In the grammar of Ancient Greek, an aorist (pronounced or) (from the Ancient Greek ἀόριστος aóristos - ‘undefined’) is a type of verb that carries certain information about a grammatical feature called aspect. For example, an English speaker might say either "The tree died" or "The tree was dying," which communicate similar things about the tree but differ in aspect. In ancient Greek, these would be stated, respectively, in the aorist and imperfect. The aorist describes an event as a complete action rather than one that was ongoing, unfolding, repeated, or habitual.
The vast majority of usages of the aorist also describe events or conditions in past time, and traditional grammars introduce it as a past tense.[1] However, it is often idiomatic to use the aorist to refer to present time. For example, "Go to school today" would be expressed using the aorist imperative, since the speaker is giving a command to do an action at one point in time, rather than "Keep going to school." Some modern linguists describe the aorist as solely an aspect, claiming that any information about time comes from context.[2]
The aorist is in most cases clearly distinguished by its form. In late prose, it is mandatory for the aorist to have a prefix or lengthened initial syllable called an augment. It often has an infixed "s" (σ) or "th" (θ) sound (for active and passive voices, respectively), and it takes a particular set of endings. For example, "I loosen" is expressed in the present tense as Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λύω, while "I loosened" in the aorist aspect is Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἔλυσα .
In the grammatical terminology of classical Greek, the aorist is a tense, one of the seven divisions of the conjugation of a verb, found in all moods and voices. It has a consistent stem across all moods. By contrast, in theoretical linguistics, tense refers to a form that specifies a point in time (past, present, or future), so in that sense the aorist is a tense-aspect combination.
The literary Greek of Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries BC, Attic Greek, was the standard school-room form of Greek for centuries. This article therefore describes chiefly the Attic aorist but also the variants at other times and in other dialects as needed. The poems of Homer were studied in Athens and may have been compiled there. They are in Epic or Homeric Greek, an artificial blend of several dialects, not including Attic. The Homeric aorist differs in morphology from Attic, but educated Athenians imitated Homeric syntax.
Conversely, Hellenistic or Koine Greek was a blend of several dialects after the conquests of Alexander. Most of the written texts that survive in Koine imitate the Attic taught in schools to a greater or lesser extent, but the spoken language of the writers appears to have simplified and regularized the formation of the aorist, and some of the features of Attic syntax are much less frequently attested.
A verb may have either a first aorist or a second aorist: the distinction is like that between weak (try, tried) and strong verbs (write, wrote) in English. But the distinction can be better described by considering the "second aorist" as showing the actual verb stem when the present has a morph to designate present stem, like -σκ-, or reduplication with ι as in δίδωμι. A very few verbs have both types of aorist, sometimes with a distinction of meaning: for example Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἵστημι (to set up or cause to stand) has both Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἕστησα and Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἕστην as aorists, but the first has a transitive meaning ("I set up") and the second an intransitive meaning ("I stood").
The stem of the first aorist is often marked by the addition of morphs: Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: -σα- in the active and middle voice, and Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: -θη- in the passive voice. Because of the Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: σ (sigma), it is also called sigmatic aorist.
Compensatory lengthening affects first aorist forms whose verbal root ends in a sonorant (nasal or liquid: Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ν, grc|μ, grc|ρ, grc|λ).
In Attic and Ionic Greek (also in Doric, with some differences), the Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: σ in the first aorist suffix causes compensatory lengthening of the vowel before the sonorant, producing a long vowel (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: α → Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: η or grc|ᾱ, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ε → Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ει, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ι → Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ῑ, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ο → Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ου, grc|υ → Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ῡ).
In Aeolic Greek (which contributes some forms to Homeric), the Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: σ causes compensatory lengthening of the sonorant instead of the vowel, producing a double consonant (grc|ν → Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: νν, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λ → Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λλ).
