Participles and middle/passive

Greek Learning Greek
1

Χαιρετε,

I have been teaching myself ancient greek using Anne Groton’s alpha to Omega, and am half way through, and am struggling mainly with participles - I understand what they are (mostly), but am not 100% on how they work, and I think it’s now a matter of seeing them used more often than the 10 excersises she gives per chapter. As such, can anyone recomend a good greek text in Attic or Koine that will be fairly readable whilst making decent use of participles?

A similar problem exists with the aorist middle/passive verbs, which I do understand, but now that I am supposed to have learnt 5 of the 6 verb stems, Greeks verbs have become quite ungainly!

Thanks,

A

2

Other textbooks might offer more help. And here’s what I suggest. Take any passage in Xenophon, look for the participles in it (if you’re able to recognize them), and observe how they’re used. Points of difficulty can be dealt with here. Most participles don’t have the article; watch out for those that do. It makes a big difference to the meaning.

Aorist middle forms are different from aorist passive forms, which makes life a little easier since you don’t have to decide whether they’re middle or passive in any given instance. But yes the middle can be a difficult voice to come to terms with; and yes it does make learning Greek more complicated! Don’t confuse middle with passive, even though in the present and imperfect tenses their forms coincide.

3

Independently of Michael, I was going to post a random Xenophon passage with the participles highlighted. Here it is. Red is for participles, blue is for infinitives, and green is for finite verbs.

Xenophon, Anabasis 3.2.11-12

ἐλθόντων μὲν γὰρ Περσῶν καὶ τῶν σὺν αὐτοῖς παμπληθεῖ στόλῳ ὡς ἀφανιούντων τὰς Ἀθήνας, ὑποστῆναι αὐτοὶ Ἀθηναῖοι τολμήσαντες ἐνίκησαν αὐτούς. καὶ εὐξάμενοι τῇ Ἀρτέμιδι ὁπόσους κατακάνοιεν τῶν πολεμίων τοσαύτας χιμαίρας καταθύσειν τῇ θεῷ, ἐπεὶ οὐκ εἶχον ἱκανὰς εὑρεῖν, ἔδοξεν αὐτοῖς κατ᾿ ἐνιαυτὸν πεντακοσίας θύειν, καὶ ἔτι νῦν ἀποθύουσιν.

Brownson/Dillery tr.:

For when the Persians and their followers came with a vast array to blot Athens out of existence, the Athenians dared, unaided, to withstand them, and won the victory. And while they had vowed to Artemis that for every man they might slay of the enemy they would sacrifice a goat to the goddess, they were unable to find goats enough; so they resolved to offer five hundred every year, and this sacrifice they are paying even to this day.

Here’s Watson’s “literal” translation, which might give you a better idea of the grammar (or not):

For when the Persians, and those united with them, came with a numerous host, as if to sweep Athens from the face of the earth, the Athenians, by daring to oppose them, gave them a defeat; and having made a vow to Diana, that whatever number they should kill of the enemy, they would sacrifice to her divinity the same number of goats, and not being able to find enough, they resolved to sacrifice five hundred every year; and to this day they still continue to sacrifice them.

To an extremely rough and inaccurate first approximation, Greek participles are “-ing” words in English (gerunds). Greek infinitives are English infinitives, “to …” formations in English. Any noun in a Greek sentence, (ie. a subject, direct object, indirect object), can be a noun phrase with a participle doing something.

The girl pushed him → The girl running by pushed him

“Running” (note the gerund) would be a participle in Greek.

And, again to a first approximation, infinitives represent conceived action. In English you “try to do something” or are “able to do something”, and both of these constructions take the infinitive in Greek as well. In general, if it’s a construction that has to be a verb and couldn’t be replaced by a simple noun, it takes the infinitive. But there are major and frequent exceptions, which even occur in the above Xenophon passage.

I realize that there is some disinformation in the above, but it will hopefully be enough to get you started. At some point once you have read enough, participles (which are more frequent and useful in Greek than gerunds are English) begin to make to sense.

4

Here are those participles more literally translated and with the superfluous bits cut out:

ἐλθόντων μὲν γὰρ Περσῶν ὡς ἀφανιούντων τὰς Ἀθήνας, ὑποστῆναι Ἀθηναῖοι τολμήσαντες ἐνίκησαν αὐτούς. καὶ εὐξάμενοι τῇ Ἀρτέμιδι …

“The Persians having come” (gen.absol., aorist participle) “as being about to wipe Athens out” (ὡς+fut.participle to indicate their intention), “the Athenians having dared (aor.) to withstand (them) defeated them. And having prayed/vowed" (aor., middle) "to Artemis …”

The participles progressively set up the scene, and finally we get to the main verb (ενικησαν) and are ready to move on to the next sentence (or the second half of this one).

It’s a perfectly ordinary Greek sentence, especially in its use of aorist participles, but English, as Joel indicates, wouldn’t use participles but say something like “When the Persians came with the intention of wiping Athens out, the Athenians dared to stand up to them, and defeated them. …”, or even “The Persians came … But the Athenians …”. English coordinates, while Greek subordinates—often by means of participles.

5

This is brilliant, thanks for the help guys.

I will go and get myself Xenophon’s Anabasis and see what I can manage.

6

Consider Mather and Hewitt’s Anabasis with notes and a vocabulary. Also, you’ll find that Crosby’s “Introduction to Greek” may be a good Anabasis-focused (in vocabulary) supplemental textbook.