Dependent clauses (or subordinate clauses) are parts of sentences that contain their own internal logic (e.g., they have a conjugated verb with a subject), but they cannot stand on their own due to a conjunction or pronoun that begins the clause that makes the idea incomplete without the context of a main clause. Here’s an example:
The dependent clause in this sentence, “when the sun set”, begins with a subordinating conjunction, “when”, and has its own internal logic: a conjugated verb “set” with the subject “the sun.” However, if the full sentence consisted simply of:
we would be left wondering, what happened when the sun set? The idea is incomplete, and we need the context of the main or independent clause, “we ate dinner”, to form a full sentence. The dependent clause answers a question posed by the main clause or some element of the main clause, like “when did it happen?” or “which noun are we talking about?”
This unit will discuss two specific kinds of subordinate / dependent clauses in Greek: a temporal clause indicates when the action of a main verb occurs, and the relative clause functions adjectivally to give us more information about a noun, answering the question “which noun specifically are we discussing?”
A temporal clause, from the Latin tempus, “time”, indicates when the action of the main verb occurs in a circumstantial fashion. For example, in the sentence above, the temporal clause “when the sun set” answers the question, “when did we eat dinner?” We know that it’s a temporal clause due to the meaning of the subordinating conjunction that introduces the clause, “when”, and we can mark the beginning of the temporal clause at the conjunction.
A causal clause, from the Latin causa, “reason”, gives the reason why the action of the main verb occurs. For example, in the following sentence:
the dependent clause “because he was afraid” explains why the boy performed the action of leaving.
In Greek, the subordinating conjunction ἐπεί or ἐπειδή, “after, when, since”, introduces either a temporal or causal clause. When we see multiple conjugated verbs in a sentence, we have to ask how they are related and connected (i.e., what kinds of conjunctions are used?). When those connectors are coordinating (like καί or ἀλλά) or correlative (like καί/τε … καί/τε), then the verbs and clauses thus connected are main clauses and on the same level. When the connector is subordinating, however, like ἐπεί, we must realize that we are dealing with a subordinate clause or dependent clause that exists to give context to the main clause; the subordinate clause can’t stand by itself.
Thus, take a look at the following Greek example:
In this sentence, there are two conjugated verbs: ἀφῆκεν and ἔβλεψεν. When we look before each verb, the only conjunction that we see in the sentence is ἐπεί, which will govern whatever verb comes after it (and whatever else attends that verb). When we note that our sentence contains a dependent clause, we have to understand where the dependent clause begins and ends. We have to understand what belongs to the dependent clause and what belongs to the main clause so that we don’t, e.g., pull the main verb into the dependent clause or attribute an adjective of the dependent clause to a noun of the main clause.
In general, a dependent clause:
With these criteria in mind, we can mark the beginning and end of our temporal