Greek. Praes. & Imperf.-Fut., aor., perf. activi. τίθημι

Dear all, here is the exercise for Praesens and imperfectum activi of τίθημι. I will be, as always, grateful for your corrections and suggestions.

  1. Lawmakers establish laws so that injustice and ungodliness may not destroy states.
  2. We are wrong to set pleasure above necessity.
  3. Athenian maidens wove a dress for the goddess Athena every year and put it on the goddess at her feast.
  4. It is said that some of the Libyans cut off the heads of dead kings and put them into the temple.
  5. Consider* virtue rather than wealth as the first of goods.
  • the textbook says to translate through “don’t consider”
  1. The Greeks put dead bodies on bonfires and burned them.

  2. Since the philosopher Lycaon was very pleasant in speech*, some put a gamma in front of his name.
    *The textbook suggests starting with “ἐπεὶ” and rendering “in speech” as ἐν τῷ λέγειν

  3. The Athenians, putting an obol into the mouth of the dead, thought they were offering it to Charon as payment.

  4. Farming accustoms people to endure cold and heat and gives them strength.

  5. οἱ νομοθέται νομοὺς τιθέασιν ἵνα ἀδικία καὶ ἀσέβεια μὴ φθείρωσι τὰς πόλεις.

  6. ὑπερτιθέντες τὴν ἡδονὴν τοῦ ἀναγκαίου ἁμαρτάνομεν.

  7. αἱ Ἀθηναῖαι κόραι κατ᾽ ἔτος ὑφαίνον πέπλον τῇ θεῷ Ἀθηνᾷ καὶ περιετίθεσαν τοῦτον τῇ θεῷ τῇ ἑορτῇ.

  8. λέγεται τινὰς Λιβύων ἀποτέμνουσι τὰς κεφαλὰς τῶν βασιλέων ἀποθανόντων καὶ ταύτας ἐντιθέασιν ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ.

  9. μὴ περιτίθει τὸν πλοῦτον, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀρετὴν πρῶτον τῶν ἀγαθῶν εἰναι.

  10. οἱ Ἕλληνες νεκροὺς ἐπὶ πῦρ ἐπετίθεσαν καί ἔκαιον.

  11. ἐπεὶ Λύκων ὁ φιλόσοφος γλυκὺς ἦν ἐν τῷ λέγειν, τινὲς τὸ γάμμα τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ προσετίθεσαν.
    it could be also probably rendered through Gen. absol
    Λύκονος τοῦ φιλοσόφου γλυκέος ὄντος ἐν τῷ λέγειν …

  12. οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι, ἐντιθέντες τοῖς τεθνηκόσι ἐν στόμα ὀβολόν, ἐνόμιζον τοῦτον Χαρόνι ἐκτιθέσθαι ὥσπερ μισθόν.

  13. ἡ γεωργία ἀνθρώπους ἐθίζει ψύχος καὶ καῦμα φέρειν τε καὶ ἰσχύν προστίθησιν.

Here’s my take:

  1. οἱ νομοθέται νόμους τιθέασιν ἵνα ἀδικία καὶ ἀσέβεια μὴ φθείρωσι τὰς πόλεις.
  2. αἱ Ἀθηναῖαι κόραι κατ᾽ ἔτος ὕφαινον πέπλον τῇ θεῷ Ἀθηνᾷ καὶ περιετίθεσαν τοῦτον τῇ θεῷ ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ.
  3. λέγεταί τινας Λιβύων ἀποτέμνουσι τὰς κεφαλὰς τῶν βασιλέων ἀποθανόντων καὶ ταύτας ἐντιθέασιν ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ.
  4. μὴ περιτίθει τὸν πλοῦτον, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀρετὴν πρῶτον τῶν ἀγαθῶν εἰναι.
  5. or ἐπιτιθέντες
  6. οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι, ἐντιθέντες τοῖς τεθνηκόσι ἐν στόμα ὀβολόν, ἐνόμιζον τοῦτο Χαρόνι ἐκτίθεσθαι ὥσπερ μισθόν.
  7. ἡ γεωργία ἀνθρώπους ἐθίζει ψῦχος καὶ καῦμα φέρειν τε καὶ ἰσχὺν προστίθησιν.

