# Modern Greeks Help!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-greeks-help/372056>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 9, 2006, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-greeks-help/372056 "2006-09-09T10:01:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ben\_Chaplin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df705f/32.png) [@Ben\_Chaplin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ben_Chaplin)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-greeks-help/372056/1 "2006-09-09T10:01:04Z")

</div>

ANY MODERN GREEK GUYS OUT THERE? In Alexandra Fiada’s Xenophobes Guide to the Greeks she translates for the  
non-Greek speaker two expressions of which I’ve been trying to get the  
original modern Greek for ages. The first one is a modern Greek’s lament:  
“We gave them ([i.e.us](http://i.e.us)) the light of knowledge but we have been left with  
cheap tallow candles” and “Come pull at my nipples to build up your  
muscles”, which is a common expression, so she assures us, for “you are  
talking rubbish”. Can anyone find me the answer to my  
questions?  
Here’s an additional observation about copies of an ancient Greek statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles’ . Surely the copies of his famous Aphrodite of Knidos are very poor Roman imitations?  
I can hardly think of any devotee wishing to unite with her![/FONT]