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Re-experiencing the Past

The praesens pro praeterito in Non-narrative Discourse in Classical Greek Tragedy

  • Arjan A. Nijk EMAIL logo
From the journal Philologus

Abstract

The aim of this article is to make a contribution towards a fuller understanding of the praesens pro praeterito (the present referring to past states of affairs, more commonly known as ‘historical present’) in Classical Greek by studying its use in non-narrative discourse in tragedy. The case of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex serves as a framework for this survey. Taking the relevant present forms in this play as a starting point, three groups of verbs are subjected to close analysis: verbs of ‘dying’/‘perishing’, of ‘giving birth’/‘begetting’, and of ‘killing’. It is argued that the primary indicative forms referring to the past belonging to these verbs do not stand for perfects, as is often suggested, but retain their specific value: they construe the designated events as somehow part of the speaker’s ‘immediate reality’. Specifically in the Oedipus,the present is used bythe protagonist and his co-operative interlocutors to highlight those facts that are crucial to Oedipus’ quest of finding out the killer’s, and with that his own, identity.

Acknowledgements

The research for this article was made possible by funding from the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), first through the Spinoza prize awarded to Ineke Sluiter, then through a PhD grant awarded to myself. I would like to thank Ineke Sluiter for supporting my research; Rutger Allan, Stefan Norbruis, and Kees Thijs for their useful comments on an early draft of this paper; and Patrick Finglass, Marlein van Raalte, Kees Thijs, Gary Vos, the anonymous referees for Philologus, and especially Bob Corthals for their many corrections and suggestions on the submitted version.

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Published Online: 2016-11-2
Published in Print: 2016-11-1

© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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