Λαίθαργος

secretly-biting

Translated by Oliver Phillips ✝21 Aug 2005Vetting: high4 revisions

3 notes · 38 words

[Meaning one who is] biting for hire.¹
"You wag your tail while biting, and you are a secretly-biting bitch."² A proverb applying to people who, to be sure, pretend to be well disposed but are plotting in secret.³

Greek original · Adler’s text

Λαίθαργος· λατροδήκτης. σαίνεις δάκνουσα καὶ κύων λαίθαργος εἶ. παροιμία ἐπὶ τῶν ὑποκρινομένων δῆθεν εὐνοεῖν, ἐπιβουλευόντων δὲ λάθρα.

Betacode

*lai/qargos: latrodh/kths. sai/neis da/knousa kai\ ku/wn lai/qargos ei)=. paroimi/a e)pi\ tw=n u(pokrinome/nwn dh=qen eu)noei=n, e)pibouleuo/ntwn de\ la/qra.

Notes (3)

1The gloss latrodh/kths occurs only here, and surely ought to be laqrodh/kths 'secretly-biting', as in Phrynicus the Atticist Praeparatio sophistica 87 and Suetonius *peri\ blasfhmi/wn 4.52. ↩
2Sophocles fr.885, quoted twice -- as proverbial -- in the scholia to Aristophanes, Knights (1031 and 1068). ↩
3cf. lambda 410, sigma 171. ↩

Linked from1 entry

λ410Λήθαργος κύωνlazy dog, lethargic dog[Meaning] one which fawns, but bites surreptitiously. With horses too, the careless and feeble and idle ones are called lazy/lethargic. There is also a particular [sc. medical] condition, with fever, [sc. called…

Neighbouring entries

λ176Λαίεταιis dissolved (?)λ177Λαιετόνantique (?)λ178Λαίθαργοςsecretly-biting λ179ΛαιθυράζωI scoff λ180ΛαικάζωI deceive

Revision history4 revisions · last 28 Feb 2016

28 Feb 2016Revised — Catharine Roth
28 Feb 2016tweaked note — Catharine Roth
4 Apr 2013Revised — David Whitehead
22 Aug 2005supplemented and modified translation; augmented notes and keywords — David Whitehead
21 Aug 2005Translated — Oliver Phillips ✝

Translation

Greek original · Adler’s text

Notes (3)

Linked from1 entry

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