The present stem sometimes undergoes sound changes caused by a suffix — for instance, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: [[palatal approximant|-ι̯-]] (IPA: pronounced as //j//, English consonantal y). In this case, the aorist is formed from the verbal root without the present-stem sound changes.
| present | aorist | meaning | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| original form | Attic | original form | Attic | Aeolic | ||
| Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: μέν-ω | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: *μεν-σα | grc|ἔ-μεινα | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: *ἔ-μεννα | stay, wait for | ||
| Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: *στέλ-ι̯ω | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: στέλλω | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: *στελ-σα | grc|ἔ-στειλα | grc|ἔ-στελλα | prepare, send | |
| Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: *φάν-ι̯ω | grc|φαίνω | grc|*φαν-σα | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἔ-φηνα | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: *ἔ-φαννα | show | |
Kiparsky analyzes the process as debuccalization of s (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: σ) to h in Proto-Greek, metathesis of h and the sonorant so that h comes before the sonorant, and assimilation of h to the vowel (Attic-Ionic-Doric) or to the consonant (Aeolic).[3]
Most of the active and middle forms of the first aorist contain an grc|α. The indicative forms are similar to the imperfect, and the other moods, except for the subjunctive, are similar to the present, except with an Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: α in the endings instead of an Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ο or Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ε. The first person singular indicative active, second person singular imperfect middle, the second person singular imperatives, infinitive active, and masculine nominative singular of the participle (bolded), however, do not follow this pattern. The subjunctive active and middle have endings identical to the present active and mediopassive, while the passive has endings identical to the present active.
Most of the passive forms of the first aorist have endings similar to those of the root aorist.
| Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λύω "release", aor. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λυσ(α)- | indicative | subjunctive | optative | imperative | infinitive | participle | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| active | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἔλυσ'''α'''<br>ἔλυσας<br />ἔλυσε<br />ἐλύσαμεν<br />ἐλύσατε<br />ἔλυσαν | grc|λύσω<br />λύσῃς<br />λύσῃ<br />λύσωμεν<br />λύσητε<br />λύσωσι | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λύσαιμι<br />λύσαις<br />λύσαι<br />λύσαιμεν<br />λύσαιτε<br />λύσαιεν | — Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λῦσ'''ον'''<br />λυσάτω<br />—<br />λύσατε<br>λυσάντων/λυσάτωσαν | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λῦσ'''αι''' | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λύσ'''ας'''<br />λύσασα<br />λῦσαν | |
| middle | grc|ἐλυσάμην<br />ἐλύσ'''ω'''<br />ἐλύσατο<br />ἐλυσάμεθα<br />ἐλύσασθε<br />ἐλύσαντο | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λύσωμαι<br />λύσῃ<br />λύσηται<br />λυσώμεθα<br />λύσησθε<br />λύσωνται | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λυσαίμην<br />λύσαιο<br />λύσαιτο<br />λυσαίμεθα<br />λύσαισθε<br />λύσαιντο | — grc|λῦσ'''αι'''<br />λυσάσθω<br>—<br />λύσασθε<br />λυσάσθων/λυσάσθωσαν | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λύσασθαι | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λυσάμενος<br />λυσαμένη<br />λυσάμενον | |
| passive | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἐλύθην<br />ἐλύθης<br />ἐλύθη<br />ἐλύθημεν<br />ἐλύθητε<br />ἐλύθησαν | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λυθῶ<br>λυθῇς<br />λυθῇ<br />λυθῶμεν<br />λυθῆτε<br />λυθῶσι | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λυθείην<br />λυθείης<br />λυθείη<br />λυθείημεν/λυθεῖμεν<br />λυθείητε/λυθεῖτε<br />λυθείησαν/λυθεῖεν | — Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λύθητι<br />λυθήτω<br />—<br />λύθητε<br />λυθέντων/λυθήτωσαν | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λυθῆναι | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λυθείς<br />λυθεῖσα<br>λυθέν |
The stem of the second aorist is the bare root of the verb, or a reduplicated version of the root. In these verbs, the present stem often has e-grade of ablaut and adds a nasal infix or suffix to the basic verb root, but the aorist has zero-grade (no e) and no infix or suffix.
When the present has a diphthong (e.g., Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ει), the second aorist has the offglide of the diphthong (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ι).
When there is no vowel in the present stem besides the e of ablaut, the aorist has no vowel, or has an Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: α from a vocalic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ρ or Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λ.
Present stems of verbs with a reduplicated aorist often do not have e-grade or an infix or suffix.
