[B-Greek] possible meanings of FUSIS ("nature")

Arie Dirkzwager dirkzwager at pandora.be
Wed Aug 18 13:12:43 EDT 2004


Harold,

>Democr. frm. 33
>hH FUSIS KAI hH DIDACH PARAPLHSION ESTI. KAI GAR hH DIDACH METARUSMOI TON
>ANQRWPON, METARUSMOUSA DE FUSIOPOIIEI.
>
> HH: Does this mean something like: "Nature and teaching are similar,
> for also teaching reforms the man, reforming by remoulding to a
> second nature"? Anyway, I can see that FUSIS might be able to refer
> to acquired characteristics.

I would omit "also", but for the sense you are right.


>Euenus frm 9; 2 (D)
>FHMI POLUCRONIHN MELETHN EMENAI, FILE, KAI DH
>TAUTHN ANQRWPOISI TELEUTWSAN FUSIN EINAI.

> HH: Arie, you are kind to send these texts, but I am not skilled in
> classical Greek. Is EMENAI the Epic dialect form of EINAI? What does
> the last I on ANQRWPOISI signify? I can't figure this verse out. Is
> it something like: "I say, if a care is long-standing, friend, also
> then this to men at last is a nature"?

Concerning EMENAI you are right. ANQRWPOISI is epic for ANQRWPOIS.
I would translate:
I say that practicing requires much time, friend, and that this is nature
for men in the end.
Forgive my errors in the English language. It is only my third modern
language.

>Trag. anon.frm. 516
>MELETH CRONISQEIS' EIS FUSIN KAQISTATAI.

> HH: Does this mean: "Care grown up (or: prolonged) is made into one's
> nature"? I don't know what the apostrophe after CRONISQEIS means.

The line is poetry. So there is a metre. The apostrophe stands for an elided
A, MELETH being feminine.
So you get "Practice prolonged is made into one's nature".


> HH: If the book is in Latin, I would have the same problem; it would
> take a lot of study to read it. The author in Eph 2:3 sees FUSIS as
> semantically suggesting LIAN or "plene." That might be so, but we
> still know the basic sense of FUSIS to be "nature."

The book *is* in Latin, I regret.

Yours,

Arie


Dr. A. Dirkzwager
Hoeselt, Belgium
e-mail dirkzwager at pandora.be




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