21st Century Classical Greek -- ktaomai

I apologize for not posting last week, I don’t know where my head was.

Thucydides Book I section 4 is short and has some great grammar.

Μίνως γὰρ παλαίτατος ὧν ἀκοῇ ἴσμεν ναυτικὸν ἐκτήσατο

καὶ τῆς νῦν Ἑλληνικῆς θαλάσσης ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἐκράτησε

καὶ τῶν Κυκλάδων νήσων ἦρξέ

τε καὶ οἰκιστὴς πρῶτος τῶν πλείστων ἐγένετο,

Κᾶρας ἐξελάσας καὶ τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ παῖδας ἡγεμόνας ἐγκαταστήσας:

τό τε λῃστικόν, ὡς εἰκός, καθῄρει ἐκ τῆς θαλάσσης ἐφ᾽ ὅσον ἐδύνατο, τοῦ τὰς προσόδους μᾶλλον ἰέναι αὐτῷ.

The first clause is another example of how aspectual languages do not need to specify the copula in an equational sentence: Minos is the most ancient that as to hearing we know possessed a fleet.

Ektisato from ktaomai would seem to be an exception to my claim that -mai verbs evaluate actions. There is a searchable PDF of Middle Liddell online for free, and it shows that there is no alternative non-mai verb with the same nuance of exerting control over a physical object. Remember, translation is not meaning and just because “acquire” is in ML as part of its English for a Greek verb, does not mean that verb is about acting on a physical object. “Acquiring strength” does not use ktaomai, but all the prefixed forms of ktaomai do relate to achieving control of a physical object.

Notice how the first three phrases end with imperfective eventive verbs. These are simple statements of actions. None  of them imply a permanent result; they can’t, because Minos is dead and gone and the lands he ruled are parts of Hellenic polises. By the way, go to Wiktionary and learn polis.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%80%CF%8C%CE%BB%CE%B9%CF%82

The next bit has two personal gerundives for the lesser focus of what Thucydides is saying: a people called the Karians were expelled and Minos’ sons were made rulers.

Then we get the progressive eventive kathirei showing that Minos had to act over and over again against the pirates. It is conjugated and forms the topic of some upcoming text, which makes it important enough to use a conjgated verb for.

Jowett adds into the last part a phrase that is not supported by the text, “from a natural desire.” Learn mala of which mallon is the comparative. Minos would rather the income of his territory come to him – the unexpressed alternative being that the pirates should keep it.

Auto at the end of this section may seem to be reflexive, “to himself,” but it’s not necessarily so. Thucydides is writing about Minos, and it is appropriate for Thucydides to use auto here in the sense of a third person pronoun, “him”. This example straddles the line but what is more important, ienai, of which this is the object, is not in imperfective aspect, let alone in base voice. Remember, base voice in imperfective is what the old grammars call “aorist middle voice”, which is supposedly reflexive. So once again, there’s no evidence for that old claim.