MATSEC AM Greek cheat sheet

Article functions as demonstrative (ὁ μέν…ὁ δέ = 'the one…the other') and as personal pronoun in oblique cases (τοῦ, τῇ, σφεῖς); absence of article often signals predicate position.

Middle voice marks subject-interest or reflexive action (λούομαι 'I wash myself'); passive in aorist/future uses -θη- (ἐλύθη, λυθήσεται), so ἐλύσατο is middle, not passive.

Optative in main clause = wish (εἴθε + optative) or potential (ἂν + optative); in subordinate clauses after past tense it represents oblique/reported speech.

Conditional decision rule: εἰ + present/perfect indicative = simple or general condition; ἐάν + subjunctive = future more vivid; εἰ + optative = future less vivid; εἰ + past indicative = contrary to fact.

Genitive absolute: participle + noun in genitive, grammatically independent of the main clause, usually causal or temporal (τούτων λεχθέντων, 'when these things had been said').

Indirect statement after verbs of saying/thinking takes ὅτι or ὡς + indicative (retaining original mood), or infinitive with subject in accusative.

Translation rule: render aorist indicative as simple past ('he did'), imperfect as progressive/customary past ('he was doing, he used to do'); do not import English perfect aspect.

Accents: acute may stand on antepenult only when final syllable is short; circumflex only on long final syllable or penult with long final; recessive accent in verbs goes as far back as the final-syllable quantity allows.

Homer: dactylic hexameter; formulae (e.g. epithet + name) fill metrical slots; similes (extended comparisons) mark turning points; Iliad 1 centres on the quarrel, the plague, and the embassy to Chryses.

Tragedy structure: prologos, parodos, epeisodia alternating with stasima, exodos; the messenger speech narrates violence offstage rather than showing it.

Euripides' Medea: infanticide follows Jason's betrayal and Creon's exile order; the deus ex machina chariot of Helios closes the play and denies Jason burial rights.

Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus: dramatic irony governs the audience's superior knowledge (e.g. Oedipus' curses on the killer he himself is); peripeteia and anagnorisis coincide in the messenger scene.

Herodotus writes 'historia' as inquiry, using logoi, ethnographic digressions, and reported speeches; Thucydides claims accuracy and composes speeches 'as the situation demanded'.

Plato's dialogues: Socratic elenchus proceeds by question and refutation (Apology, Euthyphro); the 'Socratic problem' concerns how far Plato's Socrates reflects the historical one.

Homeric Hymns are hexameter poems in honour of a single god, often ending with a prayer and a transition to another song; the Demeter hymn narrates the Persephone abduction.

Aristophanes: Old Comedy combines parabasis (chorus addressing audience), obscenity, and topical satire (Clouds on Socrates, Frogs on Euripides versus Aeschylus).

Prose composition: Greek uses particles to mark argument (μέν…δέ contrast, γάρ cause, οὖν inference, δή emphasis, ἄρα inference/question); omitting them yields unidiomatic English-style Greek.

Purpose clauses: ἵνα/ὡς/ὅπως + subjunctive (primary sequence) or optative (secondary sequence); negative purpose uses μή, not οὐ.

Result clauses: ὥστε + infinitive (no expectation of outcome) or ὥστε + indicative (actual result); negative is οὐ.

Indirect questions keep the interrogative word and take the same mood as the direct question, with optative possible after a past main verb.

Comprehension rule: locate the main verb first, then identify subject from nominative/article agreement; participle phrases and genitive absolutes are subordinate and should be bracketed before translating.

Verbal aspect: present stem = imperfective (process), aorist stem = perfective (whole event), perfect stem = resulting state; choose tense from aspect, not from English tense labels.

Accusative + infinitive after verbs of ordering, allowing, and saying (κελεύω, ἐάω, φημί); verbs of hindering and forbidding take μή + infinitive.

Dual and unusual forms: -τον/-την endings and dual verbs (e.g. λέλεσθον) occur with natural pairs; contract verbs (τιμάω → τιμῶ) and athematic verbs (δίδωμι, τίθημι) must be recognised from principal parts.

Athenian democracy: Cleisthenes' tribal reforms (508/7 BC) created ten tribes and the Council of 500; Ephialtes' reforms (462/1) curtailed the Areopagus; pay for jurors (misthos) enabled poorer citizens to serve.

Persian Wars sequence: Marathon 490, Thermopylae and Salamis 480, Plataea and Mycale 479; the Delian League (478/7) became the Athenian empire after tribute was diverted to Athens.

Peloponnesian War: Archidamian War 431–421 (Peace of Nicias), Sicilian Expedition 415–413, Spartan victory 404 after Aegospotami; Thucydides and Xenophon are the main sources.

Religion: the polis cult centred on festivals (Panathenaia, Dionysia, Eleusinian Mysteries); Delphi's oracle gave responses often open to interpretation; hero cult and household cult (Zeus Herkeios) framed daily life.

