1st Paragraph

Translation

In the meantime Dikaiopolis and his slave are working in the field. And when evening falls, they release the oxen and lead them home. At home Murrine and daughter are weaving cloth. While they weave, they talk with one another. After a while mother sees her husband coming into the courtyard. So she stops working and hurries to the door and, "Greetings, husband, she says; come here and do listen. For Philip and Argos have killed a wolf.". And he: "Are you telling the truth? tell me what happened". And so Murrine relates all and he is surprised and says: "Well done indeed; he is brave our child and strong. But tell me. Where is he? For I want to honour the wolf-slayer." And he has in mind to look for his child. But Murrine says: "But stay, dearest, and listen again. For a messenger has come from the city; and he says that the Athenians are organizing the [yearly] festival in honour of (Greek: for) Dionysos. Do you want to take me and our children to the festival?" And he says "But it is not possible, wife; for it is necessary to work. For hunger follows the lazy man, as the poet says: as a result of their deeds (toils, hardships, labours) men become rich in flocks and wealthy."

Words and Expressions

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τὸ ἔργον· ἐξέρχομαι ἐπὶ τὸ ἔργον I go out to work
ὁ πόνος · ἀτέλεστός ἐστιν ὁ ἐν τῷ κήπῳ πόνος. 

τὸ ἔργον is positive, work done or to be done, job, deed achieved
ὁ πόνος is work seen as toil, labour, hardship
πονέω means I work hard, labour, toil, tire myself
ἐργάζομαι means I work, keep busy, achieve
τῷ πόνῳ ἕπεται what? - fatigue, rest, exhaustion, promise of goods to come
τῷ ἔργῳ ἕπεται  what? - satisfaction, fame, reward or blame
ἐθέλομεν ἔργα, οὐ μόνον λόγους.  (We want not just words, but deeds)

ἐργάζομαι,I work

τὸ ἔργον,  work, deed
ἡμεῖς ἐργαζόμεθα, some of us πολύ καὶ αἰεί, some not.
βούλομαι ἐργάζεσθαι ἀλλ' ὁ κύων ὑλακτεῖ. 
    and since the work I'm trying to do consists of recording my reading, the dog's barking is rather unfortunate.

ἡ ἑσπέρα, τῆς ἑσπέρας, evening

So now we know:
   ἡ ἡμέρα, day
   ἡ ἑσπέρα, evening
   ἡ νύξ, τῆς νυκτός, night.
ἐπεὶ δὲ γίγνεται ἡ ἡμερα ἐγειρόμεθα (we wake up).
ἐπεὶ δὲ γίγνεται ἡ ἑσπέρα, ἡσυχάζειν ἐθέλομεν. 
ἐπεὶ δὲ γίγνεται ἡ νύξ, καθεύδειν βουλόμεθα. 

οἴκοι at home

So: First they οἴκαδε βαδίζουσιν .
And then οἴκοι εἰσὶ καὶ δειπνοῦσιν.
-σε or -δε or -ζε like in
ἐκεῖσε 
οἴκαδε 
Ἀθήναζε  denote movement
Practice till you feel the difference between the different forms:
οἴκαδε feels like (going) home
οἴκοι makes you feel like (being) at home. And so on.

ἐν ᾧ δέ while

we've had in lesson 3a:
   ἐν ᾧ δὲ φέρουσι τὸν λίθον, 
      clumsy Xanthias stumbles and drops it on Dikaiopolis' foot
And in lesson 5a:
   ἐν ᾧ δὲ ἄπεισιν ἥ τε Μυρρίνη καὶ ἡ Μέλιττα 
      grandfather works in the garden and the boy and Argos .....
Compare with lesson 3b: Dikaiopolis and slave are working in the field
ἐν δὲ τούτῳ  (and then, something else happens) προσχωρεῖ ὁ Φίλιππος 
We could have expressed that same meaning by replacing ἐν δὲ τούτῳ  by:
ἐν ᾧ δὲ ὅ τε Δικαιόπολις καὶ ὁ δοῦλος πονοῦσιν ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ,
         προσχωρεῖ ὁ Φίλιππος. 
But shorter is better!

διαλέγομαι τῷ φίλῳ

I converse with, talk to my friend
λέγω τῷ παιδί 
     I speak to the child, tell him, the poor thing has no say in it
διαλέγομαι τῷ παιδί 
     I talk to him, I converse with him, and he can have his say, too.
διαλεγόμεθα ἀλλήλοις we converse with each other
διαλέγονται ἀλλήλοις the little children at the back of the class, instead of listening to me
Lots of families οὐ διαλέγονται ἀλλήλοις, don't have much to say to each other any more, so they watch TV instead.
What about you and your family: ἆρ' διαλέγεσθε ἀλλήλοις;

ἡ αὐλή, τῆς αὐλῆς the court, courtyard

ἡ τοῦ κλήρου αὐλὴ μεγάλη ἐστίν. 
ἡ τῆς ἐμῆς οἰκίας αὐλὴ μικρά ἐστιν. 
ἡ αὐλὴ ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ κλήρου ἀγορά. 
ἡ τοῦ βασίλεως αὐλή, court, rather than courtyard.

