Skip to content

Search the Suda

Browse Topics Random About

The Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient world, in English and Greek.

Read

Browse Α–Ω
Topics
Random entry

Project

About & credits
Report an error
Original SOL ↗

Follow

@ReadSuda
@readsuda.org

A new reader for the Suda On Line translation, made by 200+ volunteer translators and editors. Greek text after Adler’s edition. Translations © their translators and SOL, licensed CC BY-NC-SA.

Free · non-commercial · no ads · no accounts[email protected]Maintained with ❤️ by Rick Lithan

⌕Search ΑLetters ⤨Random

Keyboard shortcuts

j: Next entry
k: Previous entry
g: Toggle Greek
/: Search
?: Show shortcuts

Ἐσθλά · [things] good [of their kind] (ε 3141) · Suda

Letters

Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω

Near ε3141

ε3137garments
ε3138clothes, clothing
ε3139Esther
ε3140I eat
ε3141[things] good [of their kind]
ε3142eating
ε3143garment
ε3144there is [a time] when, sometimes
ε3145was limping, was wavering

Suda/Ε epsilon/ε3141

← Previous entry,ε3140 Next entry,ε3142 →

Ἐσθλά

[things] good [of their kind]

Translated by Robert Dyer10 Mar 2003Vetting: high3 revisions

athletics
biography
daily life
definition
dialects, grammar, and etymology
epic
+7

2 notes · 43 words

Translation

[Meaning] beneficial/good [things].
"A good man meets in his turn someone better."¹ “For there is a time when accident counteracts the plans of good men, and again a time when, as the proverb goes, ‘A good man meets in his turn someone better’.”²

Greek original · Adler’s text

Ἐσθλά· ἀγαθά. Ἐσθλὸς ἐὼν ἄλλου κρείττονος ἀντέτυχεν· ἔστι μὲν γὰρ ὅτι καὶ ταυτόματον ἀντέπραξε ταῖς ἐπιβολαῖς τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀνδρῶν, ἔστι δ' ὅτε πάλιν κατὰ τὴν παροιμίαν, ἐσθλὸς ἐὼν ἄλλου κρείττονος ἀντέτυχεν.

Betacode

*)esqla/: a)gaqa/. *)esqlo\s e)w\n a)/llou krei/ttonos a)nte/tuxen: e)/sti me\n ga\r o(/ti kai\ tauto/maton a)nte/prace tai=s e)pibolai=s tw=n a)gaqw=n a)ndrw=n, e)/sti d' o(/te pa/lin kata\ th\n paroimi/an, e)sqlo\s e)w\n a)/llou krei/ttonos a)nte/tuxen.

Notes (2)

The headword (in the neuter plural) refers to things good of their kind. Its definition here comes from the scholia to Homer, Iliad 2.272, where Odysseus’ good services to the army are described. See also Apion, de glossis Homericis fr.74.238.3; Photius, Lexicon epsilon1994; Hesychius epsilon6206; Anecdota graeca, ed. L. Bachmann 1.237.5 and Anecdota Oxoniensia 2.435.30.
1For this proverb (from an unknown elegiac epigram similar to those in the collection ascribed to Theognis) see epsilon 2239, note 2. ↩
2Polybius 15.16.6, here applying the proverb to Hannibal after his defeat by Scipio Africanus at Zama. It exemplifies the Suda's headword, for he was a good man in the sense that he was better (than those he had encountered) at what he did, namely leading an army and fighting battles; in his turn he ran into a better. See the notes at epsilon 2239.

Linked from1 entry

ε2239Ἐπιβολήplan, projectAlso [meaning] an undertaking, a first beginning. Polybius [writes]: "for there is a time when accident counteracts the plans of good men, and again a time when, as the proverb goes, 'A good man meets in his turn…

Neighbouring entries

ε3139ἘσθήρEsther ε3140ἘσθίωI eat ε3141Ἐσθλά[things] good [of their kind]ε3142Ἐσθόμενοςeating ε3143Ἔσθοςgarment

Revision history3 revisions · last 18 Aug 2014

18 Aug 2014coding — Catharine Roth
30 Oct 2012more keywords; cosmetics — David Whitehead
11 Mar 2003augmented keywords; cosmetics — David Whitehead
10 Mar 2003Translated — Robert Dyer

Cite this entry

Suda On Line, s.v. Ἐσθλά (Adler number epsilon 3141), trans. Robert Dyer, 10 Mar 2003. https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/epsilon/3141

Translation by Robert Dyer for Suda On Line, revised by Catharine Roth, David Whitehead, licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Shown unchanged, under the same licence, non-commercially. Original on SOL ↗