The archive of Greek expression / in English

Greek sayings,
explained.

Proverbs, idioms and ancient sayings for Greeks around the world, heritage speakers and anyone who grew up hearing them at home: the Greek wording, how it sounds, what it literally says and what it really means.

Try:kallio argayiayiaefaga portaSearch results are in Greek.
01 / Guides

Where to start.

Four short guides in English. Every saying links to its full Greek entry on eipane.

01 / Greek proverbs
17 sayingsSmall lessons from long experience.
02 / Greek idioms
14 sayingsWhat they say vs. what they mean.
03 / Ancient Greek sayings
10 sayingsKnow thyself, and other classics.
04 / Yiayia’s sayings
10 sayingsHome, family and patience.
02 / A few favourites

Heard these at home?

Greek proverbs

Αγάλι αγάλι γίνεται η αγουρίδα μέλι

Agáli agáli yínete i agourída méli: Slowly, slowly the unripe grape becomes honey. Patience and gradual ripening usually lead to a better result than haste.

What it means
Greek idioms

Έφαγα πόρτα

Éfaga pórta: I ate a door. I was rejected, or not allowed to enter or take part.

What it means
Greek proverbs

Είπε ο γάιδαρος τον πετεινό κεφάλα

Ípe o gáidaros ton petinó kefála: The donkey called the rooster big-headed. Someone criticises another person for a trait they have just as strongly themselves.

What it means
Ancient Greek sayings

Γνώθι σαυτόν

Gnóthi saftón: Know yourself. Know yourself: your limits and your motives.

What it means
Yiayia’s sayings

Σπίτι χωρίς Γιάννη, προκοπή δεν κάνει

Spíti horís Yiánni, prokopí den káni: A house without a Yiannis never prospers. A home, or any group, struggles without its key person. “Yiannis” works as the archetypal, very common Greek man’s name, not as a reference to a particular person.

What it means
Greek idioms

Βρέχει καρεκλοπόδαρα

Vréhi kareklopódara: It’s raining chair legs. It is raining extremely hard.

What it means
03 / How these pages are made

The Greek entry comes first.

eipane is a Greek archive. Every English page here is an English edition of an existing, reviewed Greek entry: it gives a simplified pronunciation, a literal translation, the meaning and an example, and it links back to the Greek original, which remains the reference version.

The English text is written from the Greek entry with the help of AI tools and checked against it. It does not add claims about origin, date or authorship that the Greek entry does not make. Where an origin is undocumented, the page says so.

Pronunciation is a simplified guide for English readers: the accented vowel carries the stress, d sounds like the th in “this”, th as in “think”, h like the ch in Scottish “loch”, and y before e or i as in “yes”.

Spotted a mistake, or know a different meaning from your family or island? Use the corrections page (in Greek; English messages are welcome). eipane is published by SYMBOLS HOUSE OF BRANDS Ο.Ε.; the explanations are licensed CC BY 4.0 with attribution to eipane.com.