Unit 29, Aorist Passive and Athematic Imperatives

[Lukas]

I have two questions pertaining to the aorist passive and athematic imperatives:

1. The aorist passive of ὁραω is ὤφθην. It looks like the aorist passive is taken from the future stem οπ. The aorist passive of λέγω is ἐλέχθην, which comes from the present. Is there a majority stem that takes the aorist passive, or is it irregular as to whether an aorist passive takes its stem from the present, future, or aorist?

2. I am reading about athematic imperatives on pages 245 and 246 of Dr. Mastronarde's work. . Page 246 includes a chart. I tried copying and pasting it, but it did not look well. The chart includes:

Present active / Middle/passive / aorist active / Middle

There is quite a bit of variation as to whether I add a θι, σ, or an epsilon. It looks like there is no column for the aorist passive. Is that because the aorist passive is regular enough that I only have to take the aorist passive stem and add a θι or σ to it?

[seneca2008]

The aorist passive of ὁραω is ὤφθην. It looks like the aorist passive is taken from the future stem οπ. The aorist passive of λέγω is ἐλέχθην, which comes from the present. Is there a majority stem that takes the aorist passive, or is it irregular as to whether an aorist passive takes its stem from the present, future, or aorist?

ὁραω is what is termed a suppletive verb:

"9. ......εἶδον serves as the aorist of a suppletive verb (§2a, above)*** meaning see. The first principal part is ὁράω, a contract verb whose conjugation in the present you will learn later. Some principal parts are based on the stem ὁρα-, and others on the stem ὀπ-." p. 159

***" For a few verbs a full conjugation is created by using etymologically distinct roots in different principal parts: for instance, three separate roots in φέρω, οἴσω, ἤνεγκον; two separate roots in ἔρχομαι, ἐλεύσομαι, ἦλθον. This process is called suppletion, and these verbs are called suppletive verbs." p. 155

As M. says "It is necessary to learn the principal parts because the form of the aorist passive stem cannot always be predicted from the first principal part." He does give some general patterns as you will have read. But as a first step just learning the principal parts is, I am afraid, the best option. He does say that there are only a few suppletive verbs (I have never counted them) but they are frequently occurring and have to be learned.

ἐλέχθην is one aor passive of λέγω. But there is also ἐρρήθην which I think may be more usual. The CGCG simply says it occurs frequently.

I will look at M.'s table on p. 246 tomorrow. If anyone wants answer the second question please feel free to chip in.

[seneca2008]

There is quite a bit of variation as to whether I add a θι, σ, or an epsilon. It looks like there is no column for the aorist passive. Is that because the aorist passive is regular enough that I only have to take the aorist passive stem and add a θι or σ to it?

It is difficult for the student working on their own to know what is important. My advice is just to concentrate on the imperative forms given in the chart and the commentary that goes with it. Aorist passive imperatives are not exactly very common and you needn't worry too much now. Just because a form can be produced doesnt mean that it exists in the literature. The table on p. 246 is not compete for example it omits the 3rd person imperative. I have not been able to find in the paradigms on attic.org (or anywhere else) the passive aorist imperative of μι verbs (in the chart) so perhaps they dont exist?. You will see from the gaps in the table that some forms like the aorist active and middle imperatives of ἐπίσταμαι are not found.

There is enough material to master in this chapter without worrying about this.

I am sorry I can't give you a better answer. MWH will no doubt be able to put us right.

[Lukas]

Εὐχαριστῶ!

I was starting to wonder if there were many, but I pursued the question, because the author mentioned it in the commentary before the chart. /shrug

[katalogon]

I think I see the confusion on why is the aorist passive imperative not included in the chart of μι-verbs.

This is another example of Mastronarde's occasional (or perhaps more than occasional) lapses in clarity.

Section 5 of unit 29 covers athematic verbs.

Under athematic verbs we have
- μι-verbs
- passive aorists

I believe that you would not consider the passive aorist of a μι-verb to be itself a μι-verb, for the purposes of understanding this section. That is why you don't see any entry for passive aorist imperatives in the first (larger) chart on pages 246-247.
Of course, γιγνώσκω is not a μι-verb either, but it's active aorist is formed athematically, so it goes in the chart with the other active/middle aorists.

My reading of this unit is that the formation of passive aorist imperatives is regular and we only need the very small chart in the middle of page 247 to give the two possible choices:
- strong aorist passive (no invocation of Grassmann's Law in 2nd sing.)
- weak aorist passive (invocation of Grassmann's Law in 2nd sing.)

So the chart only includes one of each type: φαίνω and λύω.

So by my reading of Mastronarde, I would form the aorist passive imperative of τίθημι by starting with the sixth principal part, ἐτέθην, and follow the model for λύω (-θι --> -τι in the second sing.).

But, I don't really know if that will yield the correct result (since τίθημι is involved), but that is the approach that I would take through my reading of Matronarde.

[seneca2008]

Thanks Katalogon.

I think you must be right. I looked through the exercises in this chapter and although there is only one example of a passive aorist imperative of a μι-verb it is formed as you have indicated. I won't be more explicit because Lukas has probably not done the exercises yet.

When I tried to search for the form, however, I couldn't find it in the extant literature. Passive aorist imperatives are not something I have thought about for a long time!

[katalogon]

Something that might be useful to the reader of unit 29 that I’ve just noticed.

Looking at the table on page 246 of imperatives (μι-verbs), the present active and mid./pass. forms look like a bit of trouble to memorize.

But there is a pattern of accidence that you can use: if you’ve learned unit 23 well, you will not have to memorize anything at all from the table on page 246 (applies to present only, not aorist).

The second-person present imperatives are identical to the second-person imperfects (after removing the augment and any trailing ς from the imperfect).

2nd imperfect --> 2nd imperative

ἐδείκνυς --> δείκνυ
ἐδείκνυτε --> δείκνυτε
ἐδείκνυσο --> δείκνυσο
ἐδείκνυσθε --> δείκνυσθε

ἐτίθεις --> τίθει
ἐτίθετε --> τίθετε
ἐτίθεσο --> τίθεσο
ἐτίθεσθε --> τίθεσθε

ἵστης --> ἵστη
ἵστατε --> ἵστατε
ἵστασο --> ἵστασο
ἵστασθε --> ἵστασθε

ἵεις --> ἵει
ἵετε --> ἵετε
ἵεσο --> ἵεσο
ἵεσθε --> ἵεσθε

ἐδίδους --> δίδου
ἐδίδοτε --> δίδοτε
ἐδίδοσο --> δίδοσο
ἐδίδοσθε --> δίδοσθε

ἠπἰστασο --> ἐπίστασο
ἠπίστασθε --> ἐπίστασθε

This identity also applies to uncontracted ω-verbs, -έω, -άω, and -όω contracted verbs. It does not apply to the irregular εἰμί, εἶμι and φημί.