παύεται ἐργαζομένη, she stops working

παύω τινός I stop [the movement of] somebody, genitive
παύομαι I "pause", stop doing, rain stops falling etc.
Like in English ing form = present participle
παύομαι θεώμενος a film when I find I do not enjoy it.
ἆρ' παύῃ ἐργαζόμενος/ἐργαζομένη ἐπεὶ γίγνεται ἡ ἑσπέρα; 
παυόμεθα φοβούμενοι once we've found out the cause of those things that go bump in the night.

ἡ θύρα, τῆς θύρας a door, as opposed to a gate:
 

ἡ πύλη  single gate and
αἱ πύλαι double gates as we saw in the Minotaur story
ὁ μὲν κῆπος πύλην, ὁ δὲ οἶκος  θύραν ἔχει. 
αἱ τοῦ ἑμοῦ κλήρου πύλαι μέλαιναί εἰσιν. 
What sort of an entrance is there to my farm? (see lesson 7b, supplementary text and the colour of the sails)
πρῶτον μὲν ἀνοίγομεν τήν θύραν, ἔπειτα δὲ εἰσερχόμεθα. Imagine it!)
ἐξερχόμεθα, ἔπειτα δὲ κλείομεν τήν θύραν. Imagine it!
perfect

ἀπεκτόνασιν they have killed

ὁ Φίλιππος ἀπέκτονεν Philip has killed
to kill is              ἀποκτείνειν 
he kills, is killing  ἀποκτείνει 
he has done it     ἀπέκτονε
Like in English I go, I went, I have gone, verbs will change according to function, and function gives us meaning. Greek is a little more elaborate than English in that respect, and therefore also more difficult, for us that is.

ἀληθῆ; is that true?

ἀληθής masculine and feminine
ἀληθές the neuter form of the adjective true
We've seen ἡ ἀλήθεια truth, which gave us Alice, Alicia, the truthful woman, Truth personified
ἀληθὴς φίλος a true friend
τὰ ἀληθῆ is neuter plural: the true things, the things that are true so:
   ἀληθῆ; is that so?

ἐγένετο, became or happened.

γίγνεται, he, she, it becomes, gets (to be)
it is getting dark ἑσπέρα or νὺξ γίγνεται 
it got/had become dark νὺξ ἐγένετο  [so they stopped work]

ἐξηγεῖται she tells, relates, explains

comes from ἐξ and ἡγοῦμαι [ἡγέομαι] I lead
So ἐξηγοῦμαι means 'I lead out of' [ignorance into knowledge], that is 'I explain, tell, relate'
See Murrine standing there relating the whole story, telling all:
   ἰδοὺ τὴν Μυρρίνην τὰ πάντα ἐξηγουμένην

εὖ γε, great! well done!

The Romans too used that phrase: euge! So now you know where it comes from:
   εὖ means well, and
   γε means indeed, emphasis
a euphemism: εὐ and φημί I say, speak
a eu-logy, Eu-gene (well born), eu-phoria etc.

ὁ λυκοκτόνος the wolfslayer

from ὁ λύκος and κτείνειν = ἀποκτείνειν 
We have seen this sound permutation in ἀπέκτονεν he has killed
A wolf-slayer who hasn't killed at least one wolf is not wolf-slayer, so:
   λύκον ἀπέκτονεν, λυκοκτόνος ἐστίν.

τὸ ἄστυ, τοῦ ἄστεως  city

οἰκεῖ ὁ φίλος μου ἐν ἄστει τινὶ London ὀνόματι 
What about going over the forms this city takes.

ὁ θεός, Latin 'deus', meaning 'god'

οἱ τῶν Ἑλλήνων θεοὶ ἐν τῷ Ὁλύμπῳ 
ὁ τῶν Χριστιανῶν  θεὸς ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ 
an atheist is somebody without religion, not believing in god(s).
a means "not, without "
monotheist, only one god is acknowledged
theology: science dedicated to the study of god and religion
But forget about theory and theorem having anything to do with god. These 2 words both come from the verb "to see":
θεορεῖν, θεορέω, θεορεῖς,  
see lesson 4a, the women wanting to see the festival.

