Everyday Expressions that come from Ancient Greece

  1. Achilles' heel:
    • Achilles was made into an undefeatable warrior by being dipped in the River Styx by his Mother, Thetis.
    • Because she held him by his heel, the waters did not touch him, and this was his one vulnerable area.
    • The Phrase has come to mean a person’s weakness.
  2. Between a rock and a hard place:
    • From Homer, in the Odyssey:
    • It means that whichever decision is taken, the result will be equally difficult.
  3. Between Scylla and Charybdis
    • is an idiom from Greek Mythology meaning ‘Between a rock and a hard place’.
    • In the Odyssey, Odysseus has to sail a narrow strait between the two monsters, Scylla and Charybdis, and is advised to sail closer to Scylla and lose only part of his crew, rather than sail closer to Charybdis and lose the whole vessel.
  4. Beware of Greeks bearing Gifts:
    • From Virgil, in the Aeneid.
    • When the Greeks departed Troy, they left behind an offering of a Wooden Horse. The Trojans are warned by Laocoon, “Beware of Greeks bearing Gifts”.
    • This then led to the everyday expression, a Trojan Horse.
  5. Change is the only constant:
    • From Heraclitus. (c.500 BCE)
  6. Cloud cuckoo land:
    • The Playwright Aristophanes (c.446-c.386 BCE) wrote a Play called ‘The Birds’ first shown in 414 BCE.
    • The Hero, Pisthetaerus, asks the birds to create a city in the sky, which will control all the messages between the Gods and Mankind. He named the city ‘Cloud cuckoo land’ or in Greek, ‘Nephelokokkygia’.
  7. Dog in a Manger
    • The expression refers to those who not only do not use something for themselves, but deny it also to others.
    • It is a Fable from Ancient Greece, but does not form part of Aesop's Fables.
    • Diogenianus (1st century CE) refers in his Lexicon to the dog in the manger which does not eat the barleycorns itself, but neither lets the horse eat them either.
  8. Eat to live, and not live to eat
  9. Eureka!
  10. Gordian Knot
    • It is a metaphor for solving an intractable problem with a very simple solution.
  11. Hair of the dog
    • It is a shortened version of ‘to take a hair of the dog that bit you’.
    • It means both to have a drink to alleviate a hangover, but originally it meant a cure against rabies if actually bitten by a dog.
    • The phrase has been attributed to Aristophanes in one of his plays, but without verification.
  12. Halcyon days
    • The Expression ‘Halcyon Days’ means ‘days of peace and calm’, and comes from the Greek Myth of Alcyone and Ceyx.
  13. Hoi polloi
    • This is from the Greek meaning ‘the many’ (people). It was used by Pericles (495-429 BCE) to praise the Hoi polloi ‘the many’ of Democracy in contrast to the Hoi oligoi, meaning ‘the few’ of Oligarchy. In English the term is used mockingly to denote the masses.
  14. Mentor:
    • Athena takes the form of a friendly advisor to counsel Telemachus how to go about finding his missing Father, Odysseus.
  15. Herculean Strength:
    • Hercules was so strong he was invited to carry the World on his shoulders and give Atlas a break.
  16. Herostratic fame
    • The Second Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was burnt down on 21 July 356 BCE by the arsonist Herostratus, who was then executed by the council of Ephesus.
    • He sought fame at any cost, by setting fire to the roof timbers, hence the term ‘Herostratic fame’ meaning Fame at any price.
  17. I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance
  18. It takes a thief to catch a thief
    • This phrase means that the way a dishonest person thinks is more easily understood by another dishonest person.
    • A similar phrase was used by the Greek Poet and Scholar, Callimachus (310-240 BCE).
  19. Midas Touch:
    • King Midas was given a gift whereby everything he touched turned to Gold. Unfortunately, so did his daughter after rushing to greet him, and he had to ask for the gift to be reversed.
  20. Moderation in all things
    • First attributed to Cleobulus of Lindos (lived c.600 BCE), one of the Seven Sages of Greece.
    • Also repeated as ‘Modus omnibus in rebus’ by the Roman Playwright Plautus (254-184 BCE).
  21. Necessity is the mother of invention:
    • Meaning that a challenging problem will inspire an ingenious solution.
      Attributed to Plato (428-328 BCE) in his Work ‘Republic’
  22. One swallow does not a summer make
  23. Rise from the Ashes
    • The Phoenix was a mythical bird that was consumed by flames and then remerged from the ashes of its funeral pyre intact.
    • The expression is often used to indicate the rebirth of a person, city or career after being completely wiped out.
  24. Sword of Damocles
    • Although the story comes from Cicero, the original source is a Greek historian named Timaeus of Tauromenium from his now lost Histories of Greece, Sicily and Rome.
    • Damocles was praising good fortune and immense power that King Dionysius wielded.
    • Dionysius invited Damocles to swop chairs, so he could sit on the throne, and feel the power for himself.
    • After Damocles had sat in the throne, Dionysius arranged for a sword to be suspended above it, held only by a horses hair.
    • Dionysius did this to show Damocles, that despite all his power and wealth, his enemies were plotting against him all the time. Damocles soon begged to leave, realising that with great power comes great peril.
  25. To be a Cassandra:
    • Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy.
    • Cassandra tried to warn the Trojans not to bring the Wooden Horse into the city.
    • She had the gift of Prophesy but was fated never to be believed.
    • The expression means when a person correctly warns others of an impending problem, but is disbelieved.
  26. To open Pandora's Box:
    • From Hesiod, in ‘Works and Days’.
    • The Phrase has come to mean to release a series of problems that were not anticipated.
    • After Prometheus steals Fire from the Gods, Zeus punishes him by sending Pandora to his brother.
    • She opens a Jar (translated sometimes as a box), which she was specifically told not to touch, and releases War, Sickness, Death, and Disease. Too late, she quickly closes the lid again, but Hope is left behind.
  27. Trojan Horse:
    • From Virgil, in the Aeneid.
    • The Greeks appear to give up the siege of Troy, and their fleet departs, leaving behind a gift of a giant wooden horse.
    • The Trojans open the gates and bring the wooden horse inside the city of Troy, despite warnings not to.
    • That night the Greek soldiers hidden inside the wooden horse emerge, open the gates of Troy, and let in the Greek army which had sailed back during the night.
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