Philologus

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Gerard Boter THE HISTORICAL PRESENT OF ATELIC AND DURATIVE VERBS IN GREEK TRAGEDY

1. Introduction Chapter 25 of the treatise On the Sublime (traditionally ascribed to Longinus) is devoted to the historical present (henceforward HP): Otan ge mn t parelhluqta tov crnoiv eisghv w v ginmena a parnta, ou dighsin e t i tn lgon all enagnion prgma poiseiv. Again, if you introduce events in past time as happening at the present moment, the passage will be transformed from a narrative into a vivid actuality. (tr. Hamilton Fyfe) Hamilton Fyfe translates the word enagnion with vivid actuality. This rendering is supported by other passages in the treatise. For instance, when discussing the enagnion effect of apostrophe in chapter 26, Longinus states the following with regard to Herodotus description of the route from Elephantine to Memphis in 2. 29: orv, w etare, w v paralabn sou tn yucn di tn tpwn agei tn aon oyin poin; pnta d t toiata prv aut apereidmena t prswpa ep autn isthsi tn aroatn tn energoumnwn, Do you see, friend, how he takes you along with him through the country and turns hearing into sight? All such passages with a direct personal address put the hearer in the presence of the action itself (tr. Hamilton Fyfe). And in chapter 9. 13 the word enagnion is used together with dramatin (dramatic action); the two words are contrasted with dihghmatin (narrative). Thus by enagnion Longinus intends to indicate that the author represents the events as if they are happening before the hearers eyes, in the here and now; that is, the distance in time is suspended 1. The word enagnion only applies to the presentation

The same thought is expressed by ps. Aelius Aristides, Ars Rhetorica 2. 13. 1. 24 Spengel: Ka h to crnou parallag tv afeleav e s t t gr parelhluqv eiv tn enestta orzontai, Change of time too belongs to simplicity; for they describe the past as present. In D.H. Isocr. 2. 4 the words afelv and enagniov are used in one breath: oud tn snqesin epidenutai tn fusin a afel a enagnion. For a full study of the use of the word enagniov in Greek literary treatises, see De Jonge-Ooms (forthc.).
1

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of the story, not to the character of the related events themselves as is sometimes erroneously assumed 2. Modern scholars follow Longinus in recognizing that by means of the HP the time gap between the moment of the narration and the time in which the narrated events took place is bridged. See for instance KG 1. 132: Oft wird das Prsens in der Erzhlung vergangener Ereignisse gebraucht, indem der Redende sich in die Zeit zurckversetzt, wo die Handlung sich abspielte (Praesens historicum).3 The effect of the HP falls within the semantics of the present tense, the primary meaning of which is simultaneity. With regard to the aspect and the Aktionsart of the HP in Greek, however, there is no unanimity. Some scholars maintain that the HP can be used to replace both the aorist and the imperfect yet others claim that it (almost) always replaces the aorist. Roughly speaking, the HP instead of an aorist refers to a completed event, the HP instead of an imperfect to an activity or a state which is extended in time. For this distinction the classification of Aktionsarten of the verb introduced by Vendler (1957) and developed by later scholars has become universally accepted. The basic distinction in Vendlers classification is between telic verbs and atelic verbs; each of these classes in its turn is divided into two subclasses. The group of telic verbs can be divided into Achievements and Accomplishments. An Achievement is an instantaneous event, like reach the top, hit the mark. An Accomplishment is a process or activity with an inherent completion, like eat ones meal or write a letter. Atelic verbs, on the other hand, can be divided into Activities and States. An Activity does not have an inherent completion which is inseparably linked to the activity, like play the piano or walk in the park; an activity, that is, that can be stopped at any moment 4. A State, as is only to be expected, indicates a situation, like know, live or love. For many verbs it is the context which determines to which class the verb belongs. The verb dircesqai, for instance, can be used to indicate both an Accomplishment (as in Hdt. 6. 31. 2) and an Activity (as in Eur. Med. 1163); this will be discussed in detail in section 2. Accordingly, many scholars prefer speaking of telic and atelic sentences (or predicate frames) instead of telic and atelic verbs tout court 5.
2 See for instance Sicking-Stork 1997, 131: () the Present is frequently used for referring to past events that cannot possibly be construed as vivid or dramatic. 3 See also, e. g., Smyth 1920, 1883 (p. 422). Outside the field of classical studies see for instance Quirk a.o. 1985, 181; Chafe 1994, 208; Langacker 1991, 267. In Langackers wake, R.J. Allan speaks about epistemic immediacy; the HP, so Allan, serves the foregrounding of the events expressed by means of the HP (Allan 2007, 1089; 2009, 1745; 2011, 389). 4 Later scholars (e. g. Smith 1991, 2930) have added Semelfactive as a subcategory of Activity: it indicates an activity which consists of a series of telic accomplishments or achievements, like coughing and scratching. 5 See for instance Adema 2008, 348 with n. 58 on p. 34. Depraetere 1995 distinguishes between (a)telicity and (un)boundedness. For instance, he cooked his meal is bounded, he was cooking his meal is unbounded.

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With regard to the relationship between the Aktionsarten and the aspectual value of the HP some scholars explicitly state that the HP can stand for either the imperfect or the aorist; see e. g. Smyth 1883 (p. 422): The historical present may represent either the descriptive imperfect or the narrative aorist. Others state that the HP only rarely replaces the imperfect; see for instance Goodwin 33 (p. 11): The present is often used in narration for the aorist, sometimes for the imperfect; SchwyzerDebrunner 2. 271: gleichwertig mit dem Ind. Aor. (ganz selten mit dem Imperfekt). 6 Others, again, deny that the HP can be used to indicate a State; thus Ruiprez 1982, 182 ( 254) writes: () le prsent historique na pas de valeur aspectuelle durative de limparfait, mais prsente une certaine affinit avec laoriste. Par consquent, le prsent historique na pas de valeur durative. 255 A la question de laspect du prsent historique, est intimement lie celle des types de verbes qui ladmettent. On sait que le prsent historique nexiste pas dans les verbes dtat. Des verbes comme eim tre, emai tre couch napparaissent jamais au prsent historique. Rijksbaron 2006a, 130 with n. 6 (= 2011, 7 with n. 13), quoting Ruiprez with approval, states: Not all verbs have historic presents. They are, in fact, confined to telic, or terminative, and momentaneous verbs (so-called accomplishments and achievements, respectively), and do not occur, then, with durative-stative verbs. This means that verbs like est, etai, mnei, e c ei, nomzei, eudei are never used as a historic present.7 Thus, expanding the statement by Ruiprez, Rijksbaron also excludes verbs (or rather sentences) with the Vendler value Activity from the group of verbs which admit the HP, confining these to Vendlers Achievement and Accomplishment verbs 8. According to Rijksbaron 2006a, 128 (= 2011, 6) decisiveness [is] the basic function of the HP. Rijksbarons position has met with much approval. Thus R. J. Allan 2007, 107 states that in Th. 6. 1002 the decisive moments (or: Peaks) are marked by the historic present. W. Allan 2008, 146, in his note on Eur. Hel. 67, remarks: game: historic present (here in place of the aorist). Such present forms are used to mark events that the narrator considers crucial or decisive for the development of the plot (Rijksbaron (2006) 128, with further examples). Perris 2011, 41, n. 15 writes: This assumes that

6 KG 1. 132 state: Oft neben Aoristen oder Imperfekten zur Hervorhebung einzelner besonders bemerkenswerter und fr die Folge wichtiger Momente, but this does not make unequivocally clear whether the HP can replace both the aorist and the imperfect. The fact that they speak of Momente and (a few lines earlier) of Ereignisse makes one suspect that they primarily think of the HP replacing the aorist. 7 The general account of the HP in Rijksbaron 2006a, 12935, is repeated with slight modifications in Rijksbaron 2011, 610. In the sentence quoted in the main text the 2011 text has () They are, in fact, almost confined to telic and momentaneous verbs etc. (my italics). 8 Similarly Rijksbaron 2006b, 24, n. 1: The historic present is only found with terminative (telic), not with stative (atelic) verbs. () Thus, the present indicative of verbs like basilew, eimi [sic], e c w, oida, rw is never used as a historic present. Eriksson 1943, 6 states: Das die Szenerie beschreibende historische Prsens kommt im Griechischen nicht vor. On p. 14 he states the same with the proviso bis auf ganz wenige Ausnahmen.

