PARTICIPLE

Fundamental meaning: the participle is an adjective derived from a verbal phase stem which adds as property that the qualified word performs (is subjected to etc.) the action of the verb; genus (A, Md, P & Md/P) and phase are included. English examples: a running sore, stretched muscles. Being an adjective the participle has a complete set of forms to accomodate all nine cases of all three genders: theoretically 27 forms, but there is as much overlap as with other adjectives.

As examples a full set will be given of all participles of the verb λύω (for the complete declinations see the page with the Synopsis of verb forms):

dur A: λύων “unbinding”

dur Md/P: λυόμενος “unbinding (for) oneself”, “being   unbound”

aor A: λύσας: “having unbound”

aor Md: λυσάμενος: “having unbound (for) oneself”

aor P: λυθείς: “having been unbound”

fut A: λύσων: "going to unbind"

fut Md: λυσόμενος: "going to unbind (for) oneself"

fut P: λυθησόμενος: "going to be unbound"

pf A: λελυκώς: “having unbound”

pf Md/P: λελυμένος: “(having) unbound (for) (oneself)”, "(having been) 
                                     unbound”.

Just as other adjectives participles may be used attributively (A fitting response to violence is meekness.), predicatively (Reading Homer I came across a one-eyed giant.)  and substantively (These seats are for the maimed); in ancient Greek there is a preponderance of predicative use.

Being as much a verb as an adjective, the participle introduces a secondary verb into the sentence and therefore the matter of temporal relation between primary and secondary action arises. When the two are contemporaneous, a durative ptc is used. When the secondary action follows the primary, one uses a future ptc. When the secondary action precedes the primary, an aorist ptc is used. That is why the preferred translation for a durative ptc is imperfect, and for an aorist ptc perfect.

[For brevity’s sake the above is more of practical value in translating than that it is theoretically true.]

A few examples may clarify: [Note that the rules set out for attributive and predicative on the pages about ADJUNCTS and ARTICLE apply for attributive and predicative participles (as might be expected)].

Attributive use: Ἡ νόσος ἡ τοσούτους διαφθείρουσα ὑπ΄ Ἀπόλλωνος ἐπέμφθη. The disease that is destroying so many, has been sent by Apollo.  Τῆς τοσούτους ἀπολεσάσης νόσου ὁ Κάλχας τὴν αἰτίαν ἐμήνυσεν. Of the disease that had destroyed so many, Kalchas indicated the cause.

Predicative use; [a difference with English is that predicative participles may be added to any part of the sentence, whereas English almost restricts this to the subject of the clause]: Ἡ νόσος τοσούτους διαφθείρουσα τοὺς Ἕλληνας φοβεῖ. (As it is) destroying so many, the disease frightens the Greeks. Τῆς νόσου τοσούτους ἀπολεσάσης τελευτὴν φέρε, ὦ Ἄπολλον. As it has destroyed so many, bring an end of  the disease, Apollo.

Substantive use: Τὸ διάφθειρον τοὺς στρατιώτας οὐ παύσεται, ἢν μὴ ἡ Χρυσηὶς τῷ πατρὶ ἀποπεμφθῇ. What is destroying the soldiers will not cease, if Chryseis is not sent back to her father. Τοὺς τοιαῦτα πράξαντας κολάζεσθαι δεῖ. Those that have done such things must be punished. The importance of  the ptc in ancient Greek as regards the introduction of secondary verbs in the above indicated manners is more pronounced than in English, as anyone reading Greek  will soon realize; translation by an equivalent ptc is by no means always possible and other methods will have to be used, mainly subordinate clauses as may be concluded from the above examples.

Often an object together with an appended predicative ptc is to be regarded as object of a verb: Ἴσμεν αὐτοὺς ἔνοντας of course means We know that they are inside (We know them to be inside). Here not αὐτοὺς alone is object of ἴσμεν, nor ἔνοντας alone, but the combination of the two. This turn of phrase can occur with verbs conveying the notions of perceiving, feeling (e.g. to delight, to be angry etc.) and reporting (but not with all of these). Many of  these verbs command a Genitive or Dative as object, such as χαίρω + D, ἀκούω + G, αἰσθάνομαι (sometimes) + G. Examples:

Οὐ χαλεπαίνώ σοι τοῦτο εἰπόντι. I am not angry that you (have) said this.

 Ὁρῶμεν τὰς παρθένους χορευούσας. We see the girls dancing.

These constructions are named respectively G cum participio, D cum ptc^o, Ac cum ptc^o. The difference between a “cum ptc^o “ and a “cum inf^o” can best be shown by examples of the verb φαίνομαι:

Φαίνεται παραδοῦς τὴν πατρίαν. He turns out to have betrayed his country. and Φαίνεται τὴν πατρίαν παραδοῦναι. He seems to have betrayed his country. Also: Ἀκούω τῶν παρθένων ᾀδουσῶν. I hear the girls singing. and Ἀκούω τὰς παρθένας ᾄδειν. I hear (Ι am told) that the girls sing. The difference is that ptc is used when the verb’s action is certainly actually performed, and inf when this is not so very sure.

A condition for applying participles to introduce secondary verbs into a sentence is that the subject of the ptc (the word that the ptc is to agree with) is part of the sentence into which the ptc is introduced; thus the phrase “As their father hates me, I will not help them.” would not accept expression by means of a ptc, because “their father” is not part of “I will not help them.”. But Greek has a way around this difficulty: by putting “their father hating me” in the Genitive case (so-called Absolute Genitive) one can nevertheless use a ptc:

Τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῶν μισοῦντός με οὐ βοηθήσω αὐτοῖς. This is a very frequent and therefore important construction. A few more examples will have to suffice:

Τοῦ βασιλέως κελεύοντος οὔποτε ἀπιστοῦμεν. When the king commands, we never disobey.

Τοῦ βασιλέως κελεύσαντος οὔποτε ἠπιστήσαμεν. When the king has commanded, we have never disobeyed.

Apart from the temporal relation between secondary and primary action, there may also be another relationship: causal, concessive, conditional and many other shades of meaning.  Sometimes the reader gets some assistance in pinning down this relationship in the form of words added to the ptc: ἅτε or οἷα are added when the relationship is causal, ὡς when the relationship is subjectively causal; καὶ, καίπερ or περ (in later prose also καίτοι) mark the relationship as concessive, meaning that there is some kind of "conflict" between both actions; ἅμα and μεταξὺ stress contemporaneity.

Α fut ptc almost always constitutes an adjunct of purpose; frequently ὡς is added and then this word does not serve to mark an adjunct of cause.

As the above  information can also be found lexically, with examples in the dictionary, no examples need to be given here.

To conclude this section an enumeration will be given of verbs that are often accompanied by participles with a more or less special meaning; examples will be found (and should be studied) in any decent lexicon [bold type stresses importance]:

ἀδικέω, ἀνέχομαι, ἄχθομαι, διαγίγνομαι, διάγω, διατελέω, ἐπιλανθάνομαι, ἔρχομαι, ἥδομαι, ἤκω, ἡττάομαι, κάμνω, κρατέω, λανθάνω, λείπομαι, λήγω, μιμνήσκω, νικάω, οἴχομαι, παύω, παύομαι, τυγχάνω, φαίνομαι, φθάνω, χαρίζομαι

[N.B. There are also a few verbs of which the sense would cause one to expect a “cum-ptc^o”-construction, but which never have one: λέγω, φήμι, δοκέω.]