【古希腊语】简明教程第1课论世界的本质

The Essence of the Cosmos

θαλῆς ὁ φιλόσοφος, εἷς τῶν ἑπτὰ σοφῶν, περὶ τοῦ κόσμου ὧδέ πως λέγει.

Thales the philosopher, one of the seven wise men, about the cosmos thus he says.

ὁ φιλόσοφος: the postpositive appositive

περὶ τοῦ κόσμου: genitive case shows a region

Ὁ κόσμος νόον ἔχει, ὥσπερ καὶ οἱ ἄνθρωποι νόον ἔχουσιν. Ὁ δὲ τοῦ κόσμου νόος θεός ἐστιν.

The cosmos has a mind, just like the men also have a mind. And the mind of the cosmos is god.

Ὁ δὲ τοῦ κόσμου νόος: embedded genitive attributive

Ἀναξίμανδρος δὲ λέγει, ὅτι πολλοὶ κόσμοι εἰσὶν ἐν τῷ ἀπείρῳ καὶ πολλοὶ οὐρανοί.

But Anaximandros says, that many cosmoses there are in the endless and many skies.

ἐν τῷ ἀπείρῳ: dative case shows a location, called 'locative dative'

Τοὺς δὲ οὐρανοὺς ὁ Ἀναξίμανδρος νομίζει θεούς.

But the skies Anaximandros regards as gods.

Τοὺς δὲ οὐρανοὺς θεούς: double accusatives, the first one is object, the second is predicative

Grammar

declension

1. Numbers (numeri): singular, plural, dual

2. Gender (genera): masculine, feminine, neuter

The gender can be seen from the article - ὁ ἡ τό

3. Article (as definite article)

It appears:

A. before a noun or a proper noun: ὁ κόσμος (cosmos), ὁ Σωκράτης (Socrates)

B. before an adjective, an adverb or an infinitive, or a participle: ὁ καλός (the beauty), οἱ νῦν (the contemporary people), τὸ παιδεύειν (the education), οἱ λέγοντες (the speakers)

Article can also be a component of a sentence:

ὁ μέν ... ὁ δέ ..., on the one hand ... on the other hand ...

ὁ δέ, but this

It doesn't appear:

A. before a predicative noun: ὁ κόσμος ζῷόν ἐστιν, the cosmos is a living being

B. before the second accusative of the double accusatives: Ἀναξίμανδρος τοὺς οὐρανοὺς θεοὺς νομίζει, Anaximandros regards the skies as gods

4. Cases: there are 5 cases in Greek

the 1st case: nominative, subject

the 2nd case: genitive, attributive

the 3rd case: dative, indirect object

the 4th case: accusative, direct object

the 5th case: vocative, addressed

5. Declensions: there are 3 declensions, O-declension, A-declension, the 3rd declension

It can be seen from the root and the ending:

κόσμ-ος, ψυχ-ή, φύλακ-ες

O-declension nouns

It includes ος ending nouns (normally masculine) and ον ending neuter nouns.

formation: root + declensional ending

Note

1. The nominative and the accusative for neuter nouns are always the same, singular -ον, plural -α

2. When plural neuter serves as the subject, the verb is usually in singular form:

τὰ ζῷα ψυχὰς ἔχει (the living things have souls)

ἔχει is the 3rd person singular form; the 3rd person plural is ἔχουσιν.

3. Some feminine nouns also adopt O-declension.

ἡ βίβλος (book), ἡ νῆσος (island), ἡ νόσος (illness), ἡ ὁδός (road), ἡ ψῆφος (small stone)

Enclitics

Some words lose their accent to the previous word.

Ὁ τοῦ κόσμου νόος θεός ἐστιν. The ultima of θεός becomes an inner syllable, so that it must use acute.

Θαλῆς φιλόσοφός ἐστιν. ἐστίν loses its accent to the previous φιλόσοφος.

Πολλοὶ κόσμοι εἰσίν. εἰσίν can't lose its accent since if so there would be two adjacent acutes on κόσμοι. And that would produce two rising tones on two adjacent syllables.

There must be a fall before it can be raised again.