Hi, Prometheus. Here are my answers to your final exercise (and time permitted, I’ll attempt the rest).
being present παρών (-όντος) taking λαμβάνων (-οντος) [here in 2nd.aor. λαβών (-όντος)] having ἔχων (-οντος) ruling same as reigning? killing ἀποκτείνων (-οντος) [here in fut. ἀποκτενῶν (-οῦντος)] reigning βασιλεύων (-οντος)
Cyrus, Son of Darius, was Artaxerxes’ brother, the king of Media; and his father made him general of Phrygia’s soldiers.
When his father had died (Smyth §1943), Cyrus, in company with countless Greeks and quantity of barbarians, waged war against the king, into the territory of Babylonia (LSJ εἰς A.I.).
[edit: corrected my mistake by changing kingdom (ἡ βασιλεἰᾱ, it’d have been here in acc. τὴν βασιλείᾱν) to king (from ὁ βασιλεύς)]
Thanks, Nate! (You like your Greek "well-"scrambled? I’ll keep that in mind for future breakfasts! )
By “ruling” and “reigning” I had in mind the two words, ἄρχοντα and βασιλοντα, in the first four lines of the Anabasis. And thanks for pointing out the errors that that one of my “present participles” was actually a future participle, and one an aorist (there seem to be a couple of other aorist participles in there, too).
In the Frost excerpt, I would have translated δυνάμει βαρβάρων as “barbarian/foreign forces”.
(By the way, didn’t you say that you had some brief compositions based on White’s First Greek Book?)
Thanks for the clarification of the difference between ἄρχων and βασιλεύων.
and it is actually the first time I encountered δυνάμει, searched LSJ for the definitions and decided on one,
but yours makes more sense here (though it is in singular, force of foreigners)
About the compositions I should have been more clearer as it was related to Athanze book.
I have two short ones on Jay’s forum, and I hope to write some more on both Athenaze and FGB soon.
I think that in this case, it is not a participle but a masculine noun in acc.s. from ἄρχων (-οντος), ruler, commander.
it’s in the accusative because it’s still the object of ἔχων:
…he also embarked having 300 Greek hoplites, and (having) Xenias of Parrhasia as their commander.
Just to pause for a moment, I’d like to remind readers that there’s a sort of division of labor working out, with my new-fangled reading-based exercises based on White’s reading exercises and Xenophon’s Anabasis on this thread in TextKit, and the actual Greek-English and English-Greek translation exercises from White’s First Greek Book on Jason’s site, http://www.jhronline.com/forum/index.php. (I’ll try to contribute to the translation exercises also, when I can.) Grammatical discussion and, perhaps, Socratic dialogue exploring the true meaning of the words can be found on either forum.
I’d like to know, besides those of us who have been posting (who clearly have been learning Greek for a while), whether there are also readers for whom White’s book really is their “first Greek book”. Please let us know how you’re finding the readings and the exercises and what you would find helpful to focus on.
(Anyone know a convenient way to create a vocabulary list?)
As a preliminary exercise, how about removing the conjunctions and particles and breaking it up into short, simple sentences, that are easier to make sense of at a glance? For instance, the first sentence could become
In the next exercise, you’ll be asked to review typical masculine nouns ending in -O and plug in the right form of ἀδελφός (brother).
By way of a quick review, look at this excerpt from the story of Cain and Abel in the Septuagint (Gen. 2:8-9):
a. slandered (“cast against”)
b. plots (“wishes against”)
c. became king (“reigned”)
d. captures, arrests (“takes along”)
e. pillaged (“robbed throughout”)
f. had
g. was
h. died (“finished”)
i. made war, campaigned
j. were
k. made
Exercise: Break into Many Short, Simple Sentences (Solution)
Let me provide solutions to my own exercise from Oct. 16 about how a passage like the one from White’s Lesson 14 can be broken down into simpler sentences, eliminating conjunctions like KAI and OYN and particles like MEN and δὲ to make reading and understanding the basic statements that much simpler. I’ll also translate these simplified sentences, in order to enhance your comprehension when you read the passage the next time.
(1) Κῦρος σατράπης ἦν τῆς Λυδίας. ‘Cyrus was the Satrap of Lydia’
(+ Κῦρος σατράπης ἦν τῆς Φρυγίας. '‘Cyrus was the Satrap of Phrygia’;
Κῦρος σατράπης ἦν τῆς Καππαδοκίας. '‘Cyrus was the Satrap of Cappadocia’)
(2) ἐτελεύτησε Δαρεῖος. ‘Darius died’
(3) Ἁρταξέρξης ἐβασίλευσε τῶν Περσῶν. ‘Artaxerxes became king of the Persians’
(Ἁρταξέρξης ἦν ὁ τοῦ Κύρου ἀδελφὸς ‘Artaxerxes was Cyrus’s brother’)
Thank you, Prometheus for your helpful exercises. very much appreciated!
your detailed last post on how to separate complex sentences to its constituent parts
does make life easier.
in this sentence though:
(4) Τισσαφέρνης διαβάλλει τὸν Κῦρον ‘Tissaphernes accuses Cyrus’
(5) (Κῦρος) ἐπιβουλεύει αὐτῷ (τὸν ἁδελφὸν) ‘Cyrus plots against him (his brother)’
αὐτῷ stands for τῷ ἀδελφῷ because that’s the case this verb requires.
a. Insert the correct case form of ἀδελφός (brother):
Κῦρος οὖν σατράπης ἦν τῆς Λυδίας καὶ τῆς Φρυγίας καὶ τῆς Καππαδοκίας. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐτελεύτησε Δαρεῖος, Ἁρταξέρξης ὁ τοῦ Κύρου ἀδεφὸς ἐβασίλευσε τῶν Περσῶν, καὶ Τισσαφέρνης διαβάλλει τὸν Κῦρον πρὸς τὸν ἀδελφὸν ὡς ἐπιβουλεύει αὐτῷ. ὁ δ’ Ἁρταξέρξης συλλαμβάνει Κῦρον.
b. Insert the correct case form of the definite article (masculine):
Κῦρος οὖν σατράπης ἦν τῆς Λυδίας καὶ τῆς Φρυγίας καὶ τῆς Καππαδοκίας. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐτελεύτησε Δαρεῖος, Ἁρταξέρξης ὁ τοῦ Κύρου ἀδελφὸς ἐβασίλευσε τῶν Περσῶν, καὶ Τισσαφέρνης διαβάλλει τὸν Κῦρον πρὸς τὸν ἁδελφὸν ὡς ἐπιβουλεύει αὐτῷ. ὁ δ’ Ἁρταξέρξης συλλαμβάνει Κῦρον.
I sat down the past couple of days to attempt writing a short story with vocabulary from FGB,
but ended up using constructions not yet learned (I’ve learned most of them before; others with
the help of Smyth) and new vocabulary and special meanings from LSJ. Hope you and others will like
this and suggest corrections.
Thanks for posting your story, Nate. I’m enjoying it, but it’s taking me a while to get through it. I’m moving a paragraph at a time. In the first paragraph (actually, the first sentence), I have questions about the participles διαλεγόμενοι and κάθιζον: Is διαλεγόμενοι a present, middle participle in nominative plural “they are conversing” (presumably middle because of a reciprocal meaning)? Would I get the same meaning if I substituted the present inflected form, like διαλεγόucιv? Shouldn’t (ἐν τῷ χωρίῳ) κάθιζον be κάθιζονTEZ because it’s plural?