What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger ~ Nietzsche
In all innocence, spunkykitten, you’ve re-introduced what was once a real hot potato on the Forum. A couple of years ago, when a translation was last proposed for this aphorism, a number of members declined to put it into ancient Greek, for various reasons. Here are a few: Apart from the observation that it would be a highly unlikely statement for an ancient Greek to have made, it was argued that the aphorism was crafted by none other than the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. If anything, it should stand in its original German glory, in his very words: Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker. Conversion into ancient Greek would simply not be appropriate, even as an academic exercise.
Another consideration: Nietzsche’s writings had considerable impact worldwide during the last century, and have influenced a number of Greek thinkers, most prominently Nikos Kazantzakis. A beautiful translation of the aphorism already exists in modern Greek: Ό,τι δεν με σκοτώνει με κάνει πιο δυνατό. Why, then, risk a bad job of translating into a dead language, when two perfectly good renderings already exist, one in the original German, and the other in living Greek?
Let us know what you think. And if you like the Greek we’ve given you here, we’ll all be delighted.