ὁ Διόνυσος , τοῦ Διονύσου 

θεός ἐστιν, θεός τοῦ οἴνου 
Wildly sensual and unrestrained revelling usually followed on after celebrations in his honour. We've seen what wine does to a Cyclops:
ὁ Κύκλωψ πίνει τὸν οἶνον καί μεθύει , 
    ἔπειτα δὲ καθεύδει καὶ οἱ Ἀχαιοί.....
The gods we've seen so far, οἱ θεοὶ οὒς γιγνώσκομεν εἰσίν· 

• ὁ Ζεύς, τοῦ Διός, τῷ Διί, τὸν Δία, ὦ Ζεῦ 
     the first and greatest of all Greek gods
• ἡ Δημήτηρ,  ἵλαος ἴσθι, ὦ Δήμητερ 
     lesson 2b, goddess of crops
• ὁ Διόνυσος 
     watches over vineyards and gives us wine

ἀνάγκη ἐστίν there is necessity, it is necessary

We saw in lesson 6b ἡ ἀνάγκη αὐτοὺς έχει necessity compels them.
Refresh your memory and use your imagination.

ὁ λιμὸς ἕπεται τῷ ῥᾳθύμῳ ἀνδρί (hunger)

Moral of the story: If you're lazy, you'll go hungry
ἔστιν πολὺς λιμὸς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ, μάλιστα ἐν τῇ γῇ τῇ Ἀφρίκῃ.
πολλοὶ ἄνθρωποι λιμὸν πάσζουσιν ἐν τῇ Ἀφρίκῃ. 

ἀργός, (ἀργή,) ἀργόν lazy (feminine either ἀργός or ἀργή), synonym: ῥᾳθυμος,ῥᾴθυμον 

ἆρ' ὁ τοῦ Φιλίππου Ἄργος ἀργός ἐστιν; 
- οὐχί , εὖ φυλάττει τὰ μῆλά τε καὶ τὸν οἶκον, καὶ λαγὼς διώκει, καὶ λύκους. ἄοκνός ἐστιν, οὐκ ἀργός.  
ἆρ' ἀργός εἰμι ἐγώ ; οὐχί , οὐκ ἀργὸς ἔγωγε 
see final words of Dikaiopolis
   οὐκ αἴτιος ἔγωγε I certainly am not to blame
the γε for emphasis see this note.

ἕπομαι 

I follow (I've explained this one before)
In some cultures wives are obliged to follow their husbands, and do!
αἱ γυναῖκες τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἕπονται. διὰ τί;
- διότι ὁ νόμος ἀναγκάζει αὐτὰς τοῖς ἀδράσι ἕπεσθαι. 
In our culture such is not always the case:
ἡ γυνὴ οὐκ ἀναγκάζεται, οὔκουν (short for: οὐκ οὖν) αἰεὶ τῷ ἀνδρὶ ἕπεται.

ὥσπερ just as

κόρη τις καλὴ ὥσπερ θεά beautiful like a goddess
οὐδεὶς ῥᾴθυμος ὥσπερ ὁ Χανθίας nobody is as idle as Xanthias
ὥσπερ λέγει ἡ βιβλία just as the Bible says

ὁ ποιητής the poet

ὁ ποιητὴς ποιεῖ ποιήματα 
τὸ ποίημα, τοῦ ποιήματος neuter, declined like το ὄνομα
τὰ τῶν ποιητῶν ἔργα ποιήματα ὀνομάζεται 
τὸ μακρὸν ποίημα πόνον παρέχει τῷ ποιητῇ (unless of course he is a super-genius or just easily satisfied)

ἐξ, ἐκ 

ἐκ πόνων ἔργα 
ἐξ ἔργων δόξα fame
ἐξ ἀγρῶν σῖτος 
ἐκβαίνω is equivalent to ἐξέρχομαι 
ks sounds better between two vowels than k, so ξ it has to be:
      ἐξάγω 
      ἐξελαύνω  καὶ τὰ λοιπά 

πολύμηλός τ' ἀφνειός 

The τ' is short for τε καί (and, as well)
πολύμηλος from τὰ μῆλα the flocks
πολύμηλος  and πολλὰ μῆλα 
So πολύμηλος is someone who has many flocks
Like we saw in the preceding lesson that
   ὁ Ὀδυσσεὺς πολύμητίς ἐστιν 
      he has lots of common sense and cunning
and he is also, see lesson 7a first paragraph
 ἄνθρωπος πολύτροπος a much travelled man, one who has "turned around" a lot. (a heliotrope is a plant that "turns around" to always face the sun ὁ ἥλιος)

ἀφνειός, ἀφνειόν not poor, rich, wealthy

masculine and feminine are the same, like for all adjectives that have a prefix (a syllable fixed onto the word at the front, preceding it): un-necessary, dis-figured, blue-nosed
Therefore all those words prefixed with πολυ follow this rule.
And ἀφνειός is another such combination.
From ἀ meaning "not" and φνειός a metamorphosis of πενής meaning "poor". (meta-morphosis means a transformation, a change of shape ἡ μορφή )
So ἀφνειός really means "not poor".