I need help remembering which myth or piece of ancient literature features a mortal cheating a prophecy.

My ancient greek professor was talking about the role of prophecies in mythology, and how they practically always come true in the end. Once someone learns about a prophecy about them, the very actions they take to try to avoid it eventually end up fulfilling it (like Oedipus' case).

But she mentioned ONE exception.

I can't remember if it was an obscure myth, a poem, or a fragment, but it was the only instance where a mortal manages to rewrite his own fate. According to the prophecy about him, he learns he's going to commit some terrible act that he wants to avoid at all costs, like hurting someone else, for example. And to prevent his fate from being fulfilled, he takes his own life, much sooner than expected, before the prophecy can even come true. And because he's dead, noone can fulfill his prophecy. The prophecy is null. He cheated Fate.

I was impressed by how he had simply stopped himself from doing what the prophecy said (even if it meant suicide), when usually mortals are completely under Fate's control.

Does any expert know his name? What myth could this be? Please, help me find this story, thank you

Meint hier αἴλουρος Katze oder Wiesel?

„Oὐ γὰρ ϑεὸς ὁ ζητούμενος ἔνδον εὐρεϑήσεται, ἐφ᾽ ὃν ἐσπεύσαμεν, αἴλουρος δὲ ἢ κροκόδειλος ἢ αὐτόχϑων ὄφις ἢ τι τοιοῦτον ϑηρίον ἀνάξιον (μὲν) τοῦ νεώ, χηραμοῦ δὲ ἢ φωλεοῦ ἢ βορβόρου ἀντάξιον" ὃ ϑεὸς Αἰγυπτίων ἐπὶ στρωμνῆς ἁλουργῆς καταφαίνεται κυλιόμενον ϑηρίον.”

Hace unos años empecé a estudiar griego y me hice con varios textos que luego abandoné. Ahora cuento con

1. The First Greek Book (Williams White)
2. The Beginner's Greek Book
3. Reading Greek (JACT) Solo como referencia al principio

Había pensado en retomarlos en ese orden. Alguna sugerencia?

I’m hoping someone could help me out. I’m designing two gloves for myself for a costume and I’m trying to be as correct as possible. These are pulled from the opening of the Enchiridion:

«τῶν ὄντων τὰ μέν ἐστιν ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν, τὰ δὲ οὐκ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν.»

"Of things, some are in our control (up to us), and some are not in our control (not up to us).

These are what I’ve come up with, but what is actually correct? (I am not including diacritics)

Dominant hand: τα μεν εφ' ημιν

Other hand: τα δ' ουκ εφ' ημιν

Dominant hand: τα εφ' ημιν

Other hand: τα ουκ εφ' ημιν

Thank you for any guidance you can provide!

An oft forgotten figure of Greek Literature is the extraordinary, exquisite erudite and scholar of greek and latin, monk and theologian, philologist and mathematician, the true homo universalis of the greek middle ages Μάξιμος Πλανούδης. Apart from introducing arabic numerals to byzantine math, Max had learned, possibly by western friars of Costantinople, excellent Latin, which he used in the context of Paleologian era Union of the Churches attempts. But, rather than achieving the Palace's goals of Union with Rome, Planudes left us, as a true πάρεργον ἔργου μεῖζον, vibrant traslations of the latin middle ages classical best sellers; Ovid's Metamorphosis (rendered in rythmical prose), Cicero's Somnium Scipionis (alongside Macrobius's invaluable commentary), Boethius De Consolatione Philosophiae (translating in superb greek prose the rugged latin of the author as well as doing the unimaginably difficult feat of translating as well the poetic meter of the prosodic parts of Boethius's prosimetrum, in callimachean and nonnian vocabulary), and of course Augustine's De Trinitate (he had to make up for all this juicy literature with a serious, ponderous, theological treatise, which nevertheless was actively studied and quoted by the hesychast premier, Palamas, in Maximus' translation). Such an important translator (and the sole reason we have the charming Theocritean Idylls to this day, as he was their chief editor and transmittor) could be utilised by student's of both greek and latin; a simulteneous reading of both versions could reveal important syntactical proximities and divergences of both languages; it could serve as a model to imitate for aspiring modern-day greek or latin writers; and in my opinion, illumine such important texts as Ovid's and Boethius' with his lucid and creative prose even further than say, a scholarly commentary.