The endings include an Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ο or Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ε (thematic vowel). In the indicative, endings are identical to those of the imperfect; in non-indicative moods, they are identical to those of the present.
| Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λείπω "leave", aor. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λιπ({{frac|ο|ε | indicative | subjunctive | optative | imperative | infinitive | participle | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| active | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἔλιπον<br>ἔλιπες<br>ἔλιπεν<br>ἐλίπομεν<br>ἐλίπετε<br>ἔλιπον | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λίπω<br>λίπῃς<br>λίπῃ<br>λίπωμεν<br>λίπητε<br>λίπωσιν | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λίποιμι<br>λίποις<br>λίποι<br>λίποιμεν<br>λίποιτε<br>λίποιεν | — Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λίπε<br>λιπέτω<br>—<br>λίπετε<br>λιπόντων | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λιπεῖν | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λιπών<br>λιποῦσα<br>λιπόν | |
| middle | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἐλιπόμην<br>ἐλίπου<br>ἐλίπετο<br>ἐλιπόμεθα<br>ἐλίπεσθε<br>ἐλίποντο | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λίπωμαι<br>λίπῃ/ει<br>λίπηται<br>λιπώμεθα<br>λίπησθε<br>λίπωνται | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λιποίμην<br>λίποιο<br>λίποιτο<br>λιποίμεθα<br>λιποίεσθε<br>λίποιντο | — Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λιποῦ<br>λιπέσθω<br>—<br>λίπεσθε<br>λιπέσθων | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λιπέσθαι | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λιπόμενος<br>λιπομένη<br>λιπόμενον | |
| passive | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἐλείφθην<br>ἐλείφθης<br>ἐλείφθη<br>ἐλείφθημεν<br>ἐλείφθητε<br>ἐλείφθησαν | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λειφθῶ<br>λειφθῇς<br>λειφθῇ<br>λειφθῶμεν<br>λειφθῆτε<br>λειφθῶσι | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λειφθείην<br>λειφθείης<br>λειφθείη<br>λειφθείημεν/λειφθεῖμεν<br>λειφθείητε/λειφθεῖτε<br>λειφθείησαν/λειφθεῖεν | — Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λείφθητι<br>λειφθήτω<br>—<br>λείφθητε<br>λειφθέντων/λειφθήτωσαν | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λειφθῆναι | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: λειφθείς<br>λειφθεῖσα<br>λειφθέν |
A second aorist passive is distinguished from a first aorist passive only by the absence of Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: θ. A few verbs have passive aorists in both forms, usually with no distinction in meaning; but Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἐφάνην "I appeared" is distinguished from Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἐφάνθην "I was shown".
There is no correlation between the first/second aorist distinction in the active and the passive: a verb with an active second aorist may have a passive first aorist or vice versa.
The root aorist is characteristic of athematic verbs (those with a present active in Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: -μι). Like the second aorist, the stem is the bare root, and endings are similar to the imperfect in the indicative, and identical to the present in non-indicative moods. It is sometimes included as a subcategory of the second aorist because of these similarities, but unlike the second aorist of thematic verbs, it has no thematic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: {{frac|ο|ε.
| active | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἔγνων<br>ἔγνως<br>ἔγνω<br>ἔγνωμεν<br>ἔγνωτε<br>ἔγνωσαν | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: γνῶ<br>γνῷς<br>γνῷ<br>γνῶμεν<br>γνῶτε<br>γνῶσι | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: γνοίην<br>γνοίης<br>γνοίη<br>γνοῖμεν, γνοίημεν<br>γνοῖτε, γνοίητε<br>γνοῖεν, γνοίησαν | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: —<br>γνῶθι<br>γνώτω<br>—<br>γνῶτε<br>γνόντων | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: γνῶναι | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: γνούς<br>γνοῦσα<br>γνόν |
|---|
The singular aorist indicative active of some athematic verbs (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: τίθημι, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἔθηκα; Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: δίδωμι, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἔδωκα; Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἵημι, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἧκα) uses a stem formed by the suffix Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: -κα and takes first aorist rather than root aorist endings.
The aorist generally presents a situation as an undivided whole, also known as the perfective aspect.[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
The aorist has a number of variations in meaning that appear in all moods.
