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ἦθος , εος, τό (cf. ἔθος),
A.an accustomed place: hence, in pl., haunts or abodes of animals, “μετά τ᾽ ἤθεα καὶ νομὸν ἵππων” Il.6.511; [“σύας] ἔρξαν κατὰ ἤθεα κοιμηθῆναι” Od.14.411; of lions, Hdt.7.125; of fish, Opp.H.1.93; of the abodes of men, Hes.Op.167, 525, Hdt.1.15, 157, A.Supp.64 (lyr.), E.Hel.274, Pl.Lg.865e, Arist.Mu.398b33; ἔλεγον ἐξ ἠθέων τὸν ἥλιον ἀνατεῖλαι away from his accustomed place, Hdt. 2.142; of plants, Callistr.Stat.7: metaph., with play on signf. 11, Pl.Phdr.277a.
II. custom, usage: in pl., manners, customs, Hes.Op.137, Th.66, Hdt.2.30,35, 4.106, Th.2.61; “τρόποι καὶ ἤθη” Pl. Lg.896c; ἐθρέψω Ξέρξην ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἤ. ib.695e; “φθείρουσιν ἤθη χρήσθ᾽ ὁμιλίαι κακαί” PHib.1.7.94 (E.Fr.1024 = Men.218); “τοῖς ἤθεσιν ἁπλοῦς” D.S.5.21.
2. disposition, character, “ἐπίκλοπον ἦθος” Hes.Op. 67,78; “ἦ. ἐμφυές” Pi.O.11(10).21; ἀκίχητα ἤ., of Zeus, A.Pr.187; “τοὐμὸν ἦ. παιδεύειν” S.Aj.595; ὦ μιαρὸν ἦ. Id.Ant.746; τὸ τῆς πόλεως ἦ. Isoc.2.31; βελτίων τῆς πόλεως τὸ ἦ. D.20.14; esp. moral character, opp. διάνοια, Arist.EN1139a1; as the result of habit, “τὸ πᾶν ἦ. διὰ ἔθος” Pl.Lg.792e, cf. Arist.EE1220a39; “ἦ. ἀνθρώπῳ δαίμων” Heraclit.119; ἦ. πηγὴ βίου Stoic. ap. Stob.2.7.1; τῆς ψυχῆς, τῆς γνώμης, Pl.R.400d, D.61.16: freq. opp. πάθος, Arist.Rh.1356a23 (pl.), etc.; “ἠθῶν τε καὶ παθῶν μίμησις” D.H.Pomp.3; “τὸ ἦ. πρᾶος” Pl.Phdr.243c: less freq. in dat., ἀγοραῖος τῷ ἤ. Thphr.Char.6.2, cf. Inscr.Magn.164.3 (i/ii A.D.): pl., traits, characteristics, Pl.R.402d, Arist.EN1144b4 (in sg., τὸ τῆς ἀνδρείας ἦ. Pl.Lg.836d): seldom in pl., of an individual, “στερρὸν τὰ ἤθεα” Hp.Ep.11; “ἱερὸς κατὰ τὰ ἤθη” Ath.1.1e.
b. of outward bearing, ὡς ἱλαρὸν τὸ ἦ. X.Smp.8.3; “ὑγρότης ἤθους” Lycurg.33; ὑψηλὸς τῷ ἤ. Plu.Dio4: in pl., of facial expression, “ὀφθαλμῶν ἤθη” Philostr.Gym. 25.
c. in Rhet., delineation of character, “ἦ. ἔχουσιν οἱ λόγοι ἐν ὅσοις δήλη ἡ προαίρεσις” Arist.Rh.1395b13; “ἦ. ἐμφαίνειν” Phld.Rh.1.200S.; esp. opp. πάθος, Longin.9.15, etc.; κατ᾽ ἦ. λέγεσθαι, opp. κατὰ πάθος, D.H.Comp.22, cf. Lys.19: in pl., “πραγμάτων καὶ ἠθῶν” Phld.Po.5.5; “ἐν πάθεσι καὶ ἤθεσιν” Demetr.Eloc.28, etc.; so of works of art, ἡ Ζεύξιδος γραφὴ οὐδὲν ἔχει ἦ. Arist.Po.1450a29; “πάθος καὶ ἦ. καὶ σχημάτων χρῆσις” Ael.VH4.3; “πολλὰ ἤθη ἐπιφαίνει” Philostr.Her.2.10; also of Music, S.E.M.6.49.
d. dramatis persona, εἰσάγει ἄνδρα ἢ γυναῖκα ἢ ἄλλο τι ἦ. Arist.Po.1460a11, al.
3. also of animals, ἦ. τὸ πρὸς τοκέων (prob.l.for ἔθος) A.Ag.727, cf.E.Hipp.1219, Pl.R.375e, Arist. HA487a12 (pl.); τὸ ἦ. ἀσθενής, of a bird, ib.615a18; of things, nature, kind, παρὰ δ᾽ ἦ. ἑκάστῳ (to each of the four elements) Emp. 17.28; “τοῦ πυρετοῦ” Gal.7.353.
4. ἐν ἤθει tactfully (cf. “ἠθικός” 11.2), “προσφέρεσθαι τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσιν” Plu.2.73e. cf. Herm. in Phdr.p.195A.; διὰ μέτριον ἦθος, of the expression δοκεῖ μοι, Steph.in Hp.1.59D.
Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940.

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  • Cross-references in general dictionaries from this page (49):
    • Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 727
    • Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, 187
    • Aeschylus, Suppliant Maidens, 64
    • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1139a.1
    • Aristotle, Poetics, 1450a.29
    • Aristotle, Poetics, 1460a.11
    • Demosthenes, Against Leptines, 14
    • Demosthenes, Erotic Essay, 16
    • Euripides, Helen, 274
    • Euripides, Hippolytus, 1219
    • Herodotus, Histories, 1.15
    • Herodotus, Histories, 2.142
    • Herodotus, Histories, 2.30
    • Herodotus, Histories, 4.106
    • Herodotus, Histories, 7.125
    • Hesiod, Theogony, 66
    • Hesiod, Works and Days, 137
    • Hesiod, Works and Days, 167
    • Hesiod, Works and Days, 525
    • Hesiod, Works and Days, 67
    • Hesiod, Works and Days, 78
    • Homer, Iliad, 6.511
    • Homer, Odyssey, 14.411
    • Isocrates, To Nicocles, 31
    • Lycurgus, Against Leocrates, 33
    • Plato, Laws, 695e
    • Plato, Laws, 792e
    • Plato, Laws, 836d
    • Plato, Laws, 865e
    • Plato, Laws, 896c
    • Plato, Republic, 375e
    • Plato, Republic, 400d
    • Plato, Republic, 402d
    • Plato, Phaedrus, 243c
    • Plato, Phaedrus, 277a
    • Sophocles, Ajax, 595
    • Sophocles, Antigone, 746
    • Thucydides, Histories, 2.61
    • Xenophon, Symposium, 8.3
    • Theophrastus, Characters, 6.2
    • Plutarch, Dion, 4
    • Diodorus, Historical Library, 5.21
    • Dionysius of Halicarnassus, De Lysia, 19
    • Dionysius of Halicarnassus, De Compositione Verborum, 22
    • Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Epistula ad Pompeium Geminum, 3
    • Aelian, Varia Historia, 4.3
    • Callistratus, Descriptiones, 11
    • Callistratus, Descriptiones, 7
    • Philostratus the Athenian, Gymnastica, 25
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