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stative verbs never occur in the narrative present, on which see Rijksbaron 2002, 7. 3 n. 1. In the recent collection of essays on the HP in Thucydides (Lallot a.o. 2011) the introductory chapter containing the theoretical framework for the whole collection is due to Rijksbaron. The nine contributors to the volume (which arose out of a series of conferences on the HP in Thucydides held in Paris) hold widely diverging opinions on the nature of the HP 9 but somehow or other they all subscribe to Rijksbarons view that decisiveness is the distinctive feature of the HP. In the final section of the introductory chapter, Drawing the Balance (p. 167) Rijksbaron writes (p. 17): Although the terminology, and the theoretical justification of the value assigned to the HP, varies, these authors agree that the primary function of the HP is to mark events that were, according to Thucydides, of decisive (crucial, central) importance for the development of the war. It is my aim in this paper to challenge the view that in Greek the use of the HP is confined to telic verbs (or, for that matter, telic sentences): there are passages where the HP is used for a State or an Activity. In the first place, there are HPs of strictly static verbs like emai and eudw; further, there are passages where the HP of not strictly static verbs (like trfw, or and dircomai) refers to an Activity which is extended in time and/or atelic. My corpus consists of the extant complete tragedies10; occasionally I will refer to other texts. Because Rijksbarons views have proved to be trend-setting in recent times I will primarily depart from his publications. In section 2 I will deal with Rijksbarons claims on the HP in some detail. In section 3 I will present a number of passages in Greek tragedy where the HP occurs with atelic verbs. In section 4 I will discuss a number of passages where the state of affairs expressed by HPs continues at the moment of speaking. Section 5 is devoted to the HP of or. In section 6 I will show how my views of the HP may influence the interpretation of some passages in Euripides Helen and Phoenissae. Section 7 is concerned with the historical perfect. In section 8 I will end with some general remarks on the nature of the HP in Greek.

9 To mention only two instances: R. J. Allan (pp. 3763), who regards epistemic immediacy as the most salient characteristic of the HP, sees foregrounding as the primary function of the HP, while making use of the episodic structure of narrative developed by Fleischman (1990) and Longacre (21996). Rademaker and Buijs (pp. 11557) base their analysis on the model developed by Sicking & Stork 1997, that HP verbs present the main points of the message that the narrator wants to convey to his addressee. 10 I have used the following translations: Aeschylus, Sommerstein; Sophocles, Lloyd-Jones; Euripides, Kovacs. When necessary, I have adapted these translations, especially in those cases where the interpretation of the HP is at stake. For claritys sake, I have rendered all Greek HPs as past tenses in English, irrespective of what the translators mentioned above may have done.

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2. Rijksbaron on the HP As has already been noted above, Rijksbaron (2006a, 130 = 2011, 7), following Ruiprez, claims that historical presents () do not occur with durative-stative verbs (states and processes); I assume that Rijksbaron uses the term processes here as the equivalent of Vendlers Activities. In the discussion of the HP in his The Syntax and Semantics of the Verb in Classical Greek (Rijksbaron 2006b, 225), however, Rijksbaron discusses Eur. Med. 115669, in which the messenger reports what happened when the princess had put on the poisoned robe: cruson te qesa stfanon amf bostrcoiv (1160) lamprw atptrw schmatzetai mhn, ayucon ei prosgelsa smatov. apeit anasts e qrnwn dircetai stgav, abrn banousa pallew pod, droiv upercarousa, poll polliv (1165) tnont ev orqn ommasi sopoumnh. tounqnde mntoi deinn hn qam iden croin gr allxasa lecra plin cwre trmousa la a mliv fqnei qrnoisin empesosa m cama pesen 11. (1170) Rijksbaron comments on this passage (p. 23): After a series of aorist indicatives the crucial states of affairs are expressed in the historic present: Glauke does up her hair and walks around wearing her new clothes and crown. After an introductory line (1167), in which the messenger prepares his audience for the terrible events which follow, the decisive change in Glaukes demeanour is again presented in the historic present. De Jong (1991, 42) rightly remarks that the HPs schmatzetai and dircetai describe actions which are not in themselves particularly important or decisive (). It is by way of preparation for what is to come that the Messenger pays special attention to the way she arranges her hair and daintily parades through the palace. What is more, the verb dircetai here is part of an atelic sentence: parading about the room (as Rijksbaron himself correctly translates the phrase) is not an Accomplishment but an Activity and therefore it is atelic. Thus Rijksbaron falsifies his own claim that the HP is restricted to telic verbs12.

11 [A]nd setting the gold crown about her locks, she arranged her hair in a bright mirror, smiling at the lifeless image of her body. And getting up from her seat she paraded about the room, her white feet making dainty steps, entranced with the gifts, (1165) glancing back again and again at the straight tendon of her leg. But then there was a terrible sight to behold. For her color changed, and with legs trembling she staggered back sidelong, and by falling on the chair (1170) barely escaped collapsing on the floor. 12 From this instance it emerges that it is always necessary to take account of the context in order to decide whether a verb is used as telic or atelic. Dircesqai is part of a telic sentence in Hdt. 6. 31. 2 di pshv tv

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Rijksbaron 2006b, 24, states that the HP can also serve to punctuate the narrative, as in Xen. An. 1. 2. 5 Krov () w rmto ap Srdewn a exelanei di tv Ludav, Cyrus was setting forth from Sardis; and he marched through Lydia. He remarks that in such cases Decisiveness is a less prominent feature, which is putting it mildly. And although the Aktionsart of exelanein is Accomplishment, the event itself takes up three full days13. In order to neutralize the risk of falling victim to circular reasoning in his claim that decisiveness is the basic function of the HP, Rijksbaron lists eight features of the HP (Rijksbaron 2006a, 12934 = 2011, 610). Some of these claims, however, are untenable. II. () the historical present does not occur in exclamations or questions (with the exception of rhetorical questions), but only in declarative sentences. This claim is falsified by Soph. OT 1025 s d empolsav h tucn m aut ddwv; Did you buy me or find me before you gave me to him? 1031 t d algov i s cont en ceron me lambneiv; What trouble was I suffering from when you took me in your arms? Soph. El. 679 t trpw dillutai; How did he die?, Soph. Aj. 42 t dta pomnaiv tnd epempptei bsin; Why did he launch this onslaught on the flocks?, Soph. Ant. 1174 a tv foneei; And who killed him?, Eur. Hipp. 909 t crma pscei; t trpw dillutai; What has happened to her? How did she die? Eur. Andr. 1083 pv d oiceta moi pav mnou paidv mnov; But how did the only son of my only son perish? Eur. Ba. 1041 tni mrw qnsei; How did he perish?
nsou dircontai eqhreontev tov anqrpouv, [the men] advanced over the whole island hunting the people down (tr. Godley), but in our passage the sentence is atelic. In fact, although schmatzetai mhn in itself is a telic sentence, it forms part of a scene which serves to show how happy the princess was once she had put on the robe: she puts on a crown, she arranges her hair and she parades about the room. Another instance of the HP of an Activity is found in A. Pers. 381 plousi. 13 Cf. Eriksson 1943, 10; at p. 58 Eriksson indicates this type of HP as Ph itineris. In Aesch. Supp. 54056 the successive stages of Ios flight are reported by means of five HPs: 542 fegei, 546 orzei, 547 iptei, 549 per, 556 inetai. There are still other uses of the HP which cannot be captured by means of the concept of decisiveness. Thus, there are cases where the HP refers to a series of events in the past. In Hdt. 1. 117 Harpagus starts his account of what he did to Mandanes baby with the words poiw d w de (I did as follows); then he goes on to tell the whole story. Accordingly, poiw does not refer to one decisive action but to a series of actions. The same goes, to a still larger degree, for Herodotus 4. 201, where the account of what Amasis did is first introduced with Amasiv o strathgv to pezo mhcantai toide, and then makes a fresh start with maqn () poiei toide Amasis, the general of the land army, devised the following plot. When he had learned () he did the following; the account of Amasis actions takes up the rest of the chapter. The fact that in this passage poiei picks up mhcantai shows that the latter verb is to be interpreted rather as he executed the following plan than as he planned the following, that is, it is a verb which in practice indicates an action rather than a mental activity. See also Hdt. 4. 146. For mhcantai/mhcanntai introducing a detailed account see Hdt. 1. 21. 2, 1. 59. 3 etc.; Thuc. 4. 46. 4, 5. 45. 2, 6. 64. 1, 7. 73. 3. In Pl. Prt. 320de we find Promhqa d paraitetai Epimhqev autv nemai, Nemantov d mou, e f h, epseyai a outw pesav nmei, Epimetheus besought Prometheus that he might do the dealing himself; And when I have dealt, he said, you shall examine. Having thus persuaded him he dealt. (tr. Lamb): this complexive statement in the HP is followed by the detailed description of Epimetheus distributing all kinds of gifts to the various animals. In all these cases the verb in the HP does not refer to one decisive or crucial event.

