I have been enjoying the Cambridge Grammar of Classical Greek. I came across this sentence where the perfect tense puzzled me: ὁ δὲ κολωνὸς ἐστὶ ἐν τῇ ἐσόδῳ, ὅκου νῦν ὁ λίθινος λέων ἕστηκε ἐπὶ Λεωνίδῃ. I may have answered my own question for later in the Grammar it says “A number of…verbs, when they occur in the perfect tense, express an ongoing state without any clear reference to…a preceding action, and…function much like present-stem forms.” One of these is ἕστηκε. But then they relate it to ἵσταμαι come to stand which is passive, I think. So I am still confused. I don’t think LSJ says anything about this use of the perfect, but it lists the perfect under II intrans. to stand. Could the present have been used?
Hi Charlie,
Yes it’s a confusing verb, not helped by the ambiguities of English.
The thing about ἕστηκε(ν), the perfect, is that despite its active form it’s intransitive, “it stands” i.e. is in a standing position. As I think you probably understand. E.g. ὁ λέων ἐν τῇ ἐσόδῳ ἕστηκεν, “the lion stands at the entrance.”
ἵσταμαι, by contrast, is the middle and passive present. E.g. ὁ λέων ἐν τῇ ἐσόδῳ ἵσταται “the lion is being set (is being stood) at the entrance” (ἵσταται passive), which could also mean “comes to stand” (as you cite CGCG).
As for the aorist, ἔστησε(ν) is transitive, while ἔστη is intransitive. τὸν λέοντα ἔστησεν “he stood the lion,” ὁ λέων ἔστη “the lion stood.”
A confusing verb, to be sure, but these are the basics. It’s very common in its various compounds, which have a variety of meanings but all follow the same pattern.
(Cf. your thread on κίνδυνοι τῶν ἐφεστηκότων ἴδιοι, participle of ἐφ-ἕστηκα.)
Hope this helps. Glad you’re enjoying CGCG (which I don’t actually have myself, so I can’t refer to it directly).
Thank you very much. Indeed, it does help.