στρατια - στρατος

Greek Learning Greek
1

One is feminine, the other masculine. What’s the difference in meaning?

Thanks.

2

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dstratia%2F

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dstrato%2Fs

3

Thanks for your reply - I guess my question was not clear: I knew they mean “army”, my question is “why two genders?”

4

In this respect, usually feminine nouns denote “containers” or multitude of something among other things. Compare cases like ὁ ἵππος vs ἡ ἵππος, (ἄμμος, ψῆφος, σφαῖρα-σφαῖρος etc), masc. meaning one horse, sand, vote, fem. meaning a group of horses, sand or votes.
Masculines denote an “actor” or the external appearance of the thing in question. (There are some other details to this, but it needs time…)

In your case, στρατιά would mean/emphasise the multitude of solders composing an army, while στρατός should be used when the army (as a total object in itself) is acting.

I don’t know if that answers your question.

5

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=als&la=greek Might this example works too.