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III. () the historical present does not occur in the second person. This thesis is falsified by the two passages from Soph. OT just quoted14. Rijksbaron 2011, 7 with n. 12 adds that the HP occurs only very seldom in the first person, quoting as an instance Soph. OT 774813. Other instances from Sophocles are Aj. 2533, where Odysseus tells Athena what the Greeks have been doing during the night, and El. 892909, where Chrysothemis tells Electra what she has seen at Agamemnons grave; for Aeschylus see Ag. 13827, where Clytaemestra tells how she killed Agamemnon. See also Hdt. 1. 117, where Harpagus starts his account of what he did to the baby Cyrus with poiw d w de, I did as follows, followed by five first person predicates, two of which are in the HP (paraddwmi). And in tragedy there are numerous cases of the HP or when someone relates what he has seen (see below, section 5). VII. Historical presents cannot be combined with the negative, except under special conditions, as in Xen. An. 1. 10. 8 (). The negated historical present ou anastrfei is only acceptable, I think, because it is balanced by a positive statement (suntugcnei).15 Counter-instances are furnished by Eur. Ion 4951 trfei d nin labosa, tn speranta d / ou oide Fobon oud mhtr hv e f u, / o pav te tov tentav ou epstatai, And she took him and raised him. She was unaware that Phoebus is his father or who is the mother that bore him, and the child likewise did not know his parents, and by Is. De Dicaeogene 13 Epeid d Diaiognhv, w andrev, outi umv dnatai exapatn, peqei Menxenon (), Because Dicaeogenes, gentlemen, could no longer deceive you, he persuaded Menexenus etc. Features I, V and VI claim that HPs are rare outside narrative discourse, in the passive voice and in subordinate clauses: that may be true, however there are such cases and these cannot be explained away. Moreover, I do not see what these criteria have to do with the alleged decisiveness of the HP16. The refutation of feature IV, [HPs] do not occur with durative-stative verbs, is the main subject of this paper. As a corollary to the demonstration that there are cases of HPs of atelic verbs I will show that HPs do occur in durative sentences so that Rijksbarons claim that decisiveness is the basic feature of the HP is refuted.

14 For ddwv referring to the recent past see Eur. Hel. 1521 hn ge xnw ddwv s, whom you have given to the stranger. 15 With regard to such cases Eriksson 1943, 19 remarks: Ist das Ph verneint, so liegt auf der Negation besonderes Gewicht (). 16 Surprisingly, Rijksbaron 2006a, 1345 (= 2011, 10) does not explain why his features IIII are relevant with regard to the alleged decisiveness of the HP. If they are not relevant, why then mention them at all?

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3. HPs of atelic verbs in Greek tragedy The first passage I wish to discuss is found in the second Messenger speech in Euripides Phoenissae (145579): mthr d, opwv esede tnde sumforn, uperpaqsas hrpas e nern xfov apraxe dein di msou gr aucnov w qe sdhron, en d tosi filttoiv qanosa etai peribalos amfon crav. anxe d orqv lav eiv e r in lgwn, hmev mn w v ninta despthn emn, oi d w v eenon hn d e r iv strathltaiv. w v d enimen mch, oi mn Div tropaon istasan brtav, oi d aspdav sulntev Argewn nern sulemat ei s w teicwn epmpomen. alloi d tov qanntav Antignhv mta nerov frousin enqd oitsai floiv. plei d agnev oi mn eutucstatoi td exbhsan, oi d dustucstatoi17. (1455)

(1460)

(1475)

After both her sons had died, Iocaste stabbed (wqe) the sword in her throat, died (qanosa) and then lay (etai) on the bodies of her sons. If etai is interpreted as an actual present (as it should in the view of Ruiprez and Rijksbaron) it is strange that there is a gap of time between the aorist participle qanosa and the actual present etai: having died [about an hour ago] she now lies on the bodies of her sons. Normally the state of affairs expressed by the main verb sets in immediately after the event expressed in the aorist participle is finished. But there is a far more compelling argument to take etai as an HP. If the messenger had stopped his account here it might be argued (wrongly, to my mind) that etai is an actual present; but the sequel of the passage makes it perfectly clear that dead Iocaste is no longer lying on the bodies of her dead sons. The Thebans, having defeated the army of the Seven, fulfilled three different tasks. The first group (1473 oi mn) set up a trophy; the second group

17 And seeing this the mother, in a fit of passion, snatched up a sword from the corpses and did a dreadful deed. She thrust the iron blade through the middle of her throat and then lay dead among her beloved sons, embracing them both in her arms. (1460) The soldiery rose to their feet and began to quarrel, with our side claiming victory for my master, and the other side for Polynices: the leaders were wrangling. () (1472) When we were victorious, some of us proceeded to raise the trophy image of Zeus, while others stripped off the shields from the Argive dead (1475) and took them inside the walls as prizes of war. Others together with Antigone carried the dead here for their kin to mourn.

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(1474 oi d) stripped the Argive dead of their shields; the third group (1476 alloi d) brought the dead bodies to the city18. This shows that the situation expressed by etai no longer exists at the moment of speaking; in other words, this situation is finished within story time. Accordingly, etai cannot be regarded as an actual present and it must be interpreted as an HP 19. How are we to interpret Euripides choice for the HP etai? At any rate it is not a decisive event because it isnt an event at all. To my mind the picture of the dead Iocaste lying over the bodies of her sons who have killed each other fulfils a pivotal role between two scenes: on the one hand it is the closure of the fight between Eteocles and Polyneices and on the other hand it provides the setting for the following scene in which the Thebans and the army of the Seven each claim that their leader has won the fight. By means of the HP etai Euripides places the picture of the three dead bodies before the audiences eyes, a picture which is supposed to linger on during the description of the ensuing fight. The second passage comes from Sophocles Trachiniae (695704). Deianira tells to the chorus what has happened to the piece of wool by means of which she had anointed Heracles robe with the Centaurs blood. t gr tagma tugcnw ryas pwv [tv oiv, w proucrion, ev mshn flga,] atn ev hlitin w v d eqlpeto, re pn adhlon a atyhtai cqon, morf mlist eiastn w ste pronov ebrmaq an blyeiav en tom xlou. toinde etai propetv. e d gv, oqen proueit, anazousi qrombdeiv afro, glauv oprav w ste ponov poto cuqntov ev gn Bacav ap amplou 20. (695)

(700)

When the piece of wool is heated up by a ray of sunshine it disintegrates (re) and lies on the floor crumbled to powder (atyhtai). The subordinate clause w v d eqlpeto, with the imperfect, marks re as an HP and atyhtai as an historical perfect (see below, section 7). In 699700 Deianira compares the crumbled wool to sawdust. In the next phrase, toinde etai propetv, the first word toinde refers to

I will return to frousin below, section 4. This interpretation of etai is endorsed by De Jong 1991, 188. 20 I happened to have thrown the piece of sheeps wool [with which I had rubbed in the ointment right onto the hot floor] into the suns ray; and when it grew warm, it melted away into nothing and lay crumbled on the ground, (700) looking most like the sawdust you see when somebody cuts wood. So there it lay, where it had fallen; and from the ground where it was lying clotted foam boiled up, as when the rich liquid from the blue-green fruit is poured upon the ground from the vine of Bacchus.
18 19

