As has been indicated by @ianis in another thread, in Liddell & Scott's Greek-English Lexicon has φῡ́σᾱς, the masculine active aorist participle (the μετοχή) of the verb φῠ́ω, able to mean "father": ὁ φύσας "the father", and οἱ φύσαντες "the parents" (though not stated, one naturally assumes, then, that φῡ́σᾱσᾰ can mean "mother"??). I am having trouble understanding how this participle can be construed to yield the meaning of such an agent noun as "father". Indeed, I am having trouble in concieving of how to translate such an aorist participle as φῡ́σᾱς when it does not mean "father". To tell the truth, I have difficulty in concieving of an aorist participle in the first place, since the aorist represents a type of non-finite past tense, and I am not sure what a participle in the past tense is. The only types of participles which I can really understand are the present active and perfect passive participles (I always had a bit of difficulty in grasping the occasional perfect active forms in Latin). If might help me to understand how a participle can render the meaning of an agent noun such as the meaning "father" would represent, if someone can provide a translation and an example or two of φύσας when it is not being used to mean "father". Thanks ahead.
φῡ́σᾱς
- Thread starter Michael Zwingli
- Start date
Thank you as well!
"Begot" as a translation seems (at least to me) to make the Greek aorist active participle somewhat similar to what a perfect active participle is in Latin. Indeed, I can now comprehend how the adjectival sense "who/which brought forth/produced/begot" (with "he" being understood, since it is the masculine form of the μετοχή) in the aorist (the past) might be substantivized as "producer", "begetter", or "father" in the present. I wonder, then, would a fair translation of φῡσᾰ́μενος, the aorist masculine mediopassive participle, be "begotten" (the equivalent of the Latin perfect passive participle)?
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Φυσάμενος is a rather rare form. What was in use was the second aorist:
ὁ φύς
τοῦ φύντος
οἱ φύντες
ἡ φῦσα
τῆς φύσης
etc.
You'll find all the forms for "begotten"
here:
Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar
ὁ φύς
τοῦ φύντος
οἱ φύντες
ἡ φῦσα
τῆς φύσης
etc.
You'll find all the forms for "begotten"
here:Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar