ζῆν (zen)

ζῆν is an Ancient Greek form of Ζεύς, meaning “Zeus”.

It can also be a form of ζάω, “live”. It is the present active infinitive.

It can also be a form of ζέω, “boil”.

Found 1,358 times in the Ancient Greek texts on Socratos.

Where it is used

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.43.5: οὐ γὰρ οἱ κακοπραγοῦντες δικαιότερον ἀφειδοῖεν ἂν τοῦ βίου, οἷς ἐλπὶς οὐκ ἔστιν ἀγαθοῦ, ἀλλ’ οἷς ἡ ἐναντία μεταβολὴ ἐν τῷ ζῆν ἔτι κινδυνεύεται καὶ ἐν οἷς μάλιστα μεγάλα τὰ διαφέροντα, ἤν τι πταίσωσιν.

Euripides, The Phoenician Women 1006: μὰ τὸν μετʼ ἄστρων Ζῆνʼ Ἄρη τε φοίνιον,

Plutarch, Pelopidas 1.4: … ις δὲ καὶ ζῆν ἡδέως καὶ θνῄσκειν ἀμφότερα ἀρετὴ παρεῖχεν, ὡς δηλοῖ τὸ ἐπικήδειον· οἵδε γάρ φησιν ἔθανον οὐ τὸ ζῇν θέμενοι καλὸν οὐδὲ τὸ θνῄσκειν, αλλὰ τὸ ταῦτα καλῶς ἀμφότερʼ ἐκτελέσαι. οὔτε γὰρ φυγὴ θανάτου μεμπτόν, ἂν ὀρέ …

All forms of Ζεύς (declension table)

Source: Socratos (socratos.org), a free reader for Ancient Greek and Latin. Grammar from the Perseus Treebank and Morpheus; dictionary entries from Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA). Counts are from the texts on Socratos.