Module 1, verbs: reading

Module 1 reading: Lysias 1.7-1.8 (simplified)

Each verbal expression is placed on a separate line. The verbal expression and any connecting words are highlighted like this.

ἔδοξε μὲν Εὐφιλήτῳ γῆμαι

καὶ γυναῖκα ἠγάγετο εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν.

παιδίον δὲ ἐγένετο αὐτῷ,

καὶ ἐπίστευε ἤδη

καὶ πάντα ἐκείνῃ παρέδωκε.

ἐν μὲν οὖν τῷ πρώτῳ χρόνῳ, πασῶν ἦν βελτίστη.

ἀλλὰ ἡ Εὐφιλήτου μήτηρ ἐτελεύτησε

καὶ πάντων τῶν κακῶν αἰτία ἐγένετο.

Questions

Fully identify each of the following verbs (that is, identify their tense, voice, mood, person and number), and give their first principal part.
- ἔδοξε
- ἠγάγετο
- ἐγένετο
- ἐτελεύτησε
Notice that ἐπίστευε and παρέδωκε are coordinated with καί, but are in different tenses. Why do you think Lysias chooses the specific tenses he uses here? The little adverb ἤδη may gives us a clue for ἐπίστευε: it can mean that its clause only happened after the previously narrated events.

Glosses and notes

Εὐφιλήτῳ “to Euphiletos”.
γῆμαι “to marry” (an infinitive form of the verb γαμέω)
γυναῖκα, “woman, wife”. In the Liddell-Scott Greek lexicon, read definition B.1.2 for the verb ἄγω. (You’ll need to scroll a ways to find it!) This definition specifically refers to using the noun γυναῖκα as the direct object of ἄγω.
εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν “to his house”. Notice that in definition B.1.2 of ἄγω linked above, the second example (from the historian Herodotus, abbreviated “Hdt.”) has the phrase γυναῖκα ἄ. ἐς τὰ οἰκία, an exactly equivalent phrase to Lysias’ γυναῖκα ἄ. εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν.
παιδίον “a child” (subject of the verb)
αὐτῷ “to him” (refers to Euphiletos)
ἐπίστευε < πίστευω “trust”
ἤδη is an adverb, “already, at this point, only now”
πάντα “everything”
ἐκείνῃ “to that woman, to her”
παρέδωκε < παραδίδωμι, a compound verb, παρὰ + δίδωμι. See section 4.7.5, p. 23 in your textbook for the prinipal parts of δίδωμι and its aorist forms, as well as 4.7.6 on that page for the meaning of this compound verb.
ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ χρόνῳ “at first” The whole phrase goes together: the particles μὲν οὖν start a new clause, and the phrase “at first” is the first piece of that clause.
ἦν Understand Euphiletos’ wife as the subject: “She was…”
πασῶν βελτίστη “the best of all women”.
μὲν οὖν … ἀλλὰ μέν starts a new topic; οὖν adds an additional nuance of empahsis to this clause – “really, in fact”. Here, μέν is not continued by δέ; instead, the conjuncation ἀλλά introduces a strong contrasting clause (here in fact, two clauses joined by καί: their verbs are ἐτελεύτησε and ἐγένετο).
ἡ Εὐφιλήτου μήτηρ “Euphiletos’ mother” (subject of the verb ἐτελεύτησε; assume it continues as subject of the following verb ἐγένετο as well).
πάντων τῶν κακῶν αἰτία “the cause of all his troubles”.

Translation

Using the glosses above, and keeping in mind the insight you have gained from answering the preceding questions, please compose an idiomatic translation into English of the passage above.