For years I have known of the book Sprechen Sie Attisch? Moderne Konversation in altgriechischer Umgangsprache nach den beste attischen Autoren (Do you speak Attic? Modern Conversation in ancient Greek, um, around-going-language, according to the best Attic authors). I could never find a copy and all the online versions were hidden behind snippet views. So I ordered a copy a few months ago from a publish-on-demand place. One week later, it finally appeared in full on google books.
If you can handle the fraktur and know German, it’s an interesting book. However, some of the conversational items are hysterical and make one wonder about the author. For example, in section 2, “Wie Geht’s?” (how’s it going?), one of the answers is “Ich habe gar keine Freude mehr am Leben — ο?δεμίαν ἔχω τῷ βίῳ χά?ιν”, “I have no more joy in life.” Is this really a good answer to a simple social pleasantry? Another lovely one is on the same page, under “how do you feel”: “Sie haben doch wohl die Seekrankheit — ναυτιᾷς δήπου”, “You are, I suppose, seasick.”
Unfortunately the book is less about conversations than it is a Berlitz guide, statements organized by topic. Reading any section in order as a dialogue would be Dada.
But that is also very important, should you for some reason run into Socrates tomorrow! What ever would you do if you weren’t able to say ‘I have absolutely no more joy of life’ to him?
It seems to me that the author was presenting the possible spectrum of answers to the question. For Wie geht es Ihnen?' there are given various answers from Danke, es geht mir ganz wohl.‘-πάντ’ ἀγαθὰ π?άττω, ὦ φίλε(I’m doing all good, my friend.) to `Es steht schlecht mit mir.'-φαῦλόν ?στι τὸ ?μὸν π?ᾶγμα.(Thing(s) of mine is(are) miserable. (sc. pl.))
The author might have wanted his reader to be serious and straight forward in what they said, without screening their real thought and feeling in superficial smiles and airs.
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Anyway, thanks for good find, William!
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In p.79(p.85 of the pdf file) it bears the answer to my old question:
Periander: μελέτη τὸ πᾶν. (Übung macht den Meister.-Practice makes the master.)
In the same page it bears the answer to another question of mine about a quote I heard (but not recognized then) on an American TV series - dubbed in Korean - many years ago. In one of the show, villagers were having trouble in deciding how to build their new church on a public real estate. And there appears a father and his son who are against building religious building on a public estate. In some context the son, watching the villagers disputing, says something Greek and interprets that it meant too many ferrymen'' (in reference to a Korean proverb Ten(Many) ferrymen and the boat goes up the mountain,‘’ something similar to ''Too many cook spoils the broth." - for it was dubbed in Korean) It was one of my high school days and since then it occurred to me, from time to time, what on earth that quote was in Greek? The question occurred to me a couple of weeks ago again. Now I see I have to turn to one of the seven sages for such a question.
I remember the Greek quote was very brief, just a few syllsbles. And the example in this book shows the close hit:
Bias: οἱ πλεῖστοι κακοί (Viele Köche verderben den Brei. - Too many cook spoils the broth.)
