Participles: attributive participles

Participles expressing a subordinate verbal idea may be added to a clause in two ways, which we call the attributive and the circumstantial use of the participle. In either use, the participle will always agree in gender, case and number with the noun or pronoun that serves as the subject of the verbal expression.

The syntax of the attributive participle is identical to the syntax for adjectives in attributive position. The attributive form with repeated article is probably more common with participles. οἱ ἄνθρωποι οἱ ταῦτα πράξαντες is a good way to refer to “the people who did these things.”

The attributive participle makes the link between the participle and its substantive definite and specific: the participle describes or identifies the substantive it agrees with. In English, we can use relative clauses to express the same kind of identification. When the elderly messenger suggests to Euphiletos that he question “the servant girl” (τὴν θεράπαιναν), she uses an attributive participle to further specify who she means - “you know, the one who regularly goes to the market place.” In Greek, that is τὴν θεράπαιναν τὴν εἰς ἀγορὰν βαδίζουσαν.

Time and participial verbal expressions

As with finite verbs, the tense of participles expresses both time and aspect. Lysias’ phrase τὴν θεράπαιναν τὴν εἰς ἀγορὰν βαδίζουσαν uses the present active participle of βαδίζω, “to walk,” and so identifies the servant girl who repeatedly or regularly goes to the market.

As an indication of time, the participle is relative to the finite verb of the clause it depends on. If you wanted to point out the woman who walked to the market once on a particular occasion, you could choose the aorist tense. ἡ ἄνθρωπος ἡ εἰς ἀγορὰν βαδίσασα would identify the person as the one who went to market; since the action is now complete, it must have been completed before the time of the clause’s finite verb.

Substantive use

You’re aware that adjectives can be used together with the article as substantives. οἱ ἀγαθοί is a perfectly good concise way to say, “good people,” equivalent to οἱ ἀγαθοί ἄνθρωποι or οἱ ἄνθρωποι οἱ ἀγαθοί. Notice that this is essentially the attributive expression omitting the implied noun.

Attributive participles are used substantivally in exactly the same way. Lysias could use an attributive participle to appeal to the jury with an argument that “People who do things of this sort”: οἱ ἄνθρωποι οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα πράττοντες. (τὰ τοιαῦτα is neuter accusative plural, “things of this sort.”) But in fact he prefers the briefer substantive use: οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα πράττοντες, “[people] who do things of this sort.”

Note that Lysias uses a present-tense participle to identify this general class of people. You could use an aorist participle if you wanted to refer to specifically to “The people who did this,” (οἱ ταῦτα πράξαντες).