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the comparison of 699700 while etai picks up atyhtai. Thus toinde etai propetv is embedded in the story21. But this situation is not the end of the story: from the heap of dust which lay on the floor clotted foam seethed up. The situation sketched in toinde etai propetv is now in its turn picked up by the clause with the imperfect proueit, which is followed by another HP, anazousi. As in the passage from the Phoenissae discussed above, toinde etai propetv serves to mark the transition between two scenes. The picture of the piece of wool reduced to dust heightens the audiences suspense: is this the end of the story or is there still worse to come? The third passage is taken from the prologue of Aeschylus Eumenides (3454). After a prayer to the gods (133) the prophetess goes into the temple from which she returns in a bewildered state. h dein lxai, dein d ofqalmov draen, plin m e p emyen e dmwn tn Loxou, w v mte swen mte m atanein stsin trcw d cersn, ou podwea seln desasa gr grav oudn, antpaiv mn oun. eg mn erpw prv polustef mucn, or d ep omfal mn andra qeomus edran e c onta prostrpaion, aimati stzonta cerav, a neospadv xfov ec ont, elaav q uyignnhton ldon lnei megstw swfrnwv estemmnon, argti mall tde gr tranv er. prsqen d tandrv tode qaumastv lcov eudei gunain en qrnoisin hmenov. outoi gunaav all Gorgnav lgw oud aute Gorgeoisin eisw tpoiv <.......> eidn pot hdh Finwv gegrammnav depnon ferosav aptero ge mn iden autai mlaina t, ev t pn bdeltropoi, rgousi d ou platosi fusimasin, e d ommtwn lebousi dusfil lba22

(35)

(40)

(45)

(50)

21 Lloyd-Jones is right in translating toinde etai propetv as So there it lay; Rijksbaron 2006a, 1489, wrongly protests against this translation. 22 Things truly fearful to speak of, fearful to behold with the eyes, have driven me back out of the house of Loxias; they have taken away my strength and made me unable to stand upright, so that I run on my hands instead of making speed with my legs! A frightened old woman is nothing or rather no better than a little child! I went to the inner shrine richly hung with wreaths, (40) and there I saw a man sitting at the navelstone

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The prophetess tells that she is driven out of the temple by things which are terrible to relate (as she is about to do) and terrible to see (as she has just done). In 37, trcw, I walk on all fours, is an actual present. In 39 she starts relating what has happened, using HPs throughout23. She is on her way (39 erpw) to the inner shrine and sees (or) Orestes sitting at the omphalos. or (40) can be interpreted as replacing either an aorist eidon (my eyes fell on) or an imperfect erwn (I was looking at). Because of the elaborate description of Orestes I prefer the latter interpretation, in which case or is a State24. In 46 the prophetess turns to the Erinyes; she starts her description with the HP eudei, which figures on the forbidden lists of Ruiprez and Rijksbaron. rgousi (53), the audible counterpart of eudei, and lebousi (54) are unbounded Activities. All in all, the prophetess story is the description of a static scene, not a sequel of events. And so we have found that in all three tragedians there are cases of HPs of atelic verbs25. Thus the claim that HPs are confined to telic verbs is falsified. In Eur. Ion there are a few HPs which indicate a period of many years. In the prologue Hermes tells about Ions birth and youth. When Hermes had exposed Ion in Delphi the prophetess found the baby and was overcome by compassion, which was caused by Apollo himself, the father of the child. Hermes continues: trfei d nin labosa, tn speranta d ou oide Fobon oud mhtr hv e f u, o pav te tov tentav ou epstatai. nov mn oun wn amf bwmouv trofv hlt aqrwn w v d aphndrqh dmav, Delfo sf e q ento crusoflaa to qeo

(50)

as a suppliant for purification, a man polluted in the eyes of the gods, his hands dripping blood, holding a newly-drawn sword and a tall-grown olive branch reverently adorned with a very long wreath of wool, (45) of snow-white fleece (by speaking this way I shall make myself clear). In front of this man there was an extraordinary band of women, asleep, sitting on chairs no, I wont call them women, but Gorgons; but then I cant liken their form to that of Gorgons either. (50) I did once see before now, in a painting, female creatures robbing Phineus of his dinner; these ones, though, it is plain to see, dont have wings, and theyre black and utterly nauseating. They were pumping out snores that one doesnt dare come near, and dripping a loathsome drip from their eyes. 23 501 eidn pot hdh Finwv gegrammnav depnon ferosav, with the aorist eidon, does not belong to the story of what she has just seen. 24 I will return to or below, section 5. 25 The notion that the HP of a State can serve to present a picture appears also to be present in Russells definition of the effect of the HP (Russell 1964, 143): The effect in classical writers is not so much to annihilate distance in time as to mark out a specially important event, to fix an occurrence as a lasting picture, or to set down a headline.

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taman te pntwn pistn, en d anatroiv qeo ataz der ae semnn bon26.

(55)

trfei refers to the process of bringing up the child; this process is only finished when the child has fully grown up, as Hermes says in v. 52 w v d aphndrqh dmav. This means that the story time indicated by means of trfei covers Ions whole youth, that is, at least fifteen years. In vv. 4951 Hermes states that neither the prophetess nor Ion himself know who are Ions parents. This State of not knowing refers to the period during which the prophetess brought up Ion. Moreover, the fact that tn speranta d ou oide te. is directly linked to trfei shows that it is embedded in the narrative sequel: if a switch from past (trfei) to present (ou oide) had been intended one would have expected an explicit indication of this switch. Finally, if tn speranta d ou oide te. is taken as referring to the actual situation the narrative flow is interrupted in the same way as we saw in the passage from Phoen. discussed above, without any other indication of the switch of time than the Aktionsart of the verbs: for in vv. 523 the switch is made from Ions youth to his adulthood27. In Ion 81924 the old man gives Creusa a false account of Ions youth. Ion, he says, was begotten by Xuthus with a slave woman and given to someone from Delphi. He continues (Ion 81924): labn d dola ltra numfesav lqra tn pad e f usen, exenwmnon d tw Delfn ddwsin etrfein. o d en qeo dmoisin afetov, w v lqoi, paideetai. neanan d w v hsqet eteqrammnon, elqen s e p eise der apaidav crin28.

(820)

As in the prologue the whole period of Ions growing up is indicated by means of an HP. Like trfei in the prologue, paideetai is an Accomplishment which stretches over a period of many years. In this case the HP paideetai is explicitly marked as

26 And she took him and was raising him. (50) She was unaware that Phoebus was his father or who was the mother that bore him, and the child likewise did not know his parents. As a young child the boy wandered in play around about the altars that gave him his nourishment. But when he became a man, the Delphians made him the steward and (55) trusted chamberlain of all the gods possessions, and from then on until now he has lived a holy and respected life in the gods temple. 27 Ions not knowing the identity of his parents at the present moment is not a valid argument against the interpretation of tn speranta d ou oide te as HPs: the starting point of the present situation is described as lying in the distant past. See below, section 4. 28 He took some slave woman, lay with her in secret, and begot this boy. He took him out of the country and gave him to some Delphian to raise. For concealment the boy was raised in the gods temple, like an animal dedicated to the god. When Xuthus learned that the young man was full grown, he persuaded you to come here to ask about your childlessness.

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such by the oblique optative lqoi in the accompanying clause. And v. 823 makes clear that the process of Ions growing up is over at the present moment. Although the verbs trfein and paideesqai find their natural end once adulthood is reached the sentences in which these verbs occur fall under the Vendler category State. Bringing up a child cannot be regarded as an Activity as it does not occupy one twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week; and the same goes for being brought up. So these two cases from the Ion have HPs of States lasting over a period of many years. 4. HPs expressing states of affairs continuing at the moment of speaking In the preceding section we have seen that stative verbs like etai and eudei can be used as HPs and as such they refer to the story time. However, it is possible that the state referred to for the story time is still valid at the moment of speaking. In the passage from the Phoenissae the Messenger makes it explicitly clear that the bodies of Iocaste and her sons no longer lie where they lay after Iocaste had killed herself. In the prologue of the Eumenides, on the other hand, it is certain that the Eumenides are still sleeping when the temple door opens, as appears from vv. 6769a (Apollo speaks): a nn alosav tsde tv mrgouv orv / upnw pesosai d ai atptustai rai / graai, palaia padev 29. So the context determines whether or not a State referred to by means of an HP is still valid at the moment of speaking30. With regard to frousin in Eur. Phoen. 1477 I argued that this form is to be regarded as an HP because it is embedded in a series of three different activities undertaken by three groups of people. The starting point of bringing the dead bodies of Iocaste, Polyneices and Eteocles into the city is situated in the story time; but the activity of bringing the bodies is not yet finished at the moment of speaking and accordingly the audience are supposed to assume that the bodies will soon be brought on the stage. This is what actually happens: when the Messenger has finished his speech the chorus say that they already see the three bodies being brought to the palace. And thus frousin, being an HP (because its starting point is situated within story time), is still valid at the moment of speaking. There are two arguments for this interpretation. In the first place it is a priori to be expected that a Messenger tells the audience what he has seen himself; and in this particular case we have seen that frousin stands side by side with two other activities reported by the messenger. The second argument for interpreting such present forms as HPs is more objective and therefore more cogent. I have found two cases where such present forms are accompanied by oblique optatives. The first of these is Eur. Hcld. 1230:
29 Even now you see these madwomen taken captive: fallen in sleep, these abominable maidens, these aged virgins. 30 Rijksbaron 2006a, 1489, wrongly believing that stative verbs cannot be used as HPs, argues that in such cases the present forms always must be interpreted as actual presents. This will be discussed below.

