ἐπείρομαι

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Constantinus Philo
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ἐπείρομαι

Post by Constantinus Philo »

This verb does not occur in Attic in impf. as it seems, only in the aorist. But would the impf coincide in form with the aorist? would it be ἐπηρόμην according to the rules?
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Vasile Stancu
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Re: ἐπείρομαι

Post by Vasile Stancu »

If it is true that the imperfect form is not used, then I suggest it might be because the meaning of this word excludes connotations related to continuity of action, at least in Attic. (Could it be that the ἐπί in the combination suggests just that?). Wherever such connotations are to be expressed, εἴρομαι is probably used.

Jean Putmans
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Re: ἐπείρομαι

Post by Jean Putmans »

Xenophon used επηρετο in his Anabasis https://archive.org/details/wrterbuchzu ... 8/mode/2up and https://archive.org/details/lexikonuebe ... 1/mode/1up (page 254)

You are right with your constructed imperfect-form.

Jean Putmans
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Re: ἐπείρομαι

Post by Jean Putmans »

A question on this:

I wondered why Traut says επηρετο is Imperfect, whilst others (Smyth) say it is a 2nd Aor.

Should the Imperf. be connected to ερομαι and the 2nd Aor. to ερωταω?

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seneca2008
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Re: ἐπείρομαι

Post by seneca2008 »

The Cambridge Greek Lexicon has ἐπέρομαι Ion. ἐπείρομαι and aor.2 ἐπηρόμην, Ion. ἐπειρόμην.
Persuade tibi hoc sic esse, ut scribo: quaedam tempora eripiuntur nobis, quaedam subducuntur, quaedam effluunt. Turpissima tamen est iactura, quae per neglegentiam fit. Et si volueris attendere, maxima pars vitae elabitur male agentibus, magna nihil agentibus, tota vita aliud agentibus.

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jeidsath
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Re: ἐπείρομαι

Post by jeidsath »

Looking through the Xenophon uses (the vast majority of this form in TLG), they mostly/all seem aorist to me. Ie.,:

ἐλθὼν δ’ ὁ Ξενοφῶν ἐπήρετο τὸν Ἀπόλλω τίνι ἂν θεῶν θύων καὶ εὐχόμενος κάλλιστα καὶ ἄριστα ἔλθοι τὴν ὁδὸν ἣν ἐπινοεῖ καὶ καλῶς πράξας σωθείη. καὶ ἀνεῖλεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἀπόλλων...

But if someone has an example that looks like it's being used imperfectly, they should post it.
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mwh
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Re: ἐπείρομαι

Post by mwh »

In Xenophon επηρετο must always be aorist. With ionic (επ)ειρετο (Homer, Hdt.. etc.) it’s a trickier question.

Jean Putmans
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Re: ἐπείρομαι

Post by Jean Putmans »

How can the aorist morphology be explained? To be a second aorist, a stem-change is to be expected. Isn‘t ηρ- just ε(augment)+ -ερ- (presence-stem)?

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Re: ἐπείρομαι

Post by mwh »

Yes morphologically aor. ηρετο seems to imply present ερομαι with regular temporal augment doesn’t it, while ειρετο (non-Attic) has present ειρομαι and is without evident augment. But I don’t try to explain all the peculiarities.

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