Some Greek Words

Some ancient Greek words are particularly difficult to translate and even difficult for us to understand. Here are some of the words that turn up in philosophy.

Democracy	demokratia	Athenian democracy was the rule of the male citizens, voting in the Assembly. Election for office was rare, most offices being filled by random chance. There were no legally guaranteed civil liberties.
Oligarchy	oligarchia	Rule by a small group. The "oligarchy of the Thirty" ruled for a time after the war with Sparta, and was generally hated.
Aristocracy	aristokratia	Rule by the best people. In Plato at least, this means the people who were really the morally and intellectually best.
City, State	polis	A Greek city, its people, or its government. Most cities were independent, making their own laws and their own foreign policy.
Barbarian	barbaros	A non-Greek-speaking foreigner. The word is believed to have come from an imitation of the foreigner's words: "bar-bar-bar."
Foreigner	xenos	A Greek-speaking citizen of another polis. The word also means "guest."
Good	agathos	Usually applied to what is good in a cooperative or non-competitive sense. Most of the things we usually call good are in this category.
Beautiful	kalos	Really closer to "noble," or what is worthy of praise. What we call beautiful is in this category, but also abilities that are admirable, but not suitable for a settled society, such as being a clever thief.
Virtue, excellence	arete	A well-developed ability that is useful to the community. Plato and Aristotle try to limit the word to moral and intellectual abilities.
Apology	apologia	In Greek, the speech given by the defendant in a trial.
Man	aner, anthropos	Greek distinguished between "man" in the sense of "male"(aner) and "man" in the sense of "human" (anthropos). The translators do not always show this distinction.
Wisdom	sophia	Wisdom is understanding, seeing how things fit together. It is not the same thing as knowledge.
Word	logos	A very complex word. It means "word," "reason," sometimes "thought."
Love	(several words)	There was no word in Classic Greek for "love" in our sense. What is translated as "love" may be friendship, fondness, special concern, sexual attraction.
God, god	theos	The Greeks had many gods. When the word appears in a text, it means either "a god" without saying which, or (more often) the god appropriate to the situation. In Plato, especially in the Apology, "the god" is usually Apollo, the god of philosophy. Translators too often capitalize the word, but the God of Judaism was unknown to the Greeks.
soul	psuche	The principle that accounts for a living thing acting in its particular way. Thus the human soul is what makes us live, think, and decide. The Greek word has no special religious significance, and there was no agreement as to what happens to our souls after we die.
Piety, holiness	hosia	Action that is religiously appropriate. One thing that is involved is an awareness that you are not a god. There was considerable discussion about just what else was involved.

ATHENE

M. Barnes 1999; rev. 2001

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