WAS Always Important

Was Always Important !

This is one of  the most important and common words in Classical Greek and one of the first verb forms you should learn.

What is it? The 3^rd Person Singular Imperfect of the Verb to be WAS

ἦν

ARCHEE the source and the origin

The Source and the Power ΆΡΧΗ

In Latin the Gospel of John begins with the famous statement

In principio verbum erat

But this is a Latin translation from Greek.

Here's Verse 1 of St John's Gospel in Greek

1. Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.

Ἀρχῇ is the dative form of ἡ Ἀρχὴ the beginning or source.

The word first appears in Greek in Homer's Odyssey and then Pindar's Odes.

This word has another meaning of being a source of origin of a flow of power and so we see it used as a suffix or prefix as – archos – arch(ee) and – arch(y) in English.

A good example especially given the Diamond Jubilee this week would be Monarch and Monarchy, two words with Greek origins that have become thoroughly established in English.

Rather like the Force in Star Wars or the Tao in Chinese?

You will see it used with a sense very similar to this if you read some Neoplatonists and Christian orthodox mystics and theologians writing in Greek.

IN French it becomes – arce, Italian arce and arci, Spanish arce, and German erz and I have seen it borrowed inot other languages with a spelling of - arky.

Don't forget there is a verb - ἄρχω

In the Beginning ARCHE

In John's Gospel in the beginning was the word.

This simple passage may be Post Classical but still is a classic in several ways.

And a useful teaching example and aid?

In Latin the Gospel of John begins with

In principio verbum erat

Here's Verses 1 – 5 which include a good variety of simple verb and noun forms.

1. Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.

2. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν.

3. πάντα δι᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. ὃ γέγονεν.

4. ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων.

5. καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.

Here's a list of some of the words used and some questions to use for further study and revision.

ἐν Note how this is used with the dative ἀρχῇ.

ἦν equals erat and both mean ...

ὁ λόγος the word is a Second Declension noun along with which other words?

καὶ the most common conjunction and the others are …?

πρὸς is used with the object τὸν θεόν why accusative? how does this change the meaning?

ἐγένετο and γέγονεν are both forms of which verb?

ὁ and ὃ that one different accent changes the meaning ho and hò mean ?

ἡ ζωὴ is a First Declension Feminine Noun. Name the other two nouns of this type used.

My next post will about about ARKHEE arche

A Hellenic timeline

A Hellenic Timeline with some terminology explained

Palaeolithic means Ancient Stone an era when the population of Greece was sparse.

Mesolithic is the following Middle Stone Age

The Neolithic era in Greece when farming begun runs from 6700 -3200 with the first farming settlements appearing in Thessaly and later in the South.

Early Neolithic 6700 – 5800

Middle Neolithic 5800 – 5300

Late Neolithic 5300 – 4500

Final Neolithic 4500 – 3200

The Preclassical Minoan cultures of Crete are described as

Prepalatial Protopalatial Neopalatial Final Palatial and Post Palatial followed by the SubMinoan era.

There are also further subcategories.

The Bronze Age of Greece and the Aegean is split into three areas

HELLADIC (Mainland Greece) MINOAN (Crete) CYCLADIC (the Aegean islands)

with Helladic being split into

Early 3200 -2200 Middle 2100 – 1800 and Late or Mycenaean 1800 -1200

followed by the Sub Mycenaean / Minoan era and then the IRON AGE

Protogeometric 1050 -900

Early Geometric 900 – 850

Middle Geometric 850 – 760

Late Geometric 760 – 700

then there is the ARCHAIC 700 – 480

The Persian Invasion is the starting point of the Classical era 480 – 323

The Hellenistic 323 – 146 is the age of Alexander's successors up to the time the Romans took control of Greece. Some scholars treat the Hellenistic as overlapping with Republican and Imperial Rome.

Now you have a basic timeline to copy share and discuss or modify by adding more data.