# Ancient Greek- citizen of mean city



## reylagarto

Hi everyone

I am trying to translate a phrase in English to Ancient greek or at least Greek. The phrase is "Citizen of Mean City". Google traslator throws the following: πολίτης της πόλης μέση     although i think that instead of μέση I should use πρόστυχος but not sure so I would be extremely grateful if someone who knows greek could confirm, and also the grammar configuration. Maybe it should be like this: πολίτης μέση πόλης ? 

Basically i am trying to combine the phrase in English ( extracted from Huxley's " Those barren leaves" with a phrase appearing on the Bible Acts book ( originally supposed to be writen in Greek) which says as follows: 39 Και ο Παύλος είπε: Εγώ είμαι άνθρωπος Ιουδαίος από την Ταρσό, πολίτης επίσημης πόλης τής Κιλικίας· και, σε παρακαλώ, δώσε μου την άδεια να μιλήσω προς τον λαό.
(ACTS 21:39) for a tattoo. Although the phrase in the book says basically the contrary and it is hard for me to get the new meaning in Greek as the original speech seems to use "official city" instead of "no mean city", as it was used to translate the Bible. I would like to keep the same meaning in Huxley's novel but respecting as much as posible the original from the Acts book.

Many thanks for any contribution with this. 

Reylagarto


----------



## anthodocheio

*Here *you have the original text:
εἶπεν δὲ ὁ Παῦλος· Ἐγὼ ἄνθρωπος μέν εἰμι Ἰουδαῖος, Ταρσεὺς τῆς Κιλικίας, *οὐκ ἀσήμου *πόλεως πολίτης· δέομαι δέ σου, ἐπίτρεψόν μοι λαλῆσαι πρὸς τὸν λαόν.


----------



## reylagarto

anthodocheio said:


> []you have the original text:
> εἶπεν δὲ ὁ Παῦλος· Ἐγὼ ἄνθρωπος μέν εἰμι Ἰουδαῖος, Ταρσεὺς τῆς Κιλικίας, *οὐκ ἀσήμου *πόλεως πολίτης· δέομαι δέ σου, ἐπίτρεψόν μοι λαλῆσαι πρὸς τὸν λαόν.



Many thanks. But if you could tell me just how would you translate "Citizen of mean city" mostly using that text, that would be helpful, as I do not know anything about Greek.

Thanks again and regards, 
Reylagarto


----------



## Perseas

Hi,

"οὐκ ἀσήμου πόλεως πολίτης" means -keeping the same word order- "of no mean city citizen".

If you are interested only in the translation of "Citizen of mean city" in relation to the text, it would be: "Πολίτης ασήμου πόλεως".


----------



## reylagarto

Perseas said:


> Hi,
> 
> "οὐκ ἀσήμου πόλεως πολίτης" means -keeping the same word order- "of no mean city citizen".



Thanks! 
What should I have to remove from that phrase to remove the negative from "mean"? Also, I think I will use that order as thats the one appearing on the Bible. Any help appreciated. 

Best regards


----------



## Perseas

Hi reylagarto,

I have added some more information in my previous post, which you may have not seen yet. If you still have a question, let me know!


----------



## reylagarto

Perseas said:


> Hi reylagarto,
> 
> I have added some more information in my previous post, which you may have not seen yet. If you still have a question, let me know!



Thank you Perseas! 

Just want to comfirm google translator does not work as it is translating this as citizen of SILVER City, which should be the opposite of MEAN City (also could you please provide the pronunciation in english - e.g. "politis" for one of the words - for the other 2 words? That would be very very helpful for me)

Sorry for the insistance but this is for a Tatoo so I just want to be sure! 

Thanks for ur help, very much appreciated.


----------



## Perseas

> Just want to comfirm google translator does not work as it is translating this as citizen of SILVER City, which should be the opposite of MEAN City



Google translates "ασήμου" as "of silver" because "ασήμι" means "silver" in Modern Greek, but in this phrase this translation is wrong. "Άσημος" means also "insignificant, unimportant, unknown" which is the correct translation here.



> could you please provide the pronunciation in english - e.g. "politis" for one of the words - for the other 2 words?


/po'litis a'simu 'poleos/


----------



## anthodocheio

reylagarto said:


> Thanks!
> What should I have to remove from that phrase to remove the negative from "mean"? Also, I think I will use that order as thats the one appearing on the Bible. Any help appreciated.
> 
> Best regards


Hello again rey lagarto! 

As Perseas said, "οὐκ ἀσήμου πόλεως πολίτης" means -keeping the same word order- "of no mean city citizen".

The word that you have to remove is "ουκ". 
I give you the pronunciation of the rest as it would be written in spanish: asímu póleos polítis.

Saludos


----------



## reylagarto

Thanks very much to both of you. This quote is very important for me, plus this will be my first tatoo!! Hence double importance. Will all my life appreciate your help. 

Cheers,
Reylagarto


----------

