English–Syriac–Greek Glossary

art	ʼūmānūtā	tekhnê	30,7
beginning	šūrrāyā	arkhê	26,16
body	pagrā	sôma	32,6 (25,2: gūšmā)
change	šūḥlāpā	metabolê	19,19; 36,22
desire	regtā	epithumia1	27,20; 42,18
desire for honour	reḥmat šūbḥā	philotimia	47,3
end	šūllāmā	telos	26,16
example	taḥwītā	paradeigma2	18,11; 22,7
excellence	myattrūtā	aretê3	17,2
the Good	ṭābtā	to agathon	22,24
happiness	kahīnūtā	eudaimonia	18,11
intellect	hawnā	nous	32,23; 33,2; 33,17; 44,19
means of safety	ḥayē	sôteria	20,22
mind	reʽyānā	nous	38,2
nature	kyānā	phusis	26,17
pain	ʼūlṣānā	algêdôn	27,3
passion	ḥašā	pathêma	43,6
pleasure	nyāḥā	hêdonê	26,15
power	šūlṭānā	arkhê	19,19
reason	mlīlūtā	logos	33,6; 33,17
road	ʼūrḥā	hodos	17,10
sense	tarʽītā	dianoia	46,11
soul	napšā	psukhê	32,6
toil	ʽamlā	ponos	33,10
virtue	ʼeraṭa	aretê	17,2
what is necessary	(ʽ)āhen	epitêdeios	30,11
wisdom	ḥekmtā	sophia	38,23

Notes

1See note at 27,20.

2Or perhaps apodeiksis?

3The text shows variance in the use of ʼeraṭa ‘virtue, excellence’, a (relatively uncommon) loanword from Greek, and myattrūtā ‘virtue, excellence’, a genuine Syriac word with overlapping meaning. Whether or not this distinction is meaningful is hard to say, but it seems to me unlikely (so also Brock, ‘Review of M. Conterno, Temistio orientale’, p. 180). Although I have respected the Syriac text by translating the two nouns with ‘virtue’ and ‘excellence’ respectively, there is no apparent difference in their use in the On Virtue (‘excellence’ appears once in the title, several times in the section 28–34, and once in 52), and it is possible that the underlying Greek had aretê in both cases (similarly see Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus, s.v.); if this is correct, the second part of the title (‘that is the excellence of the soul’) and the same gloss in the opening paragraph should be understood as additions by the translator. This reconstruction is coherent with the Syriac translation of Themistius’ Or. 22 De amicitia, which normally renders aretê with myattrūtā ‘excellence’ (266A = Syr 49,24; 272A = Syr 56,4 as a plural; though once with ṭābtā ‘the Good’, in 270C = Syr 55,3 and 55,4, where, however, it is a simplification of the Greek original carried out by the translator; the word aretê is instead omitted in 270A, 280A and 280B). For analogous inconsistencies in the rendering of the same term in the Syriac translation of Themistius’ De amicitia see M. Conterno, ‘Retorica pagana e cristianesimo orientale: la traduzione siriaca dell’orazione Peri Philias di Temistio’, Annali di Scienze Religiose 3 (2010), pp. 161–88 and, for instance, eadem, La versione siriaca del ‘Discorso sull’amicizia’ di Temistio: rilettura di uno scritto greco in contesto cristiano, unpublished thesis, University of Padua 2007, pp. 115–18 for the different renderings of the term philia ‘friendship’. Similarly Brock, ‘Review of M. Conterno, Temistio orientale’, p. 180 takes myattrūtā as a translation of aretê, while, conversely, Brancacci, ‘Temistio e il cinicismo’, p. 384 takes it as a translation of iskhus.