Can anybody please explain why the aorist is used here in reference to a future (non-)event?
“the optative can express the wish of the speaker, e.g. μὴ γένοιτο (aor. opt. mid.) may it not happen!”
Betts, Gavin; Henry, Alan. Complete Ancient Greek: A Comprehensive Guide to Reading and Understanding Ancient Greek, with Original Texts (Complete Language Courses) (p. 232). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition.
Would the present optative μὴ γίγνοιτο be incorrect or mean something else?
Outside the indicative mood, the distinction between aorist and “present” is purely a distinction of verbal aspect, not of tense. Very crudely stated, outside the indicative, the aorist presents an action as a complete whole, without focusing on any of its constituent parts, while the “present” focuses on an action in process. So μὴ γενοίτο is a wish that an event should never occur.
You can read about the role of aspect in the Greek verb system in §§ 33.4 ff. of the Cambridge Grammar of Classical Greek, if you have access. Also Smyth §§ 1859 ff.:
Thqnks, Bill.
That’s like the perfective/imperfective aspect in Russian as far as the continuous/completed distinction is concerned, except that in Russian both the perfective and imperfective aspects have definite tenses.
Yes, Russian has a similar aspectual contrast. In Greek, the imperfective aspect has a present and a past (“imperfect”) tense.