Notes on Aorist Morphology

William S. Annis Scholiastae.org∗

February 5, 2012

Traditional grammars of classical Greek enumerate two forms of the aorist. For beginners this terminology is extremely misleading: the second aorist contains two distinct conjugations. This article covers the formation of all types of aorist, with special attention on the athematic second aorist conjugation which few verbs take, but several of them happen to be common.

Not Two, but Three Aorists The forms of Greek aorist are usually divided into two classes, the first and the second. The first aorist is pretty simple, but the second aorist actually holds two distinct systems of morphology. I want to point out that the difference between first and second aorists is only a difference in conjugation. The meanings and uses of all these aorists are the same, but I’m not going to cover that here. See Goodwin’s Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, or your favorite Greek grammar, for more about aorist syntax. In my verb charts I give the indicative active forms, indicate nu-movable with ”(ν)”, and al- ways include the dual forms. Beginners can probably skip the duals unless they are starting with Homer.

The First Aorist This is taught as the regular form of the aorist. Like the future, a sigma is tacked onto the stem, so it sometimes called the sigmatic aorist. It is sometimes also called the weak aorist. Since it acts as a secondary (past) tense in the indicative, it has an augment:

ἐ + λυ + σ-

Onto this we tack on the endings. There are some similarities to the present endings, but note the differences. The biggest thing to notice is the predominance of alpha. Here’s the first aorist conjugation of λύω:

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1 ἔλυσα ἐλύσαμεν ἔλυσας ἐλύσατον ἐλύσατε ἔλυσε(ν) ἐλυσάτην ἔλυσαν

For contract verbs the vowel of the stem lengthens before the sigma: ἐποίησα from ποιέω. When the stem ends in a stop (β, π, φ; δ, τ, θ; γ, κ, χ) it merges with the sigma (ψ, σ, ξ). See Goodwin §683, Smyth §545 for more detail on this. There are a number of verbs which will have the same endings, but for which the sigma will have disappeared. For example, the aorist of μένω remain is ἔμεινα. So, when you’re memorizing your list of principal parts for a verb, and see that the aorist ends in alpha, you may be reasonably confident in how it is conjugated. Verbs with stems ending in a nasal or a liquid (μ, ν, λ, ρ) usually have this sort of change. Finally, do not get into the habit of thinking of the first aorists as regular. The aorist of φέρω carry, bear is ἤνεγκα (Epic: ἤνεικα). This is a first aorist, but it is obviously irregular since it has no apparent phonetic relationship to φέρω. Pharr §849, 904; Smyth §383, 542-545; Goodwin 492, 635, 669-674

The Second Aorists: Both of Them The majority of second aorists, called strong aorists in some textbooks, will resemble, in conju- gation, the imperfect. The aorist of ἔχω is ἔσχον. The conjugation is like the rest of the normal thematic, -ω verbs since you use a helping -ο- before personal endings starting with -μ- and -ν-, and -ε- before everything else. The thematic second aorist conjugation of ἔχω:

ἔσχον ἔσχομεν ἔσχες ἔσχετον ἔσχετε ἔσχε(ν) ἐσχέτην ἔσχον

None of this is unbearably tricky. Just keep in mind that the imperfect is conjugated using the present stem but second aorists have a different stem form. So ἐφεύγομεν “we were fleeing” but ἐφύγομεν “we fled.” Pharr 865.1, 933; Smyth 384; Goodwin 675-677 Unfortunately, there is yet another class of aorists. They get grouped with the second aorists in traditional grammars, which I think is fairly misleading. These are athematic aorists. (Mor- wood’s new Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek calls them “root aorists.”) This means they’re going to take the endings of the forms above but the theme vowel (-ε- and -ο-) will be gone. For most of these verbs the stem will end in a vowel, so this isn’t too awful, but the resulting forms may be a bit surprising. Also, the third person plural ending is usually -σαν but may just be -ν sometimes, especially in Epic. Here is the athematic second aorist of γιγνώσκω know:

ἔγνων ἔγνωμεν ἔγνως ἔγνωτον ἔγνωτε ἔγνω ἐγνώτην ἔγνωσαν

2 There is, of course, one more possible confusion. In athematic verbs usually the stem vowel is long in the singular forms, but short in the dual and plural forms. For most of these second aorists, though athematic, the stem vowel is uniformly long. Not so in Homer. Here’s the chart for the Epic forms of the athematic second aorist for βαίνω go, a very common verb:

ἔβην ἔβημεν, ἔβαμεν ἔβης ἔβητον, ἔβατον ἔβητε, ἔβατε ἔβη ἐβήτην, ἐβάτην ἔβησαν, ἔβασαν, ἔβαν

Homer gets to choose between the long and short dual and plural forms as he sees fit. Pharr 865.2, 930; Smyth 682-688; Goodwin 678, 799-803.

Seconds, Please I’m going to finish up with a quick overview of a few of the most common of these athematic aorists. So far I have only talked about the indicative forms. The other moods of the sigmatic and thematic second aorists are pretty easy. As you might expect, there are a few surprises in the other moods for the athematic seconds, but predictable surprises once you know what you’re looking for. So here’s a quick summary of the different moods of three common verbs which take athematic second aorist forms. ἁλίσκομαι am captured. This is customarily used as the passive for αἱρέω take, seize. Stem ἁλο-. Thus: aorist indicative ἑάλων or ἥλων; subjunctive ἁλῶ, ἁλῶς, ἁλῶ, ἁλῶτον, ἁλῶτον, ἁλῶμεν, ἁλῶτε, ἁλῶσι; optative ἁλοίην κτλ.; infinitive ἁλῶναι; participle ἁλούς. Epic: sometimes the subjunctive lengthens the vowel of the stem, and does not contract: ἁλώω κτλ.; infinitive in ἁλώμεναι. βαίνω go. Stem βα- but sometimes (mostly Epic) βε-, thus: aorist indicative ἔβην; subjunctive βῶ, κτλ.; optative βαίην; infinitive βῆναι; participle βάς. Epic: has several subjunctives to choose from, βήω, βείω; infinitive βήμεναι. Finally, in the Epic dialect this verb has a first aorist ἔβησα. When a verb has both first and second aorists (or perfects, it turns out), then the first aorist is transitive, the second intransitive. So ἔβησα means “I made (something) go.” γιγνώσκω know. Stem γνο-, thus: aorist indicative ἔγνων; subjunctive γνῶ; optative γνοίην; infinitive γνῶναι; participle γνούς. Epic: again, subjunctive with long stem vowel, without con- traction γνώω, κτλ., infinitive in γνώμεναι. The imperatives of the athematic aorists are the same as the thematic second aorists except for the second person singular, which is -θι. So, using bai/nw as an example:

βῆθι βῆτον βῆτε βήτω βήτων βήντων

Now that you’ve been warned about verbs which can take this athematic aorist form, see Smyth 687-688 or Goodwin 694-696 for the full list when you feel it’s time to master these. As I said at the beginning, there aren’t many of these verbs, and only a handful occur with any frequency. But now you know what to watch out for.

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