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epe gr autn gv aphllcqh patr, prton mn hmv hqel Eurusqev tanen all exdramen, a pliv mn oicetai, yuc d esqh. fegomen d almenoi (15) allhn ap allhv exorizntwn plin. prv tov gr alloiv a td Eurusqev aov ubrism ev hmv hxwsen ubrsai pmpwn opou gv punqnoiq idrumnouv ruav exaite te axergei cqonv, (20) plin protenwn Argov ou smirn flhn ecqrn te qsqai, cautn eutuconq ama. oi d asqen mn tap emo dedortev, smirov d tosde a patrv thtwmnouv, tov ressonav sbontev exergousi gv. (25) eg d sn fegousi sumfegw tnoiv a sn av prssousi sumprssw av, onn prodonai, m tiv w d ei p h brotn Idesq, epeid paisn ou e s tin patr, Ilaov ou hmune suggenv gegv 31. (30) Iolaus tells that after Heracles death Eurystheus attempted to kill Heracles wife and children and Iolaus himself. They managed to escape and went into exile. The phrase a pliv mn oi c etai, yuc d esqh refers to one and the same moment: therefore oi c etai is to be interpreted as an HP. Usually, the phrase X oi c etai stands for X is lost, and in this passage it can be taken in the same sense so that pliv mn oi c etai is an HP of a State which is still valid at the moment of speaking. fegomen in v. 15 must be taken as live in exile, not as take to flight, as is proved by the accompanying participle almenoi. So both oi c etai and fegomen can be taken as HPs of States. In v. 17 Iolaus explains why they have to go on wandering around the land: whenever Eurystheus learned that they tried to settle somewhere he sent messengers to demand their surrender and to keep them out of the land. Here the two present forms exaite and axergei are accompanied by the iterative optative punqnoiq: this
31 When their father departed from the earth, first Eurystheus decided to kill us. But we escaped from him, and though our city was lost, (15) we saved our lives. Yet we wandered in exile from one city to another as men banished us. For in addition to the other troubles Eurystheus plagued us with, he thought fit to commit this outrage against us: (20) he sent heralds to whatever part of the world he learned we were trying to settle in and demanded our surrender and kept us out of that land, alleging that the city of Argos was no slight power to make a friend or foe of and that he himself was a man enjoying heavens favor. And these men, seeing that I was weak and that these children were small and had lost their father, (25) bowed to might and kept us from their land. With these children who are exiled I too was in exile, and I joined my own wretchedness to theirs, shrinking from abandoning them for fear someone may say, Look, since the children lost their father, (30) Iolaus has not come to their aid, though he is their kinsman!

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proves that the starting point of exaite and axergei is to be situated in the past which makes these verb forms HPs. By extension the same goes for the present forms exergousi, sumfegw and sumprssw in vv. 257. All the present forms in this passage express situations which are still valid at the moment of speaking; and all of them find their starting point in story time. The second passage is Soph. El. 75760, from the end of the Messenger speech in which the false account of Orestes death in the chariot race is presented. The Messenger ends his account as follows:

a nin pur antev euqv en brace cal mgiston sma deilaav spodo frousin andrev Fwwn tetagmnoi, opwv patrav tmbon elcoi cqonv32.
Most editions read elch with a number of recentiores; the two primary mss. LA, however, have elcoi. Thus, elch does not have the status of a transmitted reading and it is in all probability a conjecture. I believe that the transmitted elcoi is to be accepted as the authentic reading. Sicking-Stork 1997, 13940, accept elcoi of the primary mss.; they conclude: () phrousin they carry must temporally refer to the past. Rijksbaron 2006a, 149, on the other hand reads elch with the majority of the editions; according to Rijksbaron frousin refers to the moment of speaking. The starting point of frousin lies within story time, as is proved by the oblique optative elcoi, and therefore frousin is an HP; in this respect I agree with Sicking-Stork33. But Sicking-Stork are wrong in claiming that frousin only refers to the past. In fact, the context shows that frousin is still valid at the moment of speaking: two hundred verses later Orestes, disguised as a Phocian herald, will arrive with the urn allegedly containing Orestes ashes. The fact that in the two cases discussed above the verb of the main clause is accompanied by a subordinate clause containing an oblique optative shows that the verb in the main clause is to be regarded as an HP. This view is corroborated by the observation that at the moment at which such utterances are made the audience cannot be

32 Men appointed from among the Phocians burned him on a pyre, and at once carried in a small urn of bronze his mighty form, now miserable dust, so that he should be accorded burial in the land of his fathers. 33 It is correctly translated as such by Lloyd-Jones (see previous note) in spite of the objections by Rijksbaron 2006a, 149. KG 2. 382 explain the optative here (and elsewhere) as follows: Wenn der Redende beim Prsens zugleich auch eine vergangene Handlung gedacht hat, da in diesem Falle die Absicht der Vergangenheit angehrt. S. El. 759f. () weil der Pdagog im Sinne der txantev frein spricht, Schneidew. This may play a role but even so the interpretation of frousin as an HP is corroborated by euqv which is better taken with frousin than with antev because of its position after the participial clause a nin pur antev. And the type of explanation offered by KG for the Electra passage will not do for punqnoiq in Hcld. 19 (not discussed by KG).

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certain whether or not the situation reported is still valid at the moment of speaking. Let us return for a moment to the second Messenger speech in the Phoenissae. When the Messenger has spoken v. 1459, qanosa etai peribalos amfon crav, the audience cannot know whether there are any more important events to follow: the Messenger might very well have ended his account here and so the audience cannot know at this moment whether or not the three corpses are still lying there as they lay immediately after Iocastes suicide. In reality, as appears from the sequel of the Messengers account, they are no longer lying there but they are being brought to the city. But in other cases matters are different. In Soph. Ant. 12403 the Messenger ends his account of what he has seen in Antigones burial chamber as follows:

etai d nerv per ner, t numfi tlh lacn delaiov e n g Aidou dmoiv, dexav en anqrpoisi tn aboulan, osw mgiston andr prseitai an 34.

(1240)

Because the Messenger leaves it at that and because only a short period of time has elapsed between the events themselves and the Messengers report, it is likely that the Chorus (and the audience) will assume that the corpses are still lying there. And in the rest of the tragedy we do not hear what happened further to the corpses of Antigone and Haemon. Another interesting passage is found at the end of the Messenger speech in Eur. Ba. 113747.

etai d cwrv sma, t mn up stfloiv ptraiv, t d ulhv en baquxlw fbh, ou rd ion zthma rta d aqlion, oper labosa tugcnei mthr ceron, pxas ep aron qrson w v orestrou frei lontov di Kiqairnov msou, lipos adelfv en corosi maindwn. cwre d qra dusptmw gauroumnh teicwn esw tnd, anaalosa Bcion tn xugnagon, tn xunergthn agrav, tn allnion, w drua nihfore 35.

