[B-Greek] Newbie question about I come/go

Barry nebarry at verizon.net
Thu Jan 22 16:46:02 EST 2009


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Noel" <mike at vnoel.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 11:25 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Newbie question about I come/go


> This is such an interesting email list but since I'm still quite the
> beginner most of the topics are well over my head.  I am confused
> about the different words for I come/go.  In particular I'm looking at
> the following words:
>
> ἔρχομαι (ERCOMAI) -- deponent
> βαίνω (BAINW)
> πορεύομαι (POREUOMAI) -- deponent

> Can someone shed some light on this?  When I'm trying to translate "I
> go to the house" from English to Greek which of the following is
> correct:
>
> βαίνω πρὸς τὸν οἶκον (BAINW PROS TON OIKON)
> ἔρχομαι πρὸς τὸν οἶκον (ERCOMAI PROS TON OIKON)
> πορεύομαι πρὸς τὸν οἶκον (POREUOMAI PROS TON OIKON)
>
> And do all of these mean the same thing or are there subtle differences?

I see that Carl has already given you an excellent answer (as we would 
expect of such a senex venerabilis).  Let me phrase it, though, in slightly 
different terms -- practically no Greek word has precisely the same semantic 
range as any given English word (the exception being technical terms 
borrowed directly from Greek or transliterated terms. As I was telling one 
of my students the other day, it's easier to transliterate "taxiarch" or 
"phylarch" once you know what they mean instead of translating "division 
commander" and such all the time).  Thus ἔρχομαι (ERCOMAI) really means 
"move from one place to another," the direction of which (come, go) is 
defined from the perspective of the writer or speaker.  πορεύμαι (POREUMAI) 
means to "make one's way" and so forth.  The glosses you see in your 
beginning text are usually helpful for the exercises, and if the editor has 
done his work well, reflect the most common usage of the word, but most of 
the time they are insufficient to cover all the possible usages, and 
different contexts call forth different English glosses.  As always, lots of 
practice in the language is the best bet.

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Professor, WRTS
http://www.wittenbergreformed.org
Mentor, TNARS http://www.tnars.net/
Classics Instructor, TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net

and me:

http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry
http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog




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