# Classical greek "knowledge is power"



## textor

Dear Colleagues,
I am looking for help regarding translation from original latin "Scientia est potentia" (Knowledge is power) into classical greek.
I don't have any experience in classical greek, nor did I find anything substential on the internet.

EDIT: my only guess is that "knowledge" can be expressed as "ἐπιδτήμη" but I'm not certain.
Thank you all for your time and concern.


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## Yiagos

Knowledge is power = η γνώση είναι δύναμη.

P.S.
1) Ειδικά αν τζογάρεις = if you are a gambler 
2) Επιστήμη = science


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## dmtrs

Yagos' translation is into modern Greek.
In classical Greek that would be:
"γνῶσις δύναμίς ἐστιν" or
"γνῶσις ἰσχὺς ἐστιν".
The word _έπιστήμη _instead of _γνῶσις _would also be correct, as in classical Greek _έπιστήμη _means deep knowledge.

________
ἰσχὺς = power (also valid in Physics), strength
δύναμις = force (also valid in Physics), ability, capability, power, strength


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## Helleno File

Thanks dmtrs. I have no "knowledge" whatsoever of classical Greek but am fascinated by the idea of two words for knowledge, έπιστήμη (with two accents!) implying a deeper understanding. Could you explain a bit more or give examples.

Έντος η γνώση είναι δύναμη!


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## sotos

Helleno File said:


> έπιστήμη (with two accents!)



The first sign is aspiration, not accent.


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## dmtrs

Helleno File said:


> Έντος η γνώση είναι δύναμη!



I think you mean: Όντως (=really) η γνώση είναι δύναμη!

As for the 'two accents' and in addition to Sotos' remark:
In ancient Greek (and in modern Greek up until the mid '80's) all words beginning with a vowel (α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ, ω / αι, ει, οι, υι, ου) or an ρ were written with an aspiration mark on the first letter (or the second, for the compound ones).
The aspiration marks were two: _ψιλὴ_ (᾿) και _δασεία_ (῾).
They were not pronounced in any way in modern Greek (mere relics of 'historical orthography'). In ancient Greek _δασεία _gave an aspirated 'h' sound to words -thus all Greek words with a _δασεία_ begin with an H in English: Hercules, Homer, history, hypothesis... (Ηρακλής, Όμηρος, ιστορία, υπόθεσις/-η...).

Some words though (both in ancient and modern Greek) do have 2 accents (notice δύναμίς in my previous post).
In fact, they have their own accent (the first one) and the accent of the following word, which is called 'εγκλιτική λέξη' (some words can be 'εγκλιτικές', not all).
In modern Greek these are the short forms of possessive and personal pronouns:
Το παράθυρό μου = My window
Άνοιξέ το = Open it.
In ancient Greek they were more, ἐστί(ν) included.

The two accents 'explanation':
In Greek, words can be stressed only in the three last syllables; some words (the 'εγκλιτικές') are pronounced linked with the previous one, resulting the two words sounding as one; therefore, when you say _Το παράθυρό μου_ it sounds _Το παράθυρoμου_, something very difficult to pronounce; the second accent _Το παράθυρόμου/Το παράθυρό μου_ makes it 'pronounceable'.

Knowledge is power, but it also can be boring, I'm afraid...


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## textor

dmtrs said:


> Yagos' translation is into modern Greek.
> In classical Greek that would be:
> "γνῶσις δύναμίς ἐστιν" or
> "γνῶσις ἰσχὺς ἐστιν".
> The word _έπιστήμη _instead of _γνῶσις _would also be correct, as in classical Greek _έπιστήμη _means deep knowledge.
> 
> ________
> ἰσχὺς = power (also valid in Physics), strength
> δύναμις = force (also valid in Physics), ability, capability, power, strength


Thanks dmtrs . Btw dœs "dmtrs"  stand for Δημήτριος / latin "Demetrius" ?


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## dmtrs

Indeed. But that username was not available when I joined the forum.


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## Helleno File

dmtrs said:


> I think you mean: Όντως (=really) η γνώση είναι δύναμη!



Indeed!

I hadn't realised the first "accent" was a breathing mark. The "curl" in one or other direction is barely, if at all, differentiated in modern keyboards.

And thanks too for the expert account of enclisis.  I think I'm right in saying a distinction needs to be made sometimes between:

Ο δάσκαλός μου είπε - my teacher said (enclisis)

_And_

Ο δάσκαλος μου είπε - the teacher told me.  Μου is indirect object and can be written as μού to be absolutely clear.


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## dmtrs

Helleno File said:


> I think I'm right in saying a distinction needs to be made sometimes



also: (Helleno File, post) can be written

You are right. And there is one.
In the modern Greek accent system (μονοτονικό) in cases like:
Ο πατέρας μου είπε
where there's some ambiguity (_*My* father said_ or [_The*_] _Father said *to me*_?)
a distinction is made by using an accent if the (short type of) pronoun is not a possessive but a personal one (2nd case). Therefore we write:
Ο πατέρας μου είπε = _*My* father said
Ο πατέρας μού είπε = [The*] Father said _*to me*.
There's also the possibility to say/write
Ο πατέρας μου μου είπε
where an accent is not needed because the meaning is clear.

In cases like
Ο δάσκαλός μου είπε
the fact that μου is a possessive pronoun is clear for a native speaker.
Note that in this case we pronounce
[Ο δάσκαλός μου] + [είπε]
while in the case of a personal pronoun the words are linked differently and we pronounce
[Ο δάσκαλος] + [μου είπε] and there's no second accent on δάσκαλος.
The lack of a second accent in this case makes it (I think) unnecessary to use an accented _μού _to indicate a personal pronoun, but the issue is not very clear in Grammar books. (They only mention that we use _μού _instead of μου in case there might be some ambiguity.)

___________________________________________________
*The father doesn't even have to be mine, under circumstances.


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## Andrious

The greek artillery's saying for "knowledge is power".


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