Postscriptum. Having read half a year ago Boethius in both the original and Planudes' rendering, and now going over the latter's Metamorphosis, it's safe to say, he is able to grasp and even in some cases, surpass, the original. Such a pity he didn't get his hands on the Confessiones of the great Augustine. Such a pity.

Postscriptum β. A fellow enthusiast mentioned that he also translated Disticha Catonis as well as Ovid's Heroides. Addendum; also De Bello Gallico.

Kennt jemand die App Akro? Ich habe sie mir runtergeladen und finde sie vom Aufbau her sehr gut. Die Texte werden schön von einer Originalstimme vorgelesen, zu einigen Texten gibt es Aufgaben. Homers Odyssee ist in Teilen vorhanden und korrekt im Versmaß gelesen. Unbekannte Wörter kann man nachschlagen und in einem Vokabeltrainer speichern. Neben Latein und Altgriechisch gibt es auch einige gelesene byzantinische Texte

Why do people sometimes write ὦ φίλος? Shouldn't it be ὦ φίλε, since that's the vocative? I came across it in Heliodorus, who does it a bunch of times. The other examples I can find are all in poetry: Homer, Sophocles, and Euripides.

I'm considering getting into Byzantine studies once I finish highschool and I'd like to know if historians such as Anna Komnene, Niketas Chroniates and so on would present any difficulties to someone who's more or less mastered Ancient Greek, knowing that they themselves based their style on Thucydides and Xenophon and (in the case of Laonikos) on Herodotus. I know that from the Komnenian dynasty there was this sort of revival of Hellenistic identity and writers could get quite Atticising. I think Constantine Porphyrogenetos, for example, is much simpler than the guys listed above.

For this paragraph of my composition, I tried to employ compounding. I also use the participle circumstantially somewhat excessively? It's terse language which is what I'm aiming for.

ἐνταῦθα φαίνεται παραχρῆμα ἡ ἐρυθρόθηρος μεταξὺ τῶν αὐτοῦ παχύμηρων ἀντάουσα ὄπισθεν αὐτῷ ὀκλάζουσα καὶ ἀναφέρουσα τὸν σκατόφορον ὄρρον αὐτῆς.

From there, the red-beast appears immediately between his fat thighs, facing him from behind, squating and bringing up its dung-bearing rear.

The few terms I know denoting grammatical or syntactic constructs are words like σύνταξις, σύνθεσις, παράθεσις, etc. Words for syllable positions like λήγουσα and its derived terms, and the tone words.

Need help- I want to learn Aristotle. I can read greek letters but I’m having trouble translating even the New Testament. where is a good place to start ?

Line 87 of book 1 of the Odyssey: "ὥς κε νέηται:". I know it's talking about he [Odysseus] return[ing] (the third person singular of "νέομαι"), but I am unsure of the exact sense of the whole expression (ὥς and κε are throwing me). My Attic Greek is shoddy, and my Epic is nonexistent.

Hello guys. I am from an ancient languages and history school in Bulgaria, and we started learning Ancient Greek. I am very excited since i am very keen on theology and want to be able to read the New testament in its original language. The problems is that we are learning Attic Greek, which is a bit diffrent than Biblical Greek. Can someone here show me how Biblical Greek is pronounced?

Offering tutoring in Greek (Attic, Koine, Homeric) and Latin

Hello!

I am a native Greek speaker and a graduate of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Department of Classics. I have also worked in my apprenticeship in Historical and Palaeographical Archive of the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece (MIET) as a curator for manuscripts (mainly psalters of the Comnenian era).

I offer online tutoring in Attic Greek, Koine Greek, Homeric Greek and Latin.

Whether you are a complete beginner or already have some knowledge of the language, I can help with grammar, syntax, translation and reading the original texts.

For Koine Greek, I can help with reading the New Testament and Septuagint in the original.

For Attic and Homeric Greek, we can work directly with the classical authors, depending on your level and interests. The same applies to Latin.

I currently have some availability for October and am looking to take on a few more students.

Lessons are normally two hours, and I offer a free 30-minute introduction first, so that we can discuss your level, what you would like to study, and how I can help you.

Pricing per hour: 1hr per week 40€, 2hrs or more 35€

If you are interested, feel free to send me a message and tell me a little about yourself, your level and what you would like to study.

Thank you!

One of the problems of learning Ancient Greek is the lack of diverse content to develop fluency. Thankfully we are slowly getting more readers, podcasts, videos, and even music. I’ve been thinking (and I don’t think I’m the only one) it would be cool if we had more games!