One or two further corrections:
5. περιτίθημι can’t be used like this. μὴ νομίσῃς would work.
7. Λυκάων, ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ ονόματος
8. (ἕνα) ὀβολὸν εις το στόμα εἰστιθέντες, Χάρωνι διδόναι
9. Del. τε

τινὲς τὸ γάμμα τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ προσετίθεσαν

Should τινές be enclitic in this clause, placed in the second position?

Perhaps

ἄνθρωποί τινες …

or

προσετίθεσάν τινες …

Yes in classical times indefinite τινες is normally postpositive, but often stands first later (e.g. in NT). ἔνιοι as first word is another option. I wouldn’t use ἄνθρωποι. And the verb could be imperfect or present. It’s not a very well designed exercise.

4 is badly wrong. E.g. λέγεται ὅτι τῶν Λιβύων τινὲς αποτεμόντες …. or. λέγονταί τινες …, or ….

Dear bedwere, mwh and katalogon, thank you so much for your corrections and help! Every error noticed and comment made is very useful! Thank you a lot!

I’m especially thankful for sentences 4 and 7. It was good to remind myself of the difference between indefinite and interrogative τις. And the construction suggested by mwh is much better.

Let me try to remake 4:
4.1 λέγεται ὅτι τῶν Λιβύων τινὲς αποτεμόντες τὰς κεφαλὰς τῶν βασιλέας ἀποθανόντας ταύτας ἐντίθεασιν ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ.
or
4.2 λέγονταί τινες τῶν Λιβύων αποτεμόντες τὰς κεφαλὰς τῶν βασιλέας ἀποθανόντας ταύτας ἐντίθεναι ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ.

Is that correct? Is in 4.2 τινες the subject of λέγονταί? Can we leave the participle unchanged and turn ἐντίθεασιν into infinitive ἐντίθεναι?

And if Ἡροδότος λέγει … the second part would be accusativa and infinitive τινὰς τῶν Λιβύω … ἐντίθεναι? What do you think?

Dear bedwere, thank you for your constant help!
I have just one question concerning your corrections. I had indeed a lot of doubts about pronouns. It was good to know that at least “οὖτος, αὕτη, τοῦτο” was the right choice. Still, I’m a bit confused, as τοῦτο is neutral accusative, but if it refers to ὀβολός (masculinein LSJ https://logeion.uchicago.edu/ὀβολός) it should be masculine; that’s why I used masculine accusative.



I also agree with mwh that probably (ἕνα) ὀβολὸν εις το στόμα εἰστιθέντες, Χάρωνι διδόναι sounds better. The thing with ἐκτίθεσθαι is that the exercise is to train conjugations of τίθημι and its derrivates. So these phrases many times are far from sounding smooth.

What do you think about
“οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι, ἐντιθέντες τοῖς τεθνηκόσι ἕνα ὀβολόν εἰς στόμα, ἐνόμιζον τοῦτον Χαρόνι ἐκτιθέσθαι ὥσπερ μισθόν”?

Dear mwh, thank you again fro your corrections. Here are some further questions and remarks.

Indeed, I made something bad with the 5 and I can’t explain it even to myself %) I thought I took it from translation from Greek exercise, but no. Of course, νομίζω is the first choice, but are there possibilities of τίθημι and its derrivates?
Maybe it is possible to use τίθημι in the sense LSJ B II. https://logeion.uchicago.edu/τίθημι
" in reference to mental action, when Med. is more freq. than Act., lay down. assume, hold, reckon or regard as . . ,"
What do you think?

The second little remark is considering Λυκάων. I’m sorry, it seems I lost attention and rendered badly the name Ликон into English. That’s why I used Λύκων, because I’ve found mentions of a philosopher bearing that name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyco_of_Troas. I’m sorry for confusion.

In 4 your βασιλέας ἀποθανόντας should (of course) be genitive.
In 5 for “consider” you want an ordinary verb that regularly takes a simple acc. and predicate.
7. Yes Lycon and Lycaon are two (or more!) different people.

