πες τα πιάτα

In this Greek article on the attractiveness, or otherwise, of famous women's eyes there appears this expression. Here is the context:-
ΓΥΝΑΙΚΕΣ Special Edition
Οι γυναίκες που μια ματιά τους μόνο φτάνει
Πες τα πιάτα. Πες τα ιπτάμενους δίσκους. Πες τα ελαφίσια. Η αλήθεια είναι ότι είναι απλά τεράστια. Με άλλα λόγια, φανταστικά.
Is this expression meant to be literal or metaphorical δηλ. 'tell the plates, tell the flying saucers, tell the gazelles (?)', whose shapes or the shape of whose eyes, in the case of the gazelles, are outdone by these women's eyes? Or is it a common idiom of which the significance escapes me?:wub:
The relevant information is to be found at:- http://www.oneman.gr/gynaikes/special_edition/gynaikes-me-terastia-matia.3363985.html.

Call them "big as plates"; call them "big as flying saucers"; call them "doelike eyes"; the truth is they are simply huge. Or, in other words, fantastic.

Imho, it's not a very good Greek text...

Thanks, Δρ. It's good to know that the Greek isn't of much linguistic worth.

Theseus said:

Thanks, Δρ. It's good to know that the Greek isn't of much linguistic worth.

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Hi, Theseus. I think the good doctor means the whole text, not the expression «πες το έτσι, πες το αλλιώς» per se, because that is a common colloquial expression in Greek. As common as "you can call it this, you can call it that" or "say what you will".


You can call me Al - Paul Simon

Well, I would correct it if someone wrote that a woman has eyes like plates or flying saucers. In my eyes () it's almost offensive.

drsiebenmal said:

Well, I would correct it if someone wrote that a woman has eyes like plates or flying saucers. In my eyes () it's almost offensive.

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Well, I only meant the way of expression as such, the syntactic construct "πες το Χ, πες το Ψ, πες το όπως θες", which obviously has nothing offensive in and of itself; that is determined only by the actual words used in place of Χ or Ψ.

Without the saucers, plates and other kitchen utensils, this structure is indeed common in Greek, as its use in songs testifies, exempli gratia:

Πες το αφέλεια, πες το θυσία
πες το δακρύβρεχτο σενάριο σε ινδική ταινία

Πες με παράλογη, πες με αστεία
πες μου τι θέλεις, πια για μένανε δεν έχει σημασία

Well, this is not exactly gratifying to my ears, but it serves as a good example.

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As for the specific "eyes like saucers" —although it is uncommon in Greek, and I also would not use it for a woman with huge dreamy eyes where one could be immersed and lose oneself— it is indeed an expression frequent in English, conveying almost the same image but not the same sentiment:

have eyes like saucers
Have one’s eyes opened wide in amazement:

• She saw the child looking at her with eyes like saucers.
  
• All the while, her eyes were wide as saucers and her mouth gaped open.
• Her eyes grow wide as saucers and she takes another cautious bite.
  
• Again, Alana's eyes were like saucers and she gave him a dirty look.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/have-eyes-like-saucers

and used even in songs, like Elvis Costello's "Big Sister", inspired by the Big Brother:


Sheep to the slaughter
Oh, this must be love
All your sons and daughters
In a strangle, all with a kid glove
Eyes like saucers, oh, you think she's a dish
She is the blue chip that belongs to the big fish

Big sister will be watching over you
Sister see, sister do

and its variation, "Big Sister's Clothes":


while in Electric Light Orchestra's "Yellow Rainbow" it describes a wide-eyed man:

Fear our hope's about to be
Buried in obscurity
Saw a man with eyes like saucers
Caught up in a web of lies
That opened up before us
Cast a rainbow big and bright

and Melting Euphoria take it one step beyond, to the final frontier, a step towards flying saucers , in the title of their track "Flying Eyes Like Saucers" from the spaced out album She Wants to Take Us Over the Edge of the World:

+1 to all of the above from daeman and, to add a little flavoring, I'd like to remind of the oldest simile for big woman's eyes in Greek literature: Athena's eyes, so Homer tells us, were big like an ox's and grey: βοώπις και γλαυκώπις Αθηνά, η βοϊδομάτα και γκριζομάτα.

drsiebenmal said:

... to add a little flavoring, I'd like to remind of the oldest simile for big woman's eyes in Greek literature: Athena's eyes, so Homer tells us, were big like an ox's and grey: βοώπις και γλαυκώπις Αθηνά, η βοϊδομάτα και γκριζομάτα.

