The Genitive Absolute That Changes the Verdict
A student is parsing a sentence from a prescribed speech: 'τούτων δὲ τοιούτων ὄντων, τί χρὴ ποιεῖν;' She has identified τούτων as genitive plural and ὄντων as a present participle, but is unsure whether the construction is a genitive absolute, a partitive genitive with a verb of being, or a genitive of cause. Her teacher asks her to decide in 10 minutes and to show what difference the choice makes to the English. The sentence is followed by a rhetorical question, and the class is split. She also has to explain why the participle is plural when τούτων could refer to a single situation.
1. Identify the construction and justify the identification grammatically.
Read the worked answer
This is a genitive absolute: a genitive noun/pronoun (τούτων) plus a participle (ὄντων) in the genitive, forming a phrase grammatically independent of the main clause. The decisive test is that τούτων has no grammatical role in the main clause τί χρὴ ποιεῖν; - it is neither subject nor object there. Where the genitive is genuinely partitive or governed by a verb, the main clause would need a slot for it; here there is none.
The plural is idiomatic: Greek commonly uses a plural pronoun with a plural participle to sum up a set of circumstances ('these things being so'), even where English would say 'this being so'. The plural is not evidence against the absolute construction.
2. Show how the translation changes if the student treats the phrase as causal rather than absolute, and say which is better.
Read the worked answer
As a genitive absolute: 'This being so, what must one do?' - the phrase sets the scene, and the main question stands on its own. As a causal genitive: 'Because these things are so, what must one do?' - the phrase now gives the reason for the question.
The absolute reading is better because the construction is defined by syntactic independence, not by a causal nuance; the causal flavour is an inference from context, not from the case. English 'this being so' keeps the participle's participial, circumstantial force and leaves the logical relation for the reader to infer - which is exactly what the Greek does.
3. The student must decide whether to render the participle as a finite verb in English. Advise her, in about 40 words.
Read the worked answer
Keep it participial ('this being so') or use a short absolute phrase ('that said'). Turning it into 'because...' or 'so...' commits to a logical relation the Greek leaves open and flattens the orator's habit of letting the jury draw the inference.