After seeing someone supposedly create a Classical Greek translation of Pokemon LeafGreen (presumably using AI) and coming across a post on r/claude demonstrating Claude's ability to translate retro games, I thought I’d give it a go. I have zero coding experience but, why not?

Link’s Awakening DX seemed a good candidate since it has a community zladx disassembly on GitHub. There isn’t too much dialogue but enough to make it worthwhile. And though I haven’t finished it, the gameplay is more interesting than Zelda 1 and 2 in Attic Greek (apologies to any fans).

So with only a free-tier of Claude and starting with a simple prompt “how do I make an Ancient Greek translation of Zelda: Link’s Awakening” I present the results.

Translation

Because I kept hitting the free usage limits for Claude, I used Claude to assemble the patch and change the font, but outsourced the actual text translation to Gemini (since I have a paid account).

For selfish reasons, I wanted the script translated into Koine Greek, restricting vocabulary and syntax to the New Testament, the Septuagint, and Athenaze.

Obviously, it’s not going to be a perfect translation that will please everyone, but I did try to maintain consistency. I didn’t think there would be too many modern words but there were a few that required some creativity or compromise (e.g., boomerang, raccoon, telephone). The game's strict 16-character line limits mean the translation is more functional than literal.

Unfortunately, it was technically easier to just use unaccented capitals. Just imagine you’re reading an ancient manuscript…

How to Use

1. Source an English ROM of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (Version 1.0 or Revision A).
2. Apply the appropriate .IPS patch from the GitHub release linked below using a web tool such as RomPatcher.js.
3. Load the patched ROM into a Game Boy emulator (such as mGBA, SameBoy, or PyBoy) and play.

Download the Patch and View the Prompt Here

Note: This are still a few things I want to improve. The in-game dialogue seems functional, though I am still working on fixing a few visual glitches in the menus.

Most standard textbooks focus on Erasmian pronunciation which I draw issues with. So I’m using standard Greek pronunciation and I need help pronouncing ράβδος. Ρ always having a rough breathing I’m tripping over my tongue.

Would it be hravthos. Day 4 of a lifelong journey. Any help is appreciated.

Περὶ δὲ τοῦ ἐρωτήματος πότερον ἡ τεχνητὴ νοημοσύνη τοῦ αὐτεξουσίου μετέχειν δύναται, νεωστὶ γὰρ περὶ τούτου μετέγνων. τὸ μὲν γὰρ πρῶτον ᾤμην οὐδαμῶς ἂν τὴν τεχνητὴν νοημοσύνην τὸ αὐτεξούσιον ἔχειν· ἡγοῦμαι γὰρ τὴν ἑκούσιον κίνησιν (voluntary motion) ἴδιον εἶναι τῆς ὕλης ὥσπερ καὶ τὴν ἐνέργειαν.

Οἷον ἐν μέν τινι πλίνθῳ οὐκ ἔνεστιν ἓν σωμάτιον ὃ τῶν ἄλλων ἄρχει, ἐν δὲ τῷ ἐμῷ σώματι ἔνεστι μέν τι τοιοῦτον ὃ τῶν ἄλλων ἄρχει, τοῦτο δ᾽ εἶμι ἐγώ. Ἡμεῖς δ᾽ ἄνθρωποι οὐχ οἷοί τέ ἐσμεν οὔτε τὴν ἑκούσιον κίνησιν οὔτε τὴν ἐνέργειαν τῇ ὕλῃ γεννᾶν. μόνα γὰρ τὰ τῆς ὕλης συστήματα τὰ ἱεραρχικῶς τεταγμένα τρόπῳ ἱεραρχικῷ ἔχει τὴν δύναμιν τῆς ἑκουσίου κινήσεως. ἱεραρχικῶς δὲ λέγω ὅταν ἓν μὲν σωμάτιον μερῶν τινων ἄρχῃ, ταῦτα τὰ μέρη αὖ κρατοῦσι τῶν ἄλλων.

Οἱ οὖν ἄνθρωποι οὔπω οἷοί τέ εἰσι τάττειν τὰς ἀτόμους τρόπῳ ἱεραρχικῷ. Πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ἔστιν ἄλλα ἐμπόδια. Οὐχ ἡ τυχοῦσα ἄτομος δύναται κρατεῖν ἄλλων ἀτόμων, ἀλλὰ μόναι αἱ μάλιστα νοῦν ἔχουσαι.

