How would we say "You're welcome" in Ancient Greek?

Greek Learning Greek
1

Hello everyone.

I would like to ask you a question I have. I know that there are several colloquial expressions to say something similar to “thank you” in Ancient Greek (χάριν σοι ἔχω, χάριν σοι οἶδα, etc.). I have read the post about that question here.

But, is there some kind of reply to that? I mean, something like “you are welcome” or “no problem”. Reading the handbook “Parlare greco oggi” I found the expression οὐδὲν διαφέρει, which means “it means no odds”, “it is not important” (it is one of its possible meanings, following LSJ). Nevertheless, I have not found any usage of that expression in a context of replying to thanksgiving in the TLG.

In Modern Greek, of course, we use παρακαλώ, which you can also use to say “please” (like German “bitte” and like Spanish “por favor”). But παρακαλώ was never used in antiquity with that sense. Obviously, the problem is related to the problem of politeness in Ancient Greece.

The most similar expression I found to “you are welcome” is the expression “thank gods for relating to a person like you” in Aelius Aristides’ Ἱεροὶ λόγοι (284.10-14):

καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις ἤδη ἔλεγον ἀπαλλαξείων, χάριν ὑμῖν, ἔφην, ἔχω, αὐτοκράτορες, πάσης προνοίας καὶ τιμῆς ἥν με τετιμήκατε. οἱ δ’ ὑπολαβόντες, ἡμεῖς μὲν οὖν, ἔφασαν, τοῖς θεοῖς ἔχομεν χάριν πειραθέντες ἀνδρὸς τοιούτου·

"And after that I said to them when I was leaving: “Thank you, Emperors, for all your attention and distinction with which I was treated”. They answered: “We also thank gods for us having the opportunity to relate with a man like you”. (I probably translated it very roughly, because English is not my mothertongue, as you could see).

Anyone could provide with some more information about replying to thanksgiving? πολλὴν χάριν ὑμῖν οἶδα!

2

My instinct would be something like ἀσμένως or ἡδέως on the analogy of the Latin libenter, but I have never actually seen this attested anywhere as a response to a thanks expression, so take it cum grano salis!

3

Here’s what I found.

Protagoras 310 -
ΣΩ. Πάνυ μὲν οὖν· καὶ χάριν γε εἴσομαι, ἐὰν ἀκούητε.
ΕΤ. Καὶ μὴν καὶ ἡμεῖς σοί, ἐὰν λέγῃς.
ΣΩ. Διπλῆ ἂν εἴη ἡ χάρις. ἀλλ’ οὖν ἀκούετε.

Oeconomicus 11 -
…ἤδη μοι λέγε, ἵνα σύ τε ἐφ’ οἷς εὐδοκιμεῖς διηγησάμενος ἡσθῇς κἀγὼ τὰ τοῦ καλοῦ κἀγαθοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἔργα τελέως διακούσας καὶ καταμαθών, ἂν δύνωμαι, πολλήν σοι χάριν εἰδῶ. Ἀλλὰ νὴ Δί’, ἔφη ὁ Ἰσχόμαχος, καὶ πάνυ ἡδέως σοι, ὦ Σώκρατες, διηγήσομαι…

The second seems more like what you’re looking for. [Crossed with Barry, whose ἡδέως is in agreement with this.]

4

From discussions here on Textkit, (i.e., Homeric psychology), it appears that the ancients expected that acts of kindness should be returned in due time. That would explain the great rarity, if not absence, of “you’re welcome” expressions in Classical times. I surmise that it was with Christianity that people started to use them. If one is deeply indebted to God for remission of sins, salvation, eternal life, etc., and he is commanded to forgive his own debtors (Mt. 6:12, Mt. 18:32), he would entreat the person on whom he has bestowed a favor not to worry about reciprocating what is petty in comparison.

5

Yes. I also came up with the idea that the formula χάριν σοι ἔχω is more like a real reply for what someone has done to somebody, than a mere polite compliment (Eleanor Dickey studied the politeness in Ancient Greek and she said that formal treatment did not exist before the political inequality within the Hellenistic world). Thus, it is likely that there is no need for answering to the formula “thank you”, because to say “thank you” was already an answer.

This paper (oldie but goodie) suggested me this idea: https://www.jstor.org/stable/263513

6

I recently found this:

<Χάριν> οἶδά σοι καὶ χάριν ἔχω σοι καὶ χάριν ὁμολογῶ· εὐχαριστῶ δὲ οὐδεὶς τῶν δοκίμων εἴρηκεν.
εὕρηται δὲ τὸ χάριν ἔχω οὐ μόνον ἀντὶ τοῦ εὐχαριστῶ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ εὐχαριστίαν δέχομαι. Θουκυδίδης ἐν τῇ ὀγδόῃ· <χάριν ἂν δήπου ἐν τούτῳ μείζω ἔτι ἔσχεν>, ἤγουν εὐχαριστήθη.

“Thomae Magistri sive Theoduli monachi ecloga vocum Atticarum”, Ed. Ritschl, F. Halle: Orphantropheus, 1832, Repr. 1970. (used in the TLG)


Thus, it is most likely that if you say “thank you” you are already giving an answer to something done to you. So I think.

7

Recently I found two quotes from Plutarch:

ᾗ δὴ καὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι Σμυρναίοις δεομένοις σῖτον πέμψαντες, ὡς ἐθαύμαζον ἐκεῖνοι τὴν χάριν, “οὐδέν,” ἔφασαν, “μέγα· μίαν γὰρ ἡμέραν ψηφισάμενοι τὸ ἄριστον ἀφελεῖν ἑαυτῶν καὶ τῶν ὑποζυγίων ταῦτ’ ἠθροίσαμεν.” οὐ γὰρ μόνον ἐλευθέριος ἡ τοιαύτη χάρις, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς λαμβάνουσιν ἡδίων, ὅτι τοὺς ὠφελοῦντας οὐ μεγάλα βλάπτεσθαι νομίζουσιν. (ΠΩΣ ΑΝ ΤΙΣ ΔΙΑΚΡΙΝΕΙΕ ΤΟΝ ΚΟΛΑΚΑ ΤΟΥ ΦΙΛΟΥ, 64B)

ἀρκεῖ γὰρ οἶμαι τὸ τοῦ Πινδάρου πρὸς τὸν λέγοντα πανταχοῦ καὶ πρὸς πάντας ἐπαινεῖν αὐτὸν εἰπόντος ‘κἀγώ σοι χάριν ἀποδίδωμι· ποιῶ γάρ σ’ ἀληθεύειν. (De vitioso pudore 536c)

The second quote was sent to me by a Ancient Greek teacher from Spain.

Hope this helps!

8

“You’re welcome” is now the conventional response tο “Thank yοu” in English (at any rate in American English), but in ancient Greek, predictably, there’s simply no equivalent form of acknowledgment; the formula is alien even to modern European languages (e.g. “Di niente” in Italian). To use ἡδεως would be frankly absurd without some kind of follow-up, ασμενως even more so.
The two Plutarch excerpts illustrate the point, while they do get a little closer to our own idiom. ουδεν μεγα in the first (~ our “No big deal”) is attended by explanation, as too is the reciprocal thanks in barbed response misattributed to Pindar.

9

Well, obviously not ἡδέως alone, but ἡδέως <ποιήσω>, or whatever, as in the Xenophon example above.

10

As I said. (And Xenophon’s forward-looking καὶ πάνυ ἡδέως σοι, ὦ Σώκρατες, διηγήσομαι … means nothing like “You’re welcome," a closing formula.)