A messenger and closed gates
The class receives this newly composed Ancient Greek instructional passage: „ὁ ἄγγελος ἦλθεν. οἱ πολῖται τὰς πύλας ἔκλεισαν.“ It is not attributed to Herodotus, Xenophon or a prescribed ancient author. The exercise asks for the subjects of the two predicates and a careful account of what the passage establishes. One learner makes the messenger the subject of both verbs because that person appears first. Another assumes that the citizens were fleeing an enemy army. A third gives a fluent translation but silently changes the second action into opening the gates. No preceding paragraph explains the messenger’s news, the citizens’ motive or the historical setting. The task therefore requires grammatical evidence, preservation of lexical meaning and an explicit distinction between information in the source and a possible invented story.
1. Identify the actors and translate the two sentences.
Read the worked answer
Ὁ ἄγγελος is the nominative singular subject of ἦλθεν. Οἱ πολῖται is the nominative plural subject of ἔκλεισαν; τὰς πύλας is its accusative object. A natural translation is: The messenger came. The citizens closed the gates.
2. Which proposed additions or changes are unsupported?
Read the worked answer
The enemy army and the citizens’ motive are not given. The second verb expresses closing, not opening. The messenger’s earlier position does not override the plural nominative subject and plural verb in the second sentence.