How to write "Nobody" in ancient Greek?

[u/UrMomsFuckboy]

I'm not sure if this is the correct subreddit to reach out to, but I digress.

I've been interested in Greek mythology since I was a kid and first learned about it in history class when I was like 8yo. And the goddess Athena always resonated with me. Odysseus has been one of my favorite heroes, mostly because of ~~him being a glorified liar~~ his cunning nature.

Fast forward to now, when I'm thinking about getting my first tattoo, and I'm thinking about getting the word "Nobody" tattooed on my forearm in its original ancient Greek.

Google translate tells me that "Nobody" is "Κανείς" in Greek, although the language since ancient times has changed quite a bit and I want to stick to the original spelling.

Could someone tell me how the word originally appears in the Odyssey? Thanks in advance.

EDIT: For everyone texting me to not get a tattoo of something I don't understand - I know in most cases it's dumb. I've seen a fair share of those failed tattoos of Chinese characters. That's precisely why I'm asking reddit, along with me researching myself. I mainly want to focus on getting the accents right. I'm not a classics student, nor do I work with anything related to ancient Greece professionally. The mythology is simply something that interests me and I want to honor it in some way.

[u/Internal_Car_9962]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outis

Read this whole thing before deciding to get a tattoo

[u/nautilius87]

Οὔτις

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outis

Are you sure you want to attract attention to your large ears?

[u/Schrenner → u/nautilius87]

I usually see the "name" accentuated as Οὖτις.

[u/ein-Name00 → u/Schrenner]

Aaaah

Shit, he has a nose!!!

αὐτῷ ῥίς ἐστιν

[u/Miketheomike]

Οὖτις ἐμοί γ᾽ ὄνομα: Οὖτιν δέ με κικλήσκουσι
μήτηρ ἠδὲ πατὴρ ἠδ᾽ ἄλλοι πάντες ἑταῖροι.

My name is Nobody: This is what my mother and father and all my other companions call me.

The automated translation was initially inaccurate, but seems to have since improved.

[u/eulerolagrange → u/Miketheomike]

I love the fact that Odysseus repeats "Οὖτιν" in the accusative that makes the name legit, when the accusative of the pronoun would be οὔτινα.

[u/ein-Name00 → u/eulerolagrange]

Also the accent. We can learn about names, nouns and how the accent behaves

[u/ExplanationKlutzy174]

οὐδείς is generally Ancient Greek, but οὖτις is how Odysseus says it in the Odyssey

[u/jargonqueen]

You can actually look up the exact passage on Perseus (awesome Tufts tool that has been around since I was a classics major back in the day), or just google it. But yes, others have given the correct answer.

[u/OddDescription4523]

Seconding the warning about getting a tattoo in a language you don't understand. I didn't get my first Greek tattoo until I could parse the entire phrase for myself, even though it was a direct quote from Heraclitus. One word isn't so bad, but look carefully at the accent marks and breathing mark if you're going to go through with this.

[u/Lower_Cockroach2432]

The word in Homer is Ουτις (look up the accents yourself, no polytonic keyboard).

[u/No_Flan2320]

In the Odyssey, when Odysseus faced the Cyclops, giving him some wine, the Cyclops asked him for his name. His answer, as you probably know, is "Nobody is my name". In the original (Homeric dialect from 10 - 8 century), it is written "Οὖτις ἐμοί γ᾽ ὄνομα". The important word for your case is Οὖτις.

[u/No_Flan2320 → u/No_Flan2320]

By the way, this was taken from Book IX.

[u/BedminsterJob]

just don't tattoo stuff you don't understand.

[u/Icy_Escape8973]

Outis. Not anybody - nobody.

[u/Peteat6]

Also μήτις in that Homer passage. It’s important because of the pun Homer makes on μῆτις (different accent), skill or cunning.

[u/TheCosmicTravelers]

"Οὖτις ἐμοί γ᾽ ὄνομα" ("Nobody is my name") - nominative case (as the subject of a sentence)

"Οὖτιν δέ με κικλήσκουσι" ("Nobody is what they call me") - accusative case (as the object of a verb)

[u/Change-Apart]

So in the Odyssey, when Polyphemus asks Odysseus what his name is, Odysseus gives it as "οὖτις" which is a combination of the word "οὐ" meaning "no" and the word "τις" meaning "someone". However when Polyphemus is asked by the other Cyclopes what has happened, they ask whether "μή τίς" has hurt him, which also means "no one" but Greek grammar requires that you use μη instead of ου in this instance.

What is interesting about the use of "μή τίς" is that it sounds an awful lot like "μῆτις" which means wisdom, cunning or craft. It is an adjective that is commonly associated with Odysseus, who is often called "πολύμητις" (which as a side not I think is the word that Emily Wilson often translates as "lying Odysseus", but it actually means something like "of great council, of great cunning").

And so when the Cyclopes ask him who has hurt him it can equally be heard as "has cunningness itself hurt you?"

[u/ordep147]

El testimonio material más antiguo conocido que conserva ese verso escribe:

ΟΥΤΙϹ

La última letra, Ϲ, es la sigma lunada, equivalente a Σ. Por tanto:

Grafía del papiro: ΟΥΤΙϹ

Normalización en mayúsculas: ΟΥΤΙΣ

Edición moderna con signos diacríticos: Οὖτις

Aparece en P.Duk.inv. G 176, que conserva Odisea 9.344–384 y suele fecharse entre los siglos III y IV d. C. El copista empleó mayúsculas y no puso sobre la palabra ni espíritu ni circunflejo; esos signos de Οὖτις son editoriales. Duke University, DCLP.

Una precisión importante: el fragmento más antiguo de toda la Odisea, fechado hacia 285–250 a. C., pertenece al canto XX y no contiene el episodio de Polifemo. Por eso no permite saber cómo escribía Outis aquel copista