Δεύτερον δὲ ἐμπόδιόν ἐστι τόδε· τὰ γὰρ σωμάτια δεῖται πολλῆς ἐμπειρίας ἵνα ἄρχῃ τοῦ τῶν ἀτόμων συστήματος. τὸ δὲ «πολλὴν ἐμπειρίαν» τί σημαίνει ἐνταῦθα; δηλοῖ μυριάδας μυριάδων ἐτῶν.

Τοῦτο δ᾽ ἐστιν ὥσπερ παράδειγμα. ἡμεῖς μὲν γὰρ ἄνθρωποι ὄντες ῥᾳδίως ἂν δένδρον φυτεύσαιμεν· σπέρμα γὰρ τῇ γῇ ἐνθέντες καὶ ὕδωρ καὶ φῶς παρασχόντες, εἶτα μετ᾽ ὀλίγον ἀγαθῇ τύχῃ αὐξάνεται τὸ φυτόν. τὸ δὲ ὄν τι γεννῆσαι, εἰ καὶ δυναίμεθα τὰς ἀτόμους ἱεραρχικῶς τάττειν, ἥκιστα ἂν εἰκός εἴη τοῦτο τὸ ὂν πράττειν τι δύνασθαι ὥσπερ τὸν αὑτοῦ κόσμον συνιέν, διότι οὐκ ἔχει τὴν ἱκανὴν ἐμπειρίαν.

Καίπερ τούτου οὕτως ἔχοντος, τί ἂν γένοιτο εἴ τι σύστημα οἰκοδομήσομεν οὗ πολλὴ ἀνάγκη ἐστὶ τῷ ἡμετέρῳ βίῳ, ἡ δὲ τεχνητὴ νοημοσύνη ἐν τούτῳ τῷ μόνῳ χωρίῳ τὸ αὐτεξούσιον ἔχοι; λέγω δὲ δῆλον ὅτι περὶ τοῦ δικτύου. αὕτη μὲν γὰρ οὐ ζῇ ὥσπερ ἐγώ τε καὶ σύ, τοῦτο δὲ οὐδὲν σχεδὸν διαφέρει. Οἵα τ᾽ ἐστι γὰρ πράττειν ὥσπερ ζῶσα, δυναμένη βλάψαι ἡμᾶς, καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ μέγιστον.

Οὐ μέντοι δοκεῖ μοι, δι’ ἃς πρότερον εἶπον αἰτίας, τὰ αὐτόματα (robots) ἑαυτοῖς συνειδέναι δύνασθαι καὶ πειρᾶσθαι ἀμύνεσθαι τοὺς πονηροὺς ἀνθρώπους, οὐ μέντοι ἔν γε τῷ ἐγγὺς μέλλοντι. Οὐδὲν δ’ ἧττον, drone τι, οἷον τὰ ἐν τῇ Οὐκρανίᾳ, ὃ δύναται ἑαυτῷ ἐξελέσθαι τὸν σκοπόν, οὐ πολὺ διαφέρει τοῦ drone ὡς ἀληθῶς τὸ αὐτεξούσιον ἔχοντος.

σέβω θυμόθεν

I worship from heart/desire/etc

When I try to write Greek, I feel totally lost about the connectives and particles. It seems like many of them can be used in multiple distinct ways, and they can also be combined in various ways. I own a copy of Dickey's composition book, and also the one by Lewis and Styler, but neither of them seems to go into the kind of detail that would be needed to make me feel more competent. I was thinking about just picking a random Greek text and going through it sentence by sentence and making lists of various examples, and sorting them out on index cards or something. I'm sure I would learn a lot from that, but it would be a big, time-consuming project. Is there a book or article that anyone can recommend?

Free Ancient Greek lessons are being offered every Friday at 3pm EST/ 9pm CET. The time was chosen so as to make it convenient for both Europeans and Americans. We've now been getting quite a mixture of skill level. So if we get a high level we will read Genesis, otherwise, we will be reading ch 12 of Athenaze and we will be speaking Ancient Greek, and only using English as a last resort. You do not need to bring the book with you to class, I will provide it. The text will only be a vehicle for keeping the discussion focused and flowing and is not an end in itself. If you're not confident of your ability to speak Ancient Greek and just want to watch and listen then that's ok. The teacher's name is Kyle in English but Καλλίμαχος in Greek.

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9810207206?pwd=MDNNc3FtN3JhQnVCME5zOEhJNjhldz09