To be honest, the aorist in Greek is a very interesting aspect. One could write pages about it. Interestingly, the so-called aspect (it is considered a tense in some books, though) is often treated contradictorily. The German Wikipedia about the aorist is full of examples in many languages that use it; unfortunately, the English explanation on it is very short. If you want to, I can translate some of the passages of the German Wikipedia for you.
Let's see what my
Ars Graeca textbook says about the aorist (it's discussed over several pages!):
First off, the Greek aorist is considered a tense (among present, imperfect, future I, perfect, pluperfect, and future II*). The seven Greek tenses can be devided into
main tenses and
augment tenses; the aorist (among the imperfect and pluperfect) belongs to the latter. The aorist is defined as:
In the indicative, it is the narrative tense corresponding to the Latin perfectum historicum (later more).
The tense signal of the aorist is an -s- (-σ-) in the active and middle voice, and a thê (-θη-) in the passive voice. Tenses that follow these signals are called
weak tenses (alias
tempora prima):
επαίδευσα (epaídeusa**) from παιδεύειν (paideúein) = weak aorist (= aorist I) = I brought up/educated
The tenses that are formed without a tense signal are named
strong tenses (or also
tempora secunda):
έλιπον (élipon) from λείπειν (leípein) = strong aorist (aorist II) = I let (past tense)
What is by augment is the vowel before the verb stem. It indicates the past tense and appears in the indicative only. There are two kinds of it: The syllabic augment (verbs beginning with a consonant receive an e-/ε-) and the temporal augment (the initial vowel of verbs beginning with a vowel is lengthened [it would get off-topic to elaborate upon these changes]).
Back to the aorist: The aorist stem denotes completion and shortness in diverse modifications:
- Completion (effective: the end):
- Έπειθον (impf.) αυτούς, καὶ οὺς έπεισα (aor.) τούτους έχων επορευόμην.
- épeithon autoús, kaí oús épeisa toútous échôn eporeuómên.
- I tried to convince them, and with those I had really convinced I set off.
- the imperfect is used, because the end is not implied
- the aorist is used, because we can see the end in "had convinced"
- Beginning (ingressive: the beginning):
- Ὁι βάβαροι εφοβήθησαν καὶ τραπόμενοι έφυγον.
- hoi bábaroi efobếthêsan kaí trapómenoi éfygon.
- The Barbars got a fright and began to "turn away to flee".
- the aorist is used in both cases, because it is a sudden action
- A unique or "uniform" historical event (= historical aorist):
- Ὁ Κυπος έθυσε τὰ νομιζόμενα ἱερὰ.
- ho Kyros éthyse tá nomizómena hierá.
- Kyros sacrificed made the usual sacrifices.
- the aorist tells us that is a historical event
- -----------------------------------------
- εβασίλεθσε πεντήκοντα έτη.
- ebasíleuse pentếkonta étê.
- He was king for 50 years.
- the so-called complex aorist can be seen as a historical unity
- The gnomic aorist (sentences, aphorisms) affecting the present time:
- Ἡ γλωσσα πολλοὺς εις όλεθρον ήγαγεν.
- hê glôssa polloús eis ólethron ếgagen.
- The tongue already brought disaster on many (people). (lit.: The tongue has led many to disaster)
I think this should be enough for now.
*they call it futurum perfecti (= future of the perfect)
**the eu is pronounced like in German; like the English oi in coin
PS: After this post and considering some other aspects in this thread, it should be moved to the Other Languages forum.
