Lesson 3: Reading

I've just been taught how to use the Greek font on my blog. I only had time to do the first six sentences in lesson 3 of Chase and Phillips.

For each translation I include the sentence in Greek, followed by a transliteration, a word-by-word translation and finally a smoother final version--or sometimes a couple of final versions. I would prefer to leave them rough--I remember thinking of the image of a tree cracking and lifting concrete when I tried to express the effect that understanding the original language had on me -- but I need to give clear evidence of some competency.

Notice that none of the original Greek sentences have verbs. C & P, p. 7:

"A complete sentence may be formed of a noun or a pronoun as subject and an adjective as predicate, the verb to be being omitted. In this case the adjective is outside the article noun group, that is, it does not directly follow the article, and it is said to be in the predicate position."

C & P, p. 8

Reading

1. ἀθάνατος ἡ ψυχή.

athanatos he psuche

deathless the soul

ἀθάνατος deathless (adj; singular nominative masculine)
ἡ the (article; feminine singular nominative)
ψυχή soul (singular feminine nominative)


The soul (is) deathless/immortal.

2. χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά.

chalepa ta kala

difficult/harsh the beautiful (things)

χαλεπὰ difficult, harsh (adj.; plural nominative neuter)
τὰ καλά the beautiful things/beauty (neuter plural nominative: preceded by an article, this often forms a substantive: beautiful things, beauty)

Beauty is difficult.

I prefer Beautiful things are difficult. I even like the idea of beautiful things being harsh. I'm not sure I like how C & P translate ta kala as beauty because that turns a plural that refers to concrete reality into a singular abstraction. This is presumptious of me. Anyway, I seem to remember my professor mentioning how this sentence might have come out of Plato, who talks somewhere about beautiful things being difficult to make and appreciate.

3. μέτρον ἄριστον.

metron ariston

measure/the golden mean best

μέτρον measure (neuter singular nominative)
ἄριστον best (adj; neuter singular nominative)

Measure is best.
Best is the golden mean.


4. τῷ σοφῷ ξένον οὐδέν.

to̅ sopho̅ ksenon ouden

to the wise one nothing/not one thing strange.

τῷ σοφῷ to the wise (man, thing--but can a thing be wise)
ξένον foreign, strange (adjective; singular nominative neuter)
οὐδέν nothing/not one thing

Not one thing is strange to the wise (man).

5. κοινὰ τὰ τῶν φίλων.

koina ta to̅n philo̅n

common (pl.) the (pl.) of the friends
common things the things of the friends

κοινὰ common (adjective; plural nominative neuter)
τὰ the (plural neuter article, used as a substantive: the things = the property)
τῶν φίλων of the friends

The things of the friends are shared things.
The property of friends is shared.

6. ὁ χρόνος ἰατρὸς τῶν πόνων.

ho̅ chronos iatros to̅n pono̅n.

the time physician/healer of the pains.

ὁ χρόνος the time/time (singular nominative masculine)
ἰατρὸς physician/healer (singular nominative masculine)
τῶν πόνων of the pains/of the toils (plural genitive masculine)

Of pains time is the healer.
Time is the physician of pains.