Thank you very much! Of course it should be genitive in 4! I’ve got distracted. In my first attempt of translation it was genitive.

Dear all,

Thank you very much for your help and corrections to the previous exercise. Here is the second exercise aimed at training future, aorist and perfect active of τίθημι. This time I put Greek phrase right after the corresponding English. I hope that would save me from some errors coming from the lack of attention. As always, I would be very grateful for your corrections and suggestions.

  1. States set death as the punishment for the greatest crimes.
    αἱ πόλεις ἔθησαν θάνατον ὥς ζημίαν τῶν μεγίστων ἁμαρτημάτων.

  2. We hope that the judges will give this villain the deserved punishment.
    ἐλπίζομεν δίκαστας ζημίαν ἄξιαν ἐπιθήσειν τῷ κακουργῷ.

  3. The laws which Lycurgus established for the Spartans saved the state in many dangers.
    οἱ νόμοι οὓς Λυκοῦργος Σπαρτιάταις ἔθηκε ἔσῳζον (ἔσῳσε) τὴν πόλιν ἐκ πολλῶν κινδύνων.

  4. The Lemnonians erected in the acropolis a beautiful statue of Athena, the work of Phidias. The statue was called Lemnian after the name of those who had erected it.
    Λήμνιοι ἄγαλμα καλόν, ἔργον τοῦ Φειδίου, ἐν τῷ ἀκρόπολει ἀνέθησαν. τὸ ἄγαλμα Λήμνιον ἐκλήθη ἐκ τῶν ἀναθέντων.

  5. The gods created (perf.) the human body most beautifully and added to the beauty of the body the virtues of the soul.
    οἱ θεοὶ τεθείκασιν τὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου σῶμα καλὸν καὶ προσέθησαν τοῦτῳ τὰς τῆς ψυχῆς ἀρετάς.

  6. There is a law among the Thebans forbidding to abandon children.
    Θηβαίοις ὁ νόμος ἐστὶ κωλύοντος τοὺς παιδοὺς ἐκθεῖναι.

  7. Boy, put wine and food on the table.
    ὦ παῖ, θές σῖτον καὶ οἴνον ἐπὶ τράπεζαν.

  8. When Phidias portrayed the battle with the Amazons on the shield of Athena, he included there a beautiful image of Pericles fighting the Amazons.
    Φειδίος ἐπὶ τῇ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἀσπίδι τὴν μάχην πρός Ἀμαζώνας πλαττών ἔθηκε τὴν καλὴν εἴκονα τοῦ Περικλέους πρὸς Ἀμαζόνα μαχομένου.

  9. If anyone would change the laws, they should change them for the better.
    εἄν τις νόμους μεταθῇ, μεταθέτω ἐπὶ τὸ βέλτιον.

A few slips, and uncertainty about use of articles, but mostly good.

  1. The “strong” form (-)ἔθεσαν is the usual aorist pl., sometimes the “weak” form ἔθηκαν. Not ἔθησαν.
    ὡς not ὥς.
  2. τοὺς δικαστάς and τὴν ἀξίαν ζ.
    τούτῳ τῷ κ.
  3. τοῖς Σπαρτ.
    ἔσωσαν pl.
  4. οἱ Λήμνιοι
    ἐν τῇ ἀκροπ.
  5. κάλλιστα τεθ. (or adj. κάλλιστον)
    προσέθεσαν
  6. ἐν τοῖς Θηβ. νόμος τις ἔστι
    κωλύων or ὃς κωλύει
    παῖδας
  7. οἶνον
    τὴν τράπ.
  8. τὴν πρὸς τὰς Ἀμαζόνας μάχην
    ἔθηκε or προσέθ.
    εἰκόνα (τινα) καλήν, no article
  9. ἐάν τις τοὺς νόμους

Dear mwh, thank you very much for your corrections! They are all very clear and just. When I check these exercises myself, I usually find some errors and correct them, but I’m never able to see all that I could have noticed, like ἔσῳσε instead of ἔσῳσαν, or τῷ ἀκρόπολει (how could I have put a masculine article if πόλις is feminine?!). I also liked your remark “uncertainty about use of articles.” It’s so very true, and not only in this exercise! Thank you again.