In this latest post featuring Core Vocabulary from The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours and tracked in the associated Sourcebook and our other primary texts, there are two related terms: paskhein [πάσχειν] ‘suffer, experience, be treated [badly or well]’; and pathos [πάθος] ‘suffering, experience’. When it comes to tragedy, the concept is central, but I was interested to see whether and how they were used in other genres. Read more
This latest exploration of Core Vocabulary terms from The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours and the associated Sourcebook is esthlos [ἐσθλός] “‘genuine, good, noble’; synonym of agathos.” The first thing I noticed is that it is far less frequent than agathos. I wondered whether there were any specific usages, in particular the sense of “genuine.” And how should the word best be translated in different contexts? Here are a… Read more
"Why, what is a seer [mantis]? A man who with luck tells the truth [alēthē] sometimes, with frequent falsehoods, but when his luck deserts him, collapses then and there." This latest post about Core Vocabulary terms from The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours and the associated Sourcebook[2] is mantis [μάντις], glossed as "seer, prophet". Read more
"Many and brave comrades followed the son of Telamon, to relieve him of his shield when he was overcome with sweat and toil [kamatos]." This time the Core Vocab term—taken from terms listed in H24H] and the associated Sourcebook— is kamatos [κάματος] which Gregory Nagy glosses as ‘ordeal, labor, pain’. Read more
This time our Core Vocab exploration, taken from terms listed in H24H and tracked in the associated Sourcebook, is about ainos [αἶνος] ‘authoritative utterance for and by a social group; praise; fable’; and the related word ainigma [αἴνιγμα] ‘riddle’. Gregory Nagy provides this working definition: "an ainos is a performance of ambivalent wording that becomes clarified once it is correctly understood and then applied in moments of making moral decisions… Read more