(1140)

(1145)

34 There he lay, a corpse holding a corpse, having achieved his marriage rites, poor fellow, in the house of Hades, having shown by how much the worst evil among mortals is bad counsel. As in Trach. 701 LloydJones is right in translating etai as He lay, and once more Rijksbarons objections (2006a, 1489) are unjustified. 35 His body lay scattered, some of it under the rough cliffs, other parts in thick-growing woods, no easy thing to look for. As for his luckless head, which his mother happened to take in her hands, she has fixed it on the point of her bacchic wand and carried it, as if it were the head of a mountain lion, through the midst of

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After the horrible scene of the sparagmv of Pentheus, ending with the description of the Theban women throwing the parts of Pentheus corpse like balls, etai d cwrv sma presents the audience with a picture, comparable to the one in the Phoenissae. This scene is the background for the ensuing description of Agaue bringing Pentheus head to the city. The verb frei is an HP; the sentence to which it belongs (she carries the head right across Mount Cithaeron) is ended within story time as appears from 11445, where we are told that she is entering the city: cwre too is HP as is proved by the Messengers detailed report of the exclamations uttered by Agaue; we may assume that while the Messenger is speaking Agaue is on her way to the palace in the citys streets. As to etai d cwrv sma te. we may suppose that this situation still obtains at the moment of speaking: it incites Cadmus to gather the remains of Pentheus body, as appears from 121621, which contains clear echoes of the Messengers remark ou rdion zthma36. In the prologue of Euripides Hecuba the situation is complicated because the ghost of Polydorus speaks about his I and his body as two separate entities. In 28 he says that after Polymestor killed him and threw him into the sea, emai d ep atav, allot en pntou slw I lay now near the beach, now amid the high swell of the main; in 301 he continues nn d upr mhtrv flhv / Ebhv a ssw, sm erhmsav emn: And now deserting my body I flit above the head of Hecuba my mother. Here the I is Polydorus ghost, who is speaking the prologue, not his body: otherwise he could not have said that he has left his body. But at the same time his body is still lying on the shore. And therefore the situation expressed by the HP emai is still valid for Polydorus body (as in the cases discussed above) but no longer for his I, the ghost who speaks the prologue.

Cithaeron, leaving her sisters with the maenad companies. And then, exulting in this ill-starred hunt, she came within the walls, calling on the bacchic god, her fellow huntsman, her companion in the chase, the glorious victor, by whose aid she has won tears as victory prize. 36 Another case of e(n)tai is found in Eur. Med. 1220 (Creon and his daughter lying dead). Other instances of HPs which are still valid at the moment of speaking include Eur. Cycl. 13 naustol, Hipp. 39 apllutai, Andr. 31 aov elanomai, HF 33 arcei. The situation at Aesch. Pers. 296330 is far from straightforward. The Messenger begins by stating that Xerxes is still alive (299 Xrxhv mn autv z te ka fov blpei, Well, Xerxes himself is alive and sees the light of day). When he starts his speech proper, he opens with the statement that Artembares body is being struck against the rocks of Salamis (3023 Artembrhv d murav ippou brabev / stflouv par atv qenetai Silhnin, But Artembares, the commander of ten thousand horse, is being pounded against the rugged shores of Sileniae); because this statement immediately follows the remark that Xerxes is still alive, I take the present qenetai as actual (note that d in 302 picks up mn in 299). Then the death of Dadaces is described with the telic aorist aflato in 305, after which follow the atelic present (or unaugmented imperfect?) pole (spode Elmsley) in 307 and the atelic imperfect risson in 310 to describe the fate of Tenagon and others. From there on the narrative continues in imperfects and aorists but in 325 we find etai qann, followed by the aorist apleto in 327. Because etai is accompanied by the aorist participle qann and embedded in a series of past tenses I would rather take etai as an HP than as an actual present; but in this case there is ample room for doubt.

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5. The HP of or in narrative In a number of narrative passages the speaker introduces the report of what he has seen by means of the HP or 37. I will now discuss a number of these passages in order to illustrate that or can be used both as an alternative for the telic aorist eidon my eye fell on and the atelic imperfect erwn I was watching. Outside narrative passages the punctual use of the present or occurs frequently to announce the arrival of another character. See for instance Eur. Hcld. 4950 or rua tnd Eurusqwv / stecont ef hmv, I see Eurystheus herald coming toward us: this means that Iolaus perceives the herald of Eurystheus approaching, not that he is watching the mans every movement as such; it amounts to the same as there Eurystheus herald is approaching. This use of or is also found in narrative passages38. In Soph. El. 892908 such cases of punctual or alternate with the durative use of perisop (Chrysothemis speaks):

a d lgw soi pn oson ateidmhn. epe gr hlqon patrv arcaon tfon, or olnhv ex arav neorrtouv phgv glatov a peristef lw pntwn os e s tin anqwn qhn patrv. idosa d e scon qama, a perisop m po tiv hmn eggv egcrmptei brotn. w v d en galnh pnt edermhn tpon, tmbou proserpon asson escthv d or purv nerh bstrucon tetmhmnon euqv tlain w v eidon, empaei t moi yuc snhqev omma, filttou brotn pntwn Orstou toq orn temrion a cers bastsasa dusfhm mn ou, car d pmplhm euqv omma darwn. a nn q omowv a tt exepstamai m tou td aglsma pln enou molen 39.

(895)

(900)

(905)

37 I have found the following eighteen cases of (es/eis)or(men) in narrative: Aesch. Pers. 205, 207, Ag. 659, Eum. 40; Soph. El. 894, 900, Trach. 912, 915, 930, OC 1654; Eur. Supp. 653, IT 1345, Phoen. 1099, 1165, Or. 871, 879, Ba. 680, 1063. Against these eighteen cases of the HP I have found only five cases of the aorist: Eur. Hipp. 1206, IT 308 and 323 (both in a subordinate clause), El. 514, Rh. 782. This is in accordance with the HPs function of giving the suggestion of an eye-witness report. 38 Cf. Eriksson 1943, 15: Unvermutete Sinneseindrcke werden durch Prsens historicum markiert: or = er erblickte, aoei = er hrte (vernahm), aisqnetai (). 39 Then I will tell you all I saw. When I approached our fathers ancient tomb, I saw on top of the mound freshly (895) flowing streams of milk, and my fathers urn crowned with a ring of every kind of flower. Seeing, I wondered, and looked about in case any person was nearby. But when I saw that the place was calm, (900)

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Chrysothemis first saw (894 HP or) milk and honey on the grave; or is picked up by the aorist participle idosa in 897. In 900 the HP or introduces what she saw next: the lock of hair; this HP is picked up by the aorist eidon in the subordinate clause (902). Both cases of the HP or therefore can be interpreted as punctual. The case is different, however, with perisop in 897. This verb is qualitate qua nonpunctual because look around necessarily takes up some time and therefore it indicates an Activity; this is confirmed by the fact that this verb is picked up by the imperfect edermhn in 899. In 9028 Chrysothemis describes the effect which the scene had on her, using three HPs. On the other hand there are passages where or must be interpreted as durative. In the first place this goes for descriptions, as we have already seen in the prologue of the Eumenides, where the prophetess describes Orestes in detail: here or suggests that the prophetess gaze is wandering over Orestes figure 40. Another passage where or must be extended in time is Eur. Ba. 106374. The passage is introduced with the words tounteqen hdh to xnou <t> qam or (At this point I saw the stranger perform a miraculous deed, 1063); t qama comprises a series of successive actions: taking the top of the tree (labn 1064), bending it down (atgen, hgen, hgen 1065)41, placing Pentheus on the top of the tree (idrsav 1070) and gently letting the tree go back to its former position, taking care that Pentheus is not catapulted (meqei 1071). Accordingly, or describes a State.

6. The narrative sequel in the prologues of Euripides Helen and Phoenissae Now that the possibility of the HP of atelic verbs has been proved I wish to demonstrate what effect this can have on the interpretation of narrative passages in Greek tragedy. I will first discuss the second part of the prologue of Euripides Helen. Hra d memfqes oune ou ni qev exhnmwse tam Alexndrw lch, all omoisas emo ddwsi d ou e m ei d wlon e m pnoun ourano xunqes apo Primou turnnou paid a doe m e cein, enn dhsin, ou e c wn. t d au Div

(35)

I drew near to the tomb; and on the edge of the pyre, I saw a newly cut lock of hair. And the moment that I saw it, ah! a familiar source of light struck me; I beheld a token of him among mortals whom I love the most, Orestes! (905) I took it in my hands, and uttered no ill-omened word, but at once my eyes filled with tears of joy. And I know now, just as I knew then, that this ornament came from none but him. 40 In the following passages too or can be interpreted as introducing a description and therefore as durative: Aesch. Pers. 205, 207; Eur. Supp. 653, IT 1345, Or. 879, Ba. 680. 41 This line is characterized by John Jackson as the least forgettable line of Greek tragedy, in his hilariously funny description of the passage (Jackson 1955, 20).

