Supplementary participles
Some Greek verbs convey only a partial or incomplete idea that can be completed using a participle. They include verbs like “to begin”. “He began” is a grammatically complete sentence, but it begs the question: what did he begin doing? We could complete that idea in English with a phrase like “He began to speak” or “He began speaking.”
The Greek verb ἄρχομαι (in the middle voice) is similar. ἤρξατο, “He began,” is semantically still incomplete: what did he begin? Greek can complete the idea with a participle, attached to the subject of the verb (and therefore in the nomninative case). For a masculine subject, we could add a masculine nominative singular partiiple: ἤρξατο λέγων clarifies, “He began to speak.” (It would be natural to use a present participle, since the idea of “beginning to speak” implies that the speaking is not yet completed.)
We call this use of the participle supplementary participles since they supplement the idea of the clause’s finite verb. Unlike the attributive or circumstantial use of the participle, the supplementary participle does not express the equivalent of an English clause, but serves to complete the idea of a small number of verbs. The combination of finite verb form + supplementary participle normally equates to a single verbal expression in English like “He began to speak.”
At first glance, a sentence like ἤρξατο λέγων might resemble a circumstantial particle: after all, λέγων is not in the attributive position. You can distinguish the supplementary usage only by taking account of the finite verb of the clause.
Three verbs that Lysias likes to use with supplementary participles are:
- ἄρχομαι. “To begin (to do something)”.
- παύω. In the middle voice, παύομαι works just like ἄχομαι : “to stop (doing something)”. ἐπαύσατο λέγων = “He stopped speaking.” In the active voice, the verb is transitive, and can take a supplementary participle agreeing with the direct object: “to stop (someone from doing something).” ἔπαυσε τὸν ἄνθρωπον λέγοντα = “He stopped the person from speaking.”
- τυγχάνω. “To happen (to do something), (to do something by chance).” ἐχθρὸς ὢν τῷ Εὐφιλήτῳ ἐτύγχανε = “He happend to be an enemy of Euphiletos.”