A guest post by Sarah Scott The Core Vocab word for this month, taken from those terms listed in Gregory Nagy’s The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours[1] and related Sourcebook[2], is oikos [οἶκος] ‘house, dwelling, abode; resting place of cult hero; family line’; verb oikeîn [οἰκεῖν] ‘have a dwelling’ Sometimes it simply means a house or home, as in this speech of Agamemnon during his argument with Khrysēs about the… Read more
A guest post by Sarah Scott This month I have chosen for a Core Vocab exploration terms that we hold close to our hearts: philos ‘friend’ (noun); ‘dear, near-and-dear, belonging to self’ (adjective); philotēs or philiā ‘the state of being philos’ In H24H[1] Professor Nagy first introduces the term in connection to a passage where Phoenix tells a story in his attempt to convince Achilles to accept Agamemnon’s gifts and… Read more
A guest post by Sarah Scott This month’s Core Vocab word—from Gregory Nagy’s book The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours[1]—is kerdos [κέρδος], plural kerdea [κέρδεα] which he glosses as ‘gain, profit; desire for gain; craft employed for gain; craftiness; craft’. I wondered in what contexts the word might occur—and whether the ancient Greeks saw it as a positive or negative attribute, or something in between. Here are a few… Read more
A guest post by Sarah Scott This month I looked for sophos [σοφός] ‘skilled, skilled in understanding special language’; sophiā [σοφία] ‘being sophos’.[1] For if one possesses good things without a lengthy ordeal [ponos], many think that he is sophos, that he is not one of the ignorant, [75] the way he arranges his life, they think, with straight-planned stratagems. But that is not ordained to be, in this world… Read more
A guest post by Sarah Scott This month I’m inviting everyone to explore the word turannos [τύραννος], which is defined in the Core Vocabulary: “turannos, plural turannoi (Lydian word for ‘king’): ‘king’ (from the viewpoint of most Greek dynasties); ‘unconstitutional ruler’ (from the viewpoint of Greek democracy).” A more detailed explanation is given in H24H[1][1] 19§6, where the focus is on Oedipus in the Sophocles drama Oedipus Tyrannus: In this book, the… Read more