Social structures: citizenship restricted to Athenian-born males with citizen parents; metics paid a tax and lacked land rights; slavery was widespread, with chattel and helot (Sparta) forms distinguished.

Sparta: dual kingship, gerousia (28 elders + kings), apella assembly, and ephors; the agoge state education and syssitia common messes structured citizen life.

Material culture: Attic black-figure precedes red-figure (c. 530 BC); vase inscriptions and potters' signatures aid dating; the Parthenon frieze and sculpture date to the Periclean building programme (447–432).

Historiography caution: Herodotus and Thucydides write with rhetorical aims; inscriptions (e.g. tribute lists, decrees) and archaeology provide independent checks on literary narratives.

Contract verbs: α + ο/ου → ω (τιμάομεν → τιμῶμεν); ε + ο → ου (φιλέομεν → φιλοῦμεν); ο + ο → ου (δηλόομεν → δηλοῦμεν).

εἰμί present: εἰμί, εἶ, ἐστί(ν), ἐσμέν, ἐστέ, εἰσί(ν); enclitic forms except εἶ and ἐστί when emphatic or at the start of a clause.

Future of liquid verbs (μένω, ἀποκτείνω) is formed with -εσ- contracted: μενῶ, κτενῶ; the aorist is sigmatic without sigma visible (ἔμεινα).

Negatives: οὐ negates statements and facts; μή negates wishes, commands, purpose, and conditions; in indirect speech the negative of the original mood is retained.

Relative clauses take the mood of the direct statement but may shift to optative in reported speech after a past main verb; the antecedent agrees with the relative in gender and number, case by its own function.

Hesiod's Theogony organises divine genealogy from Chaos; Works and Days contrasts justice and labour, with the Myth of Ages and the hawk-and-nightingale fable.

Lyric poetry: Sappho and Alcaeus use Aeolic dialect and metres (sapphic stanza); Pindar's epinician odes follow a victory with myth and gnomic comment, in triads (strophe, antistrophe, epode).

Hellenistic poetry: Callimachus favours short, learned forms ('big book, big evil'); Apollonius' Argonautica is an epic of four books; Theocritus' Idylls establish pastoral.

Prose authors: Lysias' plain style suits forensic narrative; Demosthenes' Philippics warn against Macedon; Xenophon's Anabasis and Hellenica continue and supplement earlier histories.

The Iliad's structure: wrath of Achilles, withdrawal, embassy and refusal, Patroclus' death, return to battle, Hector's death and ransom; the poem ends before the fall of Troy.

πρίν construction: πρίν + infinitive after a negative main clause; πρίν + subjunctive/optative with ἄν for a future event; πρίν + indicative for a past event.

Fear clauses after φοβοῦμαι: μή + subjunctive/optative for 'fear that', μή οὐ + subjunctive/optative for 'fear that not'.

Temporal clauses with ἐπεί, ὅτε, ἡνίκα take indicative for fact, subjunctive/optative with ἄν for indefinite or future reference.

Participles: attributive participle takes the article (ὁ λέγων ἀνήρ); circumstantial participle lacks it and is translated by a clause; future participle expresses purpose.

Dative uses: instrument, means, manner, time, and possession (ἔστι μοι βιβλίον = 'I have a book'); the agent with passive is ὑπό + genitive.

Chronology anchors: Solon c. 594/3, Peisistratid tyranny to 510, Cleisthenes 508/7, Marathon 490, Salamis 480, Peloponnesian War 431–404, Alexander's accession 336 and death 323.

Athenian offices: nine archons chosen by lot (with sortition and dokimasia vetting), strategoi elected annually and re-electable; the graphe paranomon allowed prosecution of an illegal decree.

Drama festivals: City Dionysia (tragedy and comedy competitions, choregos funding) and Lenaia; the audience judged by tribal panels, and victory lists (didaskaliai) survive.

Economy: Athenian grain imports from the Black Sea and Egypt, the Laurion silver mines, and the Piraeus as entrepôt; coinage (the 'owl' tetradrachm) circulated widely.

Sources and methods: epigraphy (IG volumes), papyri, and coin evidence complement Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch (biographies, later date) and the Athenaion Politeia attributed to Aristotle's school.

Principal parts pattern: present, future, aorist, perfect active, perfect middle/passive, aorist passive (λύω, λύσω, ἔλυσα, λέλυκα, λέλυμαι, ἐλύθην); irregulars must be memorised (φέρω, οἶδα, εἶπον).

Augment: past tenses add ἐ- before consonants and lengthen initial vowel (ἄγω → ἦγον); in compound verbs the augment follows the prefix (ἀπο-βάλλω → ἀπέβαλλον).

Reduplication marks perfect: λύω → λέλυκα; initial consonant + ε (φιλέω → πεφίληκα), with aspiration change (π → φ).

Case functions: nominative subject/predicate, genitive possession and separation, dative indirect object and instrument, accusative direct object and extent; prepositions fix case (διά + gen. 'through', + acc. 'because of').