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boulemat alla tosde sumbanei aov plemon gr eisnegen Ellnwn cqon a Frux dustnoisin, w v oclou brotn plqouv te oufseie mhtra cqna gnwtn te qeh tn rtiston Elldov. Frugn d ev aln proutqhn eg mn ou, t d onoma toumn, aqlon Ellhsin dorv. labn d m Ermv en ptucasin aiqrov neflh alyav ou gr hmlhs mou Zev tnd ev oion Prwtwv idrsato, pntwn prornav swfronstaton brotn, araion w v ssaimi Menlewi lcov. ag mn enqd eim, o d aqliov psiv strteum aqrosav tv emv anarpagv qhr poreuqev Ilou purgmata. () ewv mn oun fv hlou td e b lepen Prwtev, asulov h gmwn epe d gv stw ruptai, pav o to teqnhtov qhr gamen me. tn plai d eg psin timsa Prwtwv mnma prosptnw tde itiv, in andr tam diassh lch, w v, ei aq Elld onoma duslev frw, m moi t sm g enqd aiscnhn oflh 42.

(40)

(45)

(50)

(60)

(65)

Helen tells that Hera made a phantom of her and gave it to Paris (ddwsi 33); she continues with a doe m e cein in 35. Dale, Kannicht and W. Allen take doe as an actual present 43. Now it is quite possible that Helen still believes that Paris is alive and
42 But Hera, annoyed that she did not defeat the other goddesses, made Alexandros union with me as vain as the wind: she gave to king Priams son not me but a breathing image she fashioned from the heavens to resemble me. (35) He imagined vain imagination that he had me, though he did not. Joined to these woes were further woes in turn, the plan of Zeus. He brought war upon the Greeks and the poor Trojans (40) to relieve Mother Earth of the throng and press of humankind and also make plain who was the most valiant man in Greece. And for the fight against the Trojans I was put forward for the Greeks as a prize of war (though it was not me but only my name). So Hermes took me up within the recesses of the sky, (45) hiding me in a cloud (for Zeus had not forgotten me), and put me down at this house of Proteus, whom he judged the most virtuous man on earth, so that I might keep my bed unsullied for Menelaus. Here I was, but my poor husband, (50) gathering an army, went to the towers of Ilium to win me back by force. () (60) While Proteus still looked on the light of the sun, no marriage threatened me. But as soon as he lay buried in earths darkness, the late kings son wanted to marry me. Hence honoring the husband I once had I flung myself as a suppliant upon this tomb of Proteus (65) so that it might keep me inviolate for him: even if my name is reviled in Greece, my body shall not here be put to shame. 43 Dale: doe is probably fancies [still]; Helen knew nothing of his death. Kannicht: doe ist echtes, nicht historisches Prsens (), denn Hel. wei ja noch nichts davon, da der Krieg inzwischen beendet ist.

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still thinks he possesses the real Helen but it is much better to take doe as an HP, for the following reasons. In the first place a doe m e c ein is the immediate sequel to ddwsi so that it is natural to take doe m e c ein as Paris feeling at the moment he receives the phantom Helen; without there being any explicit indication of a shift of time it would be very strange to jump from an event of seventeen years ago to the present situation. What is more, the sequel of v. 35 can only be understood by taking doe m e c ein as referring to the situation of seventeen years before. The fact that Paris believes to possess the real Helen (and by implication, that all others believe this too44) is the human cause of the Trojan War, which coincides with Zeus plans to cause a great war (a nice instance of doppelte Motivation in tragedy): tosde aov can only refer to the fact that both Greeks and Trojans believe the phantom to be the real Helen. If doe m e c ein is taken as an actual present, as Dale, Kannicht and W. Allan do, tosde aov has no referent45. In v. 448 Helen relates how Hermes brought her to Egypt. In 49 she says ag mn enqd ei m , Here I am; this is true at the moment of speaking but the remark only gets its full relevance if it is taken as an HP referring to the situation seventeen years ago: it is the background against which the sequel takes place: Menelaus gathered an army (aqrosav 50), set sail for Troy (poreuqev 51) and tried to recover Helen (qhr 51). The fact that qhr is surrounded by two aorist participles expressing the preparations for the expedition shows that the activity of hunting down Helen started immediately after these preparations. And again, if qhr is taken as an actual present the narrative sequel is rudely interrupted46.
W. Allan: Unaware of Paris death, Troys destruction, and the removal of her image by M. (cf. 10516), H. still speaks of Paris delusion in the present tense (he imagines). 44 See v. 611, where Helens phantom says to Menelaus crew that they falsely believed that Paris had the real Helen (doontev Elnhn ou e c ont e c ein Prin, thinking that Paris had Helen, which he never did!). 45 Rijksbaron 2006a suggests that in many cases present forms in our editions should be conceived as unaugmented imperfects, e. g. at Soph. Trach. 796 lei she called instead of ale (p. 140), and at Eur. Med. 1141 nei she kissed instead of une (pp. 1456). Because Euripides did not write accents the reading of the mss. has no weight in such matters. In our passage we might consider reading the unaugmented imperfect dei for doe but there are two arguments against this reading. As to the form we would rather expect adei, which occurs at Aesch. Cho. 228, Soph. Aj. 56 and Eur. Or. 1421 (and which was conjectured in our passage by Boissonade). As to the contents the imperfect would imply that Helen believes that Paris is no longer convinced to have the real Helen at the moment of speaking, which conflicts with her absolute lack of knowledge concerning the present state of affairs at Troy. In general terms: the imperfect refers to a state of affairs in the past; therefore, the historical present is the only way to indicate a state of affairs in the past which continues at the moment of speaking (unless, of course, an imperfect is used with the explicit addition that the state of affairs is still valid at the moment of speaking, e. g. they were then carrying the corpse and they are still doing so now). 46 It is strange, to say the least, to hear Helen say what she states in v. 523, yuca d polla di e m ep Samandroiv / roasin e q anon (Many lives were lost by Scamanders stream because of me), which definitely looks like a post eventum evaluation of the whole war, which contrasts with Helens question in v. 107, where it is clear that she does not know that the war is over. Dale, Kannicht and W. Allan are silent on this issue.

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At the end of the prologue the verbs forms ruptai and qhri in 613 might at first sight be taken as actual perfect and present but this interpretation breaks down on prosptnw in 64, which must be an actual present if the preceding verbs are actual too. Now prosptnw certainly is an HP as is proved by 11779, where Theoclymenus expresses his amazement at no longer finding Helen near his fathers grave: Helen has taken refuge (prosptnw) with Proteus grave some time ago and now she is sitting there. Now if prosptnw is HP, the preceding two verbs must be historic perfect and present as well. Let us now turn to the prologue of Euripides Phoenissae (6374). Iocaste has just told that Oedipus blinded himself when discovering the truth about his relationship to Iocaste: epe d tnwn gnuv emn sizetai, lqroiv e ruyan patr, in amnmwn tch gnoito polln deomnh sofismtwn. (65) zn d est en oi oiv prv d tv tchv nosn arv artai paisn anosiwttav, qht sidrw dma dialacen tde. t d ev fbon pesnte, m telesfrouv eucv qeo ranwsin oiontoin omo, (70) xumbnt e t axan tn neteron prov fegein enta tnde Poluneh cqna, Eteola d sptr e cein mnonta gv , eniautn allssont47. When Eteocles and Polyneices had grown up, they locked up their father in the palace. If zn d e s t en oi oiv (66) is taken as an actual present, the narrative is interrupted without any further indication because the next predicate, artai in 67, cannot be taken as an actual present: as a result of Oedipus curse his two sons have agreed to rule the city alternately, which proves that artai is an HP. Moreover, the fact that Oedipus is alive in the palace at the moment at which Iocaste is speaking is irrelevant in the narrative48. And finally the use of the connective particle d shows that the whole phrase zn d e s t en oi oiv is part of the narrative.