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Very appropriate for Theseus.

γλαυκώπις
1. (για την Αθηνά) αυτή που έχει λαμπερά ή γκριζογάλανα μάτια
2. γλαυκός («γλαυκῶπις ἐλαία, σελήνη»).
[ΕΤΥΜΟΛ. < γλαυκός + -ωπις < ωψ, ωπός, «μάτι, πρόσωπο» (πρβλ. βλοσυρώπις, βοώπις, ελικώπις). Η αρχική σημασία τού επιθέτου πρέπει να ήταν «αυτή που έχει μάτια ή όψη κουκουβάγιας» (βλ. και λ. γλαυκός)].

Δημητράκος:

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As for the more recent «ελαφίσια μάτια» mentioned in the initial post —more common in the past as «λαφίσια»— it frequently describes big and tender eyes, mainly of women, like Audrey Hepburn's "deer eyes":

"Η Οντρεϊ Χέμπορν, με το οστεώδες προσωπάκι και τα ελαφίσια μάτια, δεν είναι, ακόμα και σήμερα, απλά η Σαμπρίνα μας, η Ωραία μας Κυρία, η σκαστή στη Ρώμη πριγκίπισσα Αν, ή η Χόλι Γκολάιτλι μπροστά από τη βιτρίνα του Tiffany's."


Well, she did have a fawn as a companion.

but not exclusively:

«Τα απογεύματα περνάνε πάντα μερικοί παλιόφιλοι από το εμπόριο μαργαριταριών για μιαν επίσκεψη. Είναι όλοι τους μελιστάλαχτοι, γλυκομίλητοι μπάσταρδοι με τρυφερά ελαφίσια μάτια· κάθονται στο τραπέζι και πίνουν αρωματικό τσάι και συζητάνε με δυνατές συριστικές φωνές...»

Χένρι Μίλερ, Ο Τροπικός του Καρκίνου, μτφ. Γιώργος-Ίκαρος Μπαμπασάκης

Thanks to all for their excellent comments! I have two brief additions to make:-
1) a good example of πες as an idiom is in the phrase πες το, χρυσόστομε - 'hear, hear'.
2) my professor of Greek (σχωρέστον) used to observe that βοώπις referred to the power of the eyes in Ancient Greece & meant the quality of the eyes &, in the case of Athene, not the colour. Hera's eyes were wide, large, beautiful & demure, and submissive as those of of a cow, while Athene's eyes were darting & glancing. See LSJ γλαυκ-ιάω, Hom. only in Ep. part. γλαυκιόων, glaring fiercely, of a lion, Il.20.172; γ. ὄσσοισ δεινόν Hes.Sc.430; of a sparkling stone, D.P.1121; γλαυκιόωσα σελήνη Man.5.250: 3pl. γλαυκιόωσι Opp.C.3.70; late Prose, γλαυκιῶν τὸ βλέμμα Hld.7.10. tle. Appearing fearsome would have also been important in battle. Iliad again “flashing-eyed” Athene appears next to Odyessus and insures the host keeps quiet while he speaks, in another section she is accompanied by “Terror, and Rout, and Discord” as she urges the Greeks to fight. (Iliad 4.435-450) Athena's connection to the battlefield is further supported by Hesiod's decription of her birth as "bright-eyed Tritogeneia...the queen, who delights in tumults and wars and battles." (Hesiod. Theogony. 920-925). It is a point worth observing, since the Ancient Greeks perception of colour is clearly so different from our own.

drsiebenmal said:

Call them "big as plates"; call them "big as flying saucers"; call them "doelike eyes"; the truth is they are simply huge. Or, in other words, fantastic.

Imho, it's not a very good Greek text...

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In fact, I doubt it is Greek at all. There is no particular relation between dinner plates and "flying discs", but Daeman's analysis made me realise this could be a translation of a reference to saucers and flying saucers, which would have been rather more elegant in English.

This isn't the first time, by the way, that I've wondered how much of the matter in women's magazine's here—whether they circulate independently or in newspapers—is the product of translation.

Thanks, Duke. 'Flying saucers' are more similar to slit eyes than round eyes, unless the metaphor applies to eyes out of this world!

Only now it makes sense, Theseus.

What we were discussing was eyes like these:

or these or these

resembling something like this:




What we had in mind instead was eyes like these:

resembling something like this: