I am supposed to write, “While we were pursuing those who had crossed the river, the Athenians burned the tents and seized the horses.”
I need to ask a couple questions before I try writing it:
Hi Lukas
It is good that you are thinking about things before starting to translate.
The first thing to consider is what is the connection between the two halves of the sentence. Is the “we” of “pursuing” the same as “the Athenians” who “burned the tents and seized the horses”. Grammatically dependent or not? What does your answer tell you? You also need to think about how you will translate “burned” and “seized”.
yes that seems right.
that seems correct too. Dont forget to think about the case of the participle here.
I wrote, “διώκοντες τὸν ποταμὸν τοὺς διαβάντας, οἱ Ἀθεναῖοι καύσαντες τὰς σκηνὰς τοὺς ἵππους ἥρπασαν.”
The answer book wrote, “διωκόντων ἡμῶν τοὺς τὸν ποταμὸν διαβάντας, οἱ Ἀθεναῖοι καύσαντες τὰς σκηνὰς τοὺς ἵππους ἥρπασαν.”
Is it possible for a participle to have more than one element? In this case, set apart as a genitive absolute and temporal?
Scratch the last question, as I just read the textbook again and saw that genitive absoltues can have more than one element.
What about other elements? Is a conditional and a temporal legal?
Did you think about the question I asked you about the two halves of the sentence?
“διώκοντες” is the nominative plural so as you have written the sentence it is the Athenians who were “pursuing those who had crossed the river” as “διώκοντες” agrees with “οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι”. But the English says “While we were pursuing…
the Athenians…”. So “We” and “the Athenians” are grammatically independent and you have to use an absolute construction for the first part of the sentence. You also omitted to translate “we”.
The first participle is a temporal participle and in this case it is grammatically independent of the subject of the second part of the sentence and therefore has to be a temporal participle in the genitive case. Call it two elements if you like but it is really just one.
Always the first thing to notice in a sentence like this is whether the two halves have the same subject and are grammatically dependent or whether they are independent. Whether the participle in the first part of the sentence is causal, concessive or temporal is a subsidiary question.
If this isn’t clear ask again.
I thought about it but did not know that I could combine a genitive absolute with another element until I read the textbook again.
Are there non-genitive absolute participles that combine more than one element.?
I cannot think of an example right now but want to ask in case I get hit with one later.
Forget about combining with other “elements.” It’s meaningless. Any verb, and any participle, can be attended by any number of other elements, such as subjects, objects, adverbs, prepositional phrases, etc. You need to adjust your mental framework. Useful categories are “main” vs. “subordinate.” Participles are always subordinate, and their case, like their number and gender and their tense, depends on their relation to the main verb (more strictly, the leading verb, but never mind that).
The force of a participle (as conditional, concessive, causal, temporal, or merely circumstantial) is not built in to the participle. It depends on the reader’s understanding of the context. But introductory particles (e.g. καίπερ), grammatically optional, sometimes help to narrow it down, as in your ex.9 sentence.
In addition to participles, there are subordinate clauses, introduced by conjunctions such as επει, εἰ, ὄτε etc.—like English “although,” “while,” etc. These have finite verbs, just like main clauses. But where English uses subordinate clauses, Greek often uses a participle instead. “Although he is reporting many things” may be expressed either by a subordinate clause (ει και πολλα αγγελλει) or by a participle with or without καίπερ. If the latter, the form of the participle (nom., gen., whatever) depends on its relation to the verb of the main sentence.
But as to your question: yes, there is one other absolute participle construction. Impersonal verbs (e.g. δεῖ, ἔξεστιν, ἔδοξεν) use an accusative absolute (e.g. δέον, εξόν, δόξαν, always neuter), not a genitive absolute. By their very nature they can have no grammatical relation to the main sentence, hence they’re “absolute." —But you’re getting ahead of yourself.
If any or all of this is confusing, just ignore it. And If seneca has anything to say here, you should listen to him.
Εὐχαριστῶ!