47 But when my sons cheeks were darkened with their first beards, they hid their father away behind locked doors so that his fate would be forgotten, (65) though it took much ingenuity to conceal it. He then lived in the palace. Made sick by what had befallen him, he pronounced an impious curse on his sons, that they should divide this house with the whetted sword. The sons, becoming afraid (70) that the gods would bring the curse to fulfillment if they lived together, reached an agreement that Polynices, as younger brother, should be the first to leave the country voluntarily, that Eteocles should stay behind and be king, and that the two should trade places year by year. 48 The fact that Oedipus is still alive in the palace does not constitute an argument against this interpretation: the point at stake is that this situation started in the story time. See above, section 4.

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On the hypothesis that the atelic HPs in Hel. and Phoen. discussed above are actual presents the phrases containing these forms would be lifted out of the narrative sequel without any other textual indication than the fact that they are stative verbs. This would seem highly improbable in itself. And in practice, when a Greek wishes to make it unambiguously clear to his audience that he is switching from the past to the present, he can do so by just adding the adverb nn. Thus in Soph. Ai. 615 the switch from the historical present omzetai to the actual present aizetai is made by means of nn:

apeit epeid tod elfhsen pnou, tov zntav au desmosi sundsav bon pomnav te psav ev dmouv omzetai, w v andrav, ouc w v euerwn agran e c wn. a nn at oi ouv sundtouv aizetai 49.

(65)

7. The Historical Perfect Typically, the Greek perfect tense refers to a state which is valid at the moment of speaking and as such it is, to all practical intents and purposes, equivalent to the present tense of verbs with a stative Aktionsart. Now that I have shown that the historical present can be used to indicate states I will show that the perfect tense does not always refer to a state which is valid at the moment of speaking but that it can also be used to refer to a state in the past; as such, it is equivalent to the HP of a verb with a static Aktionsart. In order to prove this I will analyse the great Messenger Speech of Euripides Helen50. When Helen and Menelaus have successfully obtained a ship and crew from Theoclymenus their plan to escape to Greece works out perfectly. The Messenger tells Theoclymenus what has happened in an extraordinarily long speech (15261618). Qe. t d e s tin; Ag. allhv epnei mnhstemata gunaiv Elnh gr bbh e x w cqonv. ()

(1515)

Then when he rested from this work he tied up those of the cattle that were still alive and all the sheep, and brought them home, thinking he had men there, and not the horned creatures that were his prey, and now he is torturing them, bound as they are, inside his dwelling. 50 For the concept of the historical perfect see Ruiprez 1982, 183, who quotes Aesch. Cho. 535 h d ex upnou lagen eptohmnh, She cried out in terror in her sleep and Xen. Hell. 7. 1. 41 auqiv d Epameinndav () e g nwe strateuton einai ep tn Acaan, Epaminondas immediately decided he had to march against Achaia. The historical perfects Soph. Trach. 698 atyhtai and Eur. Hel. 62 ruptai have already been discussed above (sections 3 and 6 respectively).
49

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ep oiwn d bv anat ev Elld eipen euqnein dru. oi d istn hran, ouriai d hon pnoa bebsi d e gv. diafugn d eg fnon aq emautn eiv al aguran pra hdh d mnonq ormiatnwn m tiv anelet, ev d gaan exbhs soi td aggelonta 51.

(1610)

(1615)

As is usual in Euripidean Messenger speeches, the gist of the message is announced right at the start: 1515 Elnh gr bbh exw cqonv, Helen has left the country; here bbh is an actual perfect. The whole speech of almost one hundred lines contains only one HP52, bo in 1596, which is the Egyptian captains reaction to Menelaus exhortation to his comrades to take up their weapons (which the Messenger introduces by means of the aorist anebhse). This does not fit in with the theory that the HP serves to mark decisive events: in the whole story Menelaus revealing his real identity and exhorting the Greeks to kill the Egyptians is the decisive turning point. At the end of the speech, when all the other Egyptians are dead and the ship is sailing prosperously in the direction of Greece, the Messenger says bebsi d e gv, they had left the country. Contrary to the actual perfect bbh in 1515, this is an historical perfect: it is embedded in the narrative, serving as the fulfilment of Menelaus and Helenas plan and at the same time constituting the background for the final stage of the Messenger speech, in which he relates how he managed to escape from the ship.

8. The basic function of the HP In the foregoing I have illustrated that HPs of atelic and durative verbs occur in Greek. This shows that the HP is not exclusively used for marking decisive events, as Rijksbaron claims. Buijs-Rademaker (2011, 120), following Sicking-Stork 1997, argue that HP verbs present the main points of the message that the narrator wants to convey to his addressee; now it is possible that the speaker/author regards states as main points of the message but Sicking-Stork themselves constantly speak about events. What is more, there are Messenger speeches which contain only a few HPs or

Arrange for a marriage with someone else: Helen has left the country! () Going to the steersman he ordered him to make for Greece. His men raised the mast, and the winds blew favorable. They had left the country. I myself escaped being killed by throwing myself into the sea near the anchor. (1615) I was already worn out when a fisherman picked me up and brought me to land to bring you this news. 52 In v. 1564 Allan prints Hartungs conjecture ai r ei for the transmitted w sei.
51

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no HPs at all 53: this means that in the Sicking-Stork model such speeches do not contain any main point which is to be conveyed to the addressee. It is obvious that the large majority of HPs is telic but that does not mean that decisiveness (which implies telicity) is the basic function of the HP: it is the most frequently occurring function. The only thing we can say about the function of the HP in general, to my mind, is that it bridges the gap between past and present. And thus we arrive at the description given by Longinus (supported by ps. Aelius Aristides) with which I opened this paper: if you introduce events in past time as happening at the present moment, the passage will be transformed from a narrative into a vivid actuality, a description which grosso modo coincides with Langackers and R. J. Allans epistemic immediacy as the semantic value of the present in general and the notion of foregrounding for the HP in particular. As to the application of the HP in Greek, we can signalize trends in literary genres, in specific authors or even in specific passages of specific authors. The recent monograph on the HP in Thucydides (Lallot a. o. 2011) amply illustrates that in this author the HP almost always marks events that were, according to Thucydides, of decisive (crucial, central) importance for the development of the war (Rijksbaron 2011, 17) but this does not automatically imply that this goes for all Greek literature. For instance, George (2011, 233) remarks with regard to the HP in Thucydides: That the HP never occurs in such constructions [that is, sentences with accusatives of time, like Th. 2. 57. 2 plestn te crnon enmeinan GJB] strongly suggests that it is incompatible with durative temporal expressions. But in reality such a collocation does occur in D.H. Ant. Rom. 1. 71. 4 e p eita Amliov () do a tettaronta e t h dunasteei. Then Amulius () reigned forty-two years. (tr. Cary) 54. We should not let ourselves be lulled by statistics, that is, we should not believe that usually telic means always telic. On the contrary, the fact that besides a large majority of HPs of telic verbs (Accomplishments and Achievements) there are HPs of atelic verbs, including States, should make us sensitive to the function of the HP in such cases. I hope to have shown that the HP of a state can be very dramatically effective in narrative 55.

53 Some instances: no HPs at all in Eur. IA 154077 and Phoen. 121758. Few HPs: Eur. Hel. 1526617 (1596 bo); IT 93988 (958 lw); IT 1327 419 (1345 ormen and possibly 1395 w qe [wqei codd.: w qe Kirchhoff]). 54 R.J. Allan 2007, 107 shows that in Th. 6. 1002 the HP, being a positive marker of immediacy, serves to mark the decisive moments or Peaks (see above, section 1) but this observation does not have universal validity: on the one hand there are narrative passages where the decisive moments are not marked by HPs and on the other hand there are HPs which do not mark decisive moments. 55 I wish to thank Rutger Allan, Arjan Nijk and Philologus anonymous referees for commenting on earlier drafts of this paper and Nina King for correcting my English.

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VU University NL 1081 HV Amsterdam g.j.boter@vu.nl

Abstract
Among modern scholars of ancient Greek it is almost universally accepted that the historical present is only used for (telic) events and not for (atelic) states and activities. A survey of the extant complete tragedies shows that this view is untenable: there are passages where static verbs like emai lie and eudw sleep are used in the historical present and where the historical present describes a state or activity which is extended in time. On the one hand this shows that punctuality or decisiveness cannot be regarded as the basic function of the historical present; on the other it leads to new interpretations of a number of passages in Greek tragedy. Keywords: ancient Greek, historical present, atelicity, Greek tragedy