Clauses and coordination

A verbal expression containing a finite verb form is called a clause. A sentence consists of one or more clauses.

Ancient Greek normally connects, or coordinates, successive clauses and sentences explicity. In many styles of English, starting every sentence by connecting it to the previous one could quickly seem excessive, but doing so is more the norm in many styles of ancient Greek prose and even poetry, and serves to concisely clarify the relation of clauses to each. The words that do this work in Greek are conjunctions and coordinating particles.

Coordinating conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions join together parallel clauses (that is, a verbal expression expressed by a finite verb). (In module 4, we will look at subordinating conjunctions.) One of the most common coordinating conjunctions is καί. Like the English and, it joins together two things of the same kind. This could be a pair of nouns, like “peanut butter and jelly,” or whole sentences, “I ate the sandwich and I drank the milk.”

When joining a pair of nouns or short phrases, Lysias (like many prose authors) likes to put a καί before each of the items. The phrase ἐν δημοκρατίᾳ means “in a democracy”; ἐν ὀλιγαρχίᾳ means “in an oligarcy”. When Lysias joins them like this

καὶ ἐν δημοκρατίᾳ καὶ ἐν ὀλιγαρχίᾳ

he means, “both in a democracy, and in an oligarchy”.

καί is equally good for joining whole clauses.

ἔδοξέ μοι γῆμαι καὶ γυναῖκα ἠγαγόμην εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν.

I decided to marry, and took a wife.

ἔδοξε and ἠγαγόμην are both verbs in the aorist tense.

Coordinating particles

The use of small words that we call particles to add nuances of meaning is a characteristic and ubiquitous feature of anicent Greek. Many of these particles can coordinate parallel clauses, just like coordinating conjunctions, but are placed after the first word of the unit they introduce (whereas conjunctions are the first word of the new clause). One term for this placement is postpositive (meaning something like “placed after”).

The most common particle in Greek is δέ. It marks an item in a list, that normally begins with an item marked by the particle μέν. Here, the speaker Euphiletos lists two clauses: the first is what he did; the second is what his (unnamed) wife did.

ἐγὼ μὲν ἐγέλων (“I began to laugh”)

ἐκείνη δὲ προστίθησι τὴν θύραν (“She locks the door”)

We can join these in various ways in English: “I began to laugh, and she locks the door” would be perfectly idiomatic.

Euphiletos then uses καί to connect an additional clause to the second item:

ἐκείνη δὲ προστίθησι τὴν θύραν καὶ τὴν κλεῖν ἐφέλκεται (“She locks the door and takes the key”)

μέν and δέ beautifully outline that there are two thoughts here; καί continues the second thought. Perhaps we should make a stronger contrast in English between the first two items? We could also express this with, “I started to laugh, but she locks the door and takes the key.”

Aside on reading and translating

The verb ἐγέλων is a first singular active in the imperfect tense, so one possibility is to take it as meaning “I started to laugh.” The speaker uses the present tense for the wife’s actions, just as we might in English switch into the present tense in narrating past events, to emphasize a vivid moment: “I laughed, and BOOM! she locks the door!” One possibility for putting together μὲν and δὲ here could be, “I started to laugh, then she locks the door and takes the key”. There is no single “correct” translation. One of the delights of reading ancient Greek is the opportunity to see a range of meaning that no single translation can capture.

Vocabulary to memorize

These conjunctions introduce a clause:

ἀλλά. Strong contrast with previous clause. (“but”)
καί. Couples following clause with previous clauses. (“and”)

These particles are the second element of the new clause, or, as mentioned above, they are “postpositive”:

γάρ. This clause explains the previous clause.
οὖν. This clause draws a conclusion from the previous clause.
τε. Couples this clause with the previous clause (similar to καί).
μέν … δέ The use of these particles together show a contrast of some sort along with a connection. A series of two or more clauses can be joined into a list using the particles μέν…δέ…<δέ…>; δέ can be repeated to join as many clauses as you like into a single list.