So far every verb has been active: the subject does the action, ὁ πατὴρ λύει "the father frees". Greek has two more voices. In the passive, the subject has the action done to it: "the daughter is freed". In the middle, which English does not have, the subject acts for itself, on itself or in its own interest.
ὁ πατήρsubjectτὴν θυγατέραobject
ὁ πατὴρ λύει τὴν θυγατέρα.
“The father frees his daughter.”
Active: the subject does the action.
ὁ πατήρsubjectτὴν θυγατέραobject
ὁ πατὴρ λύεται τὴν θυγατέρα.
“The father ransoms his daughter.”
Middle: the subject acts for itself. He has her freed for himself, by paying for her: in the middle, «λύομαι» means "ransom".
ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρόςdoerἡ θυγάτηρsubject
ἡ θυγάτηρ λύεται ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρός.
“The daughter is freed by her father.”
Passive: the subject has the action done to it. «ὑπό» with the genitive names who does it.
One set of forms, two voices. In the present and the imperfect, the middle and the passive are spelled the same. So λύεται can mean "he ransoms" (middle) or "he is freed" (passive). Look at the rest of the sentence: a direct object points to the middle; ὑπό with the genitive, naming who does it (the "by" of lesson 10), points to the passive.
λύομαι: middle and passive, present and imperfect
In these two tenses the middle and the passive share every form. In the 2nd person singular Attic writers spell -ει (λύει), others -ῃ (λύῃ).
| present | imperfect | |
|---|---|---|
| I | λύομαι2 | ἐλυόμην· |
| you (one) | λύει, λύῃ· | ἐλύου· |
| he, she, it | λύεται148 | ἐλύετο12 |
| we | λυόμεθα1 | ἐλυόμεθα· |
| you (all) | λύεσθε· | ἐλύεσθε· |
| they | λύονται42 | ἐλύοντο2 |
The future and the aorist tell the voices apart. The middle keeps the σ of the active and adds middle endings: λύσομαι "I shall ransom", ἐλυσάμην "I ransomed". The passive has its own mark, θη: ἐλύθην "I was freed", ἐλύθη "he, she, it was freed".
λύω: future middle, aorist middle, aorist passive
Here the voices part: the middle keeps the σ, the passive has θη. The future passive, λυθήσομαι "I shall be freed", is built on the same θη.
| future middle | aorist middle | aorist passive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | λύσομαι10 | ἐλυσάμην7 | ἐλύθην2 |
| you (one) | λύσει, λύσῃ· | ἐλύσω1 | ἐλύθης· |
| he, she, it | λύσεται· | ἐλύσατο14 | ἐλύθη40 |
| we | λυσόμεθα· | ἐλυσάμεθα· | ἐλύθημεν· |
| you (all) | λύσεσθε· | ἐλύσασθε· | ἐλύθητε· |
| they | λύσονται· | ἐλύσαντο1 | ἐλύθησαν6 |
Middle in form, active in meaning. Some very common verbs have no active forms at all: βούλομαι "I want", γίγνομαι "I become, happen, am born", ἔρχομαι "I come, go". Grammars call them deponent verbs. Dictionaries list them under the -ομαι form, and you translate them as ordinary active verbs: ἐγένετο is simply "it happened" or "it came into being".
Some verbs change their meaning in the middle. πείθω is "I persuade", but πείθομαι is "I am persuaded, I believe", and with the dative "I obey".
ὁ δοῦλος λύεται ὑπὸ τοῦ δεσπότου. The slave is freed by his master. Passive: «ὑπό» with the genitive names the doer.
οἱ στρατιῶται πείθονται τῷ στρατηγῷ. The soldiers obey the general. «πείθομαι» with the dative.
ἐλύθησαν οἱ ἵπποι. The horses were untied. Aorist passive: the «θη».
Unrolling the passage…
Chryses, a priest of Apollo, comes to the Greek ships λυσόμενός τε θύγατρα, "to ransom his daughter": a middle form of λύω (a future participle, a form for a later lesson). He wants her freed for himself, and he brings "boundless ransom", ἀπερείσιʼ ἄποινα.
Greek shown exactly as the source file gives it. Click any word to look it up.
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Agamemnon answers in the active: τὴν δʼ ἐγὼ οὐ λύσω, "but her I will not free". One verb, two voices: active for the man who would set her free, middle for the father who wants her back.
Greek shown exactly as the source file gives it. Click any word to look it up.
Unrolling the passage…
Tissaphernes slanders Cyrus to his brother, the new king Artaxerxes, ὁ δὲ πείθεται, "and he is persuaded" (he believes it) and arrests Cyrus. Xenophon tells the story in the present tense here, as English storytellers sometimes do.
Greek shown exactly as the source file gives it. Click any word to look it up.
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ἀνήχθη "was led up" is an aorist passive of ἀνάγω (augment after ἀν-; γ becomes χ before the θ), and ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος "by the Spirit" names who led. πειρασθῆναι ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου, "to be tempted by the devil", is passive too (an infinitive, met in a later lesson). The square brackets show a word the editors were unsure of.
Greek shown exactly as the source file gives it. Click any word to look it up.
Unrolling the passage…
ἐγένετο, from γίγνομαι, is middle in form, active in meaning: "all things came into being through him".
Greek shown exactly as the source file gives it. Click any word to look it up.
- πείθω …
- γίγνομαι …
- ἔρχομαι …
- θυγάτηρ …
- ὑπό …