I just need help with 2 Greek Words please - tatoos

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allgreektome
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I just need help with 2 Greek Words please - tatoos

Post by allgreektome »

Can somebody please help me translate these two tatoos in greek letters? Thank you so much!

Damoetas
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Re: I just need help with 2 Greek Words please - tatoos

Post by Damoetas »

The first one, μολὼν λαβέ, means "Come and take (them)." It's the answer that the Spartan king Leonidas gave to the Persian emissaries at Thermopylae when they told him to lay down his arms. I'm not sure about the next one: it looks like ΗΤΑΝΗΕΠΙΤΑΣ, which doesn't mean anything in ancient Greek. It could be part of a Modern (or Byzantine?) Greek sentence: ήταν η επί τας... "Was the (something) upon/against the (somethings)..." I would need more context to know for sure - does anyone else have any ideas?
Dic mihi, Damoeta, 'cuium pecus' anne Latinum?

modus.irrealis
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Re: I just need help with 2 Greek Words please - tatoos

Post by modus.irrealis »

The second one is also Spartan themed, and in Doric Greek. It's ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς "either it or on it", where it refers to the shield, and is supposedly what Spartan mothers told their sons when they went off to war, that either they come back with their shield (because they won) or on it (because they died fighting), but alive without it would mean they threw it away and ran from the battle.

allgreektome
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Re: I just need help with 2 Greek Words please - tatoos

Post by allgreektome »

Wonderful - wow thank you both SO MUCh for your help! :-)

Damoetas
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Re: I just need help with 2 Greek Words please - tatoos

Post by Damoetas »

Aaaaah, that saying! I had heard it in English, but never knew what the Greek for it was....
Dic mihi, Damoeta, 'cuium pecus' anne Latinum?

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Scribo
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Re: I just need help with 2 Greek Words please - tatoos

Post by Scribo »

Damoetas wrote:Aaaaah, that saying! I had heard it in English, but never knew what the Greek for it was....
To be fair, I KNEW the Greek and couldn't work it out, I was looking at it as if it was one HUGE nonsensical word...
(Occasionally) Working on the following tutorials:

(P)Aristotle, Theophrastus and Peripatetic Greek
Intro Greek Poetry
Latin Historical Prose

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