Line 20 of the Iliad reads as follows;[size=150]παῖδα δ’ ἐμοὶ λῦσαί τε φίλην, τά τ’ ἄποινα δέχεσθαι
In the indicative the present is present tense and the aorist is a point past. (By point past, I mean it indicates a singular event in the past, not an ongoing activity. Note that an event in the past can be described as ongoing, or sometimes you might want to talk about the whole event as a single thing.)
In every other mood including imperatives and infinitives, the present means “ongoing” and the aorist means “single event.”
So, “free my dear daughter” - one single event, one hopes - “and accept these ransoms.” I admit it’s not entirely clear to me why this acceptance is cast as an ongoing activity, but the freeing is necessarily a single event. Later, when griping about the event to the prophet Calchas, Agamemnon will talk about it in the aorist (line 111-112):
[size=150]οὕνεκ’ ἐγὼ κούρης χρυσηίδος ἀγλά’ ἄποιναοὐκ ἔθελον δέξασθαι,
What I think (but my English ought to be far better… so, in telegraphic style):
- [size=150]λῦσαι
Hi All,
Perhaps the present infinitive [size=150]δέχεσθαι
Thank you for the interesting insights.
The difference between the aspect of aorist and present is one possibility. The possibility of it being a metrical convenience makes me wonder if Homeric Greek is going to help or hinder my future plans to learn Attic and Koine.
I am tying to imagine what it would sound like to listen to someone who learned English using a book of poetry.
[quote author=Bert de Haan link=board=2;threadid=398;start=0#3151 date=1060383719]
I am tying to imagine what it would sound like to listen to someone who learned English using a book of poetry.
[/quote]
I would imagine it would sound very pretty, very garbled, and very confusing. 
Keesa
I don’t think the suggestions so far are mutally exclusive. Perhaps the tenses are different as a matter of metrical convenience and to convey the different nuances suggested by Skylax and William. Isn’t that what makes a great poet?
It’ll be fine. Even if Homer does something a bit dodgy to fit the meter, he cannot dodge so much that the sense is deformed, or his audience wouldn’t know what he was saying.
I am tying to imagine what it would sound like to listen to someone who learned English using a book of poetry.
There are some differences in vocabulary and syntax, but this is true between Classical and Koine, and even different sorts of prose. Xenophon writes rather differently than Plato.
I think that’s true in any kind of writing-English prose included.
Keesa
I’m inclined to dislike arguments metri causa. Sure, in this verse only the inf.pr. fits; but how do you know there isn’t a single possible verse (with as far as possible the same meaning) in which the inf.aor. would fit?
[size=150]εὔχομαι σε ἐρρῶσθαι