Expert: Maria - 8/4/2008

Question
Hi - I've been looking for the Euripides quote, "Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing." in the original ancient Greek. I can only find the english translation online. Thanks for any help!

Answer
Hello,

this phrase attributed to Euripides is an “unsourced quote”, i.e. “a quote whose sources are not sufficiently specific to allow reasonable verification”,  as we don’t know the tragedy  or the fragmentary play where Euripides, the last of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, wrote such a sentence, which however had to read as follows in ancient Greek:

-“Panta erota, manthane ti, meden apokrinou” (Latin transliteration)

-“Πάντα  ερώτα, μάνθανε τι, μηδέν αποκρίνου “(ancient Greek letters).

Best regards,
Maria
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Latin transliteration is nothing but the Greek text written in Latin alphabet we use still today.

-Question = EROTA
-everything= PANTA
-Learn = MANTHANE
-something =TI
-Answer = APOKRINOU
-nothing = MEDEN