Thursday, February 2, 2012

Greek proverb: Ἀγεωμέτρητος

Here's a saying from Apostolius, C1.22, with a Latin version from Clavis Homerica. The image is from Wikipedia. Here are some more Apostolius proverbs.

Ἀγεωμέτρητος μηδεὶς εἰσίτω.
Geometriae ignarus nullus ingrediatur.
Let no one enter who is ignorant of geometry.

You've got to respect a language like Greek which has a single word - Ἀγεωμέτρητος - to mean "without knowledge of geometry." I guess we could say in English: ungeometered. These words were famously the motto of Plato's own school; you can read more about that here at The Campus. The image is from a 14th-century French ms. and it shows a woman (the personification of geometry herself?) teaching math. What great details, too!