In verbs denoting a state or continuing action, the aorist may express the beginning of the action or the entrance into the state. This is called ingressive aorist (also inceptive or inchoative).
basileúō — ebasíleusa
The resultative aorist expresses the result of an action. Whether this is truly distinguishable from the normal force of the narrative aorist is disputable.
The aorist usually implies a past event in the indicative, but it does not assert pastness, and can be used of present or future events.
I am undone if you will leave me, wife.
The aorist and the imperfect are the standard tenses for telling a story. The ordinary distinction between them is between an action considered as a single undivided event and the action as a continuous event. Thus, for example, a process as a whole can be described in the imperfect, while the individual steps in that process will be aorist.
Here the imperfect Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἔπαιζε "was playing" is the whole process of the game (which continues past these extracts); the aorists the individual steps.[9]
The narrative aorist has the same force, of an undivided or single action, when used by itself:
Were wont to do him homage is the imperfect, made their obeisance the aorist, of Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: προσκυνῶ "kowtow".
On the other hand, if the entire action is expressed, not as a continuous action, but as a single undivided event, the aorist is used:[9]
Herodotus introduces his story of Cyrus playing with:
The aorist is also used when something is described as happening for some definite interval of time; this particular function can be more precisely called the temporal aorist:
Lysias, Against Eratosthenes 4
The other chief narrative use of the aorist is to express events before the time of the story:[10]
It thus often translates an English or Latin pluperfect: the Greek pluperfect has the narrower function of expressing a state of affairs existing at the time of the story as the result of events before the time of the story.
The gnomic aorist expresses the way things generally happen, as in proverbs. The empiric aorist states a fact of experience (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἐμπειρίᾱ empeiríā), and is modified by the adverbs often, always, sometimes, already, not yet, never, etc. (English tends to express similar timeless assertions with the simple present.)
The gnomic aorist is regarded as a primary tense in determining the mood of verbs in subordinate clauses. That is to say, subordinate clauses take the subjunctive instead of the optative.
In dialogues within tragedy and comedy, the first person singular aorist or present expresses an action performed by the act of speaking, like thanking someone (see performative utterance), or, according to another analysis, a state of mind. This is called tragic or dramatic aorist. The aorist is used when the action is complete in the single statement; the present when the speaker goes on to explain how or why he is acting.
: translated by William James Hickie[11]
A wish about the past that cannot be fulfilled is expressed by the aorist indicative with the particles Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: εἴθε or Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: εἰ γάρ "if only" (eíthe, ei gár). This is called the aorist of unattainable wish.
An unattainable wish about the present uses the imperfect. A wish about the future uses the optative with or without a particle; an optative of wish may be unattainable.
The aorist indicative (less commonly the imperfect) with the modal particle Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἄν (án), Homeric Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κέ(ν) (ké[n]), may express past potentiality, probability, or necessity.
The aorist indicative (also the imperfect, or past iterative in Herodotus) with Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἄν án may express repeated or customary past action. This is called the iterative indicative. It is similar to the past potential, since it denotes what could have happened at a given point, but unlike the past potential, it is a statement of fact.
But whenever he came past any of those who had fought under him before, he would say
The aorist or imperfect indicative with Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἄν may express past unreality or counterfactuality. This is called the unreal indicative. This construction is used in the consequence of past counterfactual conditional sentences.
Outside of indirect discourse, an aorist participle may express any time (past, present, or rarely future) relative to the main verb.
Outside of the indicative mood, sometimes the aorist determines time (often past time), and sometimes the function of the mood determines it. When the aorist does not determine time, it determines aspect instead.
Aorist in indirect discourse refers to past time relative to the main verb, since it replaces an aorist indicative.
An imperative, subjunctive or optative in an independent clause usually refers to future time, because the imperative express a command, the subjunctive expresses urging, prohibition, or deliberation, and the optative expresses a wish or possibility.
In dependent clauses (temporal, conditional, etc.), the time (past, present, or future) of an aorist subjunctive, optative, or imperative is based on the function of the mood. The subjunctive is used with main verbs in the present and future tenses (primary sequence), and the optative is used with main verbs in the past tenses (secondary sequence) and to express potentiality in the future.
In the potential optative, the aorist expresses aspect, and the potential optative implies future time.