21.5 It is tempting, as English speakers, to think of the ACTIVE and PASSIVE VOICE as opposing poles, between which is located the MIDDLE VOICE. Certainly, the English terminology for the three voices suggests this conception. It is important to understand, however, that the fundamental dichotomy for Greeks was between ACTIVE and MIDDLE.
21.6 Greek originally inflected verbs to indicate ACTIVE and MIDDLE VOICES. As the need for the PASSIVE VOICE emerged, Classical and Koine Greek used the MIDDLE VOICE forms of the verb to represent also the PASSIVE VOICE (S 1735). This makes sense, when we realize that the difference between the MIDDLE and PASSIVE could at times be almost indistinguishable for Greeks.
Consider, for example, the following pairs of sentences:
- He mows his lawn. (middle voice).
- He has his lawn mowed by the neighbor. (passive voice).
- Socrates gets hit with a rock. (middle voice).
- Socrates got hit by us with a rock. (passive voice).
- The cup breaks. (middle voice).
- Cups keep getting broken by him. (passive voice).
21.7 Consequently, while all the Greek verbs in this chapter are parsed – and almost always translated – in the MIDDLE voice, they can occasionally be translated with an English PASSIVE when context demands. One clue to identifying a PASSIVE use of a middle form is to look for ὑπό followed by a genitive; when modifying a passive verb, this construction is called the GENITIVE OF AGENT.
Note the following examples:
- τὸ βιβλίον ὑπὸ τοῦ ποιητοῦ γράφεται
- The book is being written by the poet.
- αἱ πόλεις ὑπὸ τῶν Περσῶν λύονται.
- The cities are being destroyed by the Persians…