Tattoos and Ancient Greek

[billberg23]

Also, how do you say - confident and intelligent?

βέβαιος και νοήμων

[billberg23]

I really want to get a phrase in ancient greek within a banner around my cross tattoo.  I was thinking about "agape," but actually in greek of course (ancient).  "True Agape" would be better if at all possible.   Thank You So Much!

True love = ἀληθινὴ ἀγάπη             ΑΛΗΘΙΝΗ ΑΓΑΠΗ

[michelle]

Hey im looking to get a tattoo in modern greek that says something like - Courage, Love and Happiness, would someone be able 2 translate that for me? or does anyone have any ideas of words along those lines that would look good? id appreciate any suggestions.
you have a great site going here, very helpful. thanks so much!

[λinaπ]

Hi Michelle,

The words you require, are as follows:

Θάρρος, Αγάπη, Ευτυχία

Hope this helps!

[kerryarron]

So does
πάτερ
Ἀεὶ παρ' ἐμοὶ ἐν καρδίᾳ
mean ' Dad, forever with me in my heart? How do I change it to say Dad, forever in my heart?
Sorry if I seem slow to reply, but I am still trying to get my head around the forum!

[wings]

So does
πάτερ
Ἀεὶ παρ' ἐμοὶ ἐν καρδίᾳ
mean ' Dad, forever with me in my heart? How do I change it to say Dad, forever in my heart?
Sorry if I seem slow to reply, but I am still trying to get my head around the forum!

Hi, there!

No need to change anything - there is no difference in Ancient Greek for either meaning you want.

[billberg23]

How do I change it to say Dad, forever in my heart?

Or, if you need fewer words, you can write
Πάτερ, ἀεὶ ἐν καρδίᾳ μου

[kerryarron]

How do you say:
Love hurts?

[billberg23]

How do you say:
Love hurts?

Ancient or modern Greek?
The ancients actually spoke of the γλυκύπικρον ἔρωτος βέλος, the "bittersweet arrow of love."

[Gitane]

Good question, Gitane!  The difficulty is that the ancient Greeks had no concept of “will power” as we conceive it in modern times, or even of “will.”  To Quote from Bruno Snell (The Discovery of the Mind: The Greek Origins of European Τhought, Harvard 1953): 
   But the will … is a notion foreign to the Greeks;  they do not
even have a word for it.  Thelein means “to be ready, to be
prepared for something.”  Boulesthai  is “to view something as
(more) desirable.”  The former denotes a subjective
preparedness, a kind of voluntary attitude devoid of specific
commitment;  the latter refers to a wish or plan (boule) aimed
at a particular object, i.e. a disposition closely related to the
understanding and appreciation of a gain.  But neither word
expresses a realization of the will, the effective inclination of
subject toward object.

For a long time after Homer, the mind was a twofold thing:  the “seeing” mind (nous) and the (e)motive mind (thymos).  What we interpret as the power of the “will” was more often seen by the Greeks as the action of some divine force (daimonion) upon the thymos , moving it toward some object, whether for good or ill.

Even in Homer, however, it is possible for nous  to dominate thymos,  and there, Gitane, we can locate the other concept you bring up, that of “self control.”  In the first book of the Iliad, Athena orders Achilles to put up the sword he has drawn in anger, by bidding him σὺ δ’ ἴσχεο, πείθεο δ’ ἡμῖν (“But you, control yourself, obey us [gods]”).

The most famous expression of self-control was in the second Delphic precept, inscribed in the temple of Apollo at Delphi:  MHΔΕΝ ΑΓΑΝ, “Nothing too much,” of equal rank with the other maxim,  ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΑΥΤΟΝ, “Know yourself.”  Self-knowledge and self-control were associated concepts.  According to Heraclitus (fr. 116), Ἀνθρώποισι πᾶσι μέτεστι γινώσκειν ἑωυτοὺς καὶ σωφρονεῖν, “It is given to all humans to know themselves and to control themselves” — again, mind over emotion, nous over thymos.  In Plato’s Gorgias 491d10, Socrates defines the superior man as σώφρονα ὄντα καὶ ἐγκρατῆ αὐτὸν ἑαυτοῦ, τῶν ἡδονῶν καὶ ἐπιθυμιῶν ἄρχοντα τῶν ἐν ἑαυτῷ, “self-controlled and in possession of himself, governing the pleasures and passions within himself.”

Self-control was famously summed up in the noun sophrosyne.  As Socrates notices in Plato’s Symposium 196c4, εἶναι γὰρ ὁμολογεῖται σωφροσύνη τὸ κρατεῖν ἡδονῶν καὶ ἐπιθυμιῶν, “for it is agreed that sophrosyne is the controlling of pleasures and passions.”

There, Gitane.  And perhaps others on the Forum can contribute other famous instances of sophrosyne  in Greek literature.

Hi billberg23!! First of all i have to say i am really sorry that it took so long to say thank you!!! Thank you so very much for your reply!!! It's is very very clear and it has made me so excited to go read all the literature from the authors you mentioned. Really beautiful quotes you gave me there!! I've been having problems with my computer so that's the reason why it took me so long to reply. But i'm glad to be back here! Again thank you so very very much!!!

Greetz

Gitane

[Tal-C]

hey there, users and moderators!

i've been lurking the site and forum for some time now, and i kinda got carried away with the language! i think im gonna take a greek course next semester... it has nothing to do with what im studying (engineering), but i've come to greatly fond this language!

anyway, the phrase im in need of translation is "he who has no fear of god". i've found all the words already, but i had no idea how to connect them grammatically.

great site, and thanks in advance for any help offered!
Tal.

[billberg23]

Ὃς τὸν θεὸν οὐ φοβεῖται             

Welcome to the Forum, Tal!  Good luck with the Greek, and let us know how it's coming.

[Tal-C]

thanks alot for your quick answer billberg!

writing that phrase in uppercase letters still holds to the meaning, right?
im downloading greek fornt right now. gonna have some photoshop work to do. :-)

[billberg23]

writing that phrase in uppercase letters still holds to the meaning, right?

Right!    OΣ ΤΟΝ ΘΕΟΝ ΟΥ ΦΟΒΕΙΤΑΙ

[Stuart14]

Hi all.

First post, and hopefully an easy question, although I guess I should have posted this in the Tattoo thread, Sorry!

We named our daughter Callie, which has a Greek derivative, i believe coming from the word for Beautiful.

I wanted to know what the word actually looked like using the Greek lettering, or if possible using Ancient Greek?

Her full name is Callie Parker.

Would it be possible to see it in a gif image, in both the Lithos Pro font and Candara if possible

Thanks in advance!

Stuart