanist Erasmus von Rotterdam draws a parallel to another proverb:

“I think this proverb is synonymous with, or at least closely related to, one that we have mentioned elsewhere: He even demands farinas from the statues. Jokingly, it stands for tax flour (farina), because everything is associated with the meal and because statues were placed in memory of the deceased. So whoever still levies tax here is acting like someone who collects it from the dead. The cult of the dead was very popular with the ancients, and there were no taxes there. "

Against this ancient background, Erasmus criticizes his time when, for example, the church made profit from masses for the dead :

"Today, however, greed has reached such a level that there is nothing at all, neither in the spiritual nor in the worldly area, where one cannot make a profit."

ῥητορικὴ τέχνη

ῥητορικὴ τέχνη

Rhētorikē technē

"Oratory"

Latin " Ars Rhetorica "

The rhetoric was the art of the free, public speech, whose task was to explore the possibilities and provide the resources that are necessary to prepare a common ground between speaker and audience, based on which it is made possible a subjective belief too general do.

Aristotle was the first to develop a systematic representation of the art of speaking ( Ἡ Τέχνη Ῥητορική Hē technē rhētorikē ). Like dialectics, rhetoric is an interdisciplinary basic knowledge, because it deals with "topics whose knowledge can be assigned to all fields of science" .

In Plato's dialogue with Gorgias it says:

“If I understand you are saying that rhetoric is the master of persuasion and its practice is generally and mainly aimed at that. The rhetoric is obviously the master of persuasion, which strives for approval, but not instruction in the question of right and wrong. "

The three types of speech

Greek	Latin	German	Remarks
γένος δικανικόν génos dikanikón	genus iudiciale	Court speech	Basically refers to the past: "Did the defendant murder XY?" Active decision to be influenced by the speech
γένος συμβουλευτικόν génos symbouleutikón	genus deliberativum	Advisory speech	z. E.g. parliamentary speech. Basically refers to the future: "Should there be war or not?" Active decision to be influenced by the speech
γένος ἐπιδεικτικόν génos epideiktikón	genus demonstrativum genus laudativum	Celebratory speech	Basically refers to the present. One hears the eulogy in order to enjoy it. Audience largely uninvolved

See also the sophistic principle: " τὸν ἥττω λόγον κρείττω ποιεῖν " ( "make the weaker thing the stronger" )

Ρίπτω τους μαργαρίτας εις τους χοίρους.

Ρίπτω τους μαργαρίτας εις τους χοίρους.

Pipto tous margaritas is tous chirous.

"I throw the pearls in front of the pigs."

This modern Greek phrase goes back to a passage in the Gospel according to Matthew . Jesus says there:

" Μὴ δῶτε τὸ ἅγιον τοῖς κυσὶ μηδὲ βάλητε τοὺς μαργαρίτας ὑμῶν ἔμπροσθεν τῶν χοίρων , μήποτε καταπατήσωσιν αὐτοὺς ἐν τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτῶν καὶ στραφέντες ῥήξωσιν ὑμᾶς . "

"You are not to give the sanctuary to the dogs and you are not to throw your pearls in front of the swine, so that they do not trample them under their feet and turn and tear you."

The meaning of this passage is to offer something to others that they do not appreciate. The expression has entered many languages ​​(with variants):

• English: " to cast pearls before swine "
• French: " thunder des perles aux pourceaux "
• Italian: " gettare perle ai porci "

Adriano Farano writes under the heading Throwing jam before the swine :

“But some peoples are more imaginative. In France, the pigs are not fed pearls, but jam ( donner de la confiture aux cochons ). The freest interpretation of the Gospel can be found among the otherwise orthodox Spaniards. With them God gives handkerchiefs to those who have no snot in their noses: Dio [s] [sic] da pañuelos a quien no tiene mocos . The Italians have more tact. They prefer to distribute bread to those who have no teeth: danno il pane a chi non ha i denti . "

A variant is: " Πετώ διαμάντια στα σκυλιά ." ( "I throw diamonds to the dogs." )

Ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς

The rose-fingered Eos

Ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς

Rhododactylos Ēōs

"The rose-fingered Eos"

In Homer frequently used epithet ornans the revered as a goddess Dawn, Greek Eos . Their task was every morning with their team from the Okeanos emerge and announce the day. Homer praises the beauty of the Eos. She appears as a graceful goddess in a dress made of saffron .

One of the Homeric verses reads in a larger context in the translation by Johann Heinrich Voss :

"When dawn woke up with rose fingers."

Eos fell in love with a handsome young man named Tithonos and asked Zeus to give him eternal life. But since Eos forgot to ask for eternal youth, Tithonos finally aged and shrank more and more, to the size of a cicada , the chirping of which finally resembled his voice. That's why Eos can't stay with him for long and leaves her camp very early in the morning.

Eos and Tithonos had two sons, Emathion (whom Heracles killed) and Memnon (whom Achilles killed). Eos is still weeping for her and her tears fall as dew from the sky every morning .

Ῥόδον ἀνεμώνῃ συγκρίνεις.

Autumn Adonis

Ῥόδον ἀνεμώνῃ συγκρίνεις.

Rhodon anemōnē synkrineis.

"You compare a rose with an anemone."

Latin “ Rosas anemonae comparas. "

According to mythology, white roses should have sprouted from the tears of Aphrodite , when she mourned the death of the spring god Adonis and the blood of the dying Adonis colored the flowers red. A red adonis (anemone) is said to have grown out of every drop of blood .

As a dying and rising god, Adonis personifies the vegetation that withers every year in summer and sprouts again in spring. In honor of Adonis, funeral celebrations lasting several days were held in many places, which ended in a joyful celebration of the resurrection of the god.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Plato: Nomoi (The Laws); quoted from textlog.de ( memento from October 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
2. ↑ Choirilos the Epic : Fragment 9
3. ↑ Erasmus of Rotterdam : Selected Writings . Volume 7. Scientific Book Society. 1972
4. ↑ Lucretius, De rerum natura 1,313
5. ↑ Ovid: "Epistulae ex Ponto 4,10,5"
6. ↑ Giordano Bruno : Il candelajo ( The light Overcoat ) 1582 III, 6
7. ↑ As it was (I) ( Memento from October 11, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ Matthew 2.18  EU
9. ↑ Micah 5.1  EU
10. ↑ 2 Samuel 7.16  EU
11. ↑ Erasmus of Rotterdam : Adagia . Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun. 2005. ISBN 3-15-007918-7
12. ↑ Plato, Gorgias 453a; quoted from Gorgias as a representative of the Greek sophistry. In: Navicula Bacchi . Retrieved January 6, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Matthew 7,6  EU
14. ↑ quoted from the Luther Bible of 1545
15. ↑ cafebabel.com ( Memento from May 27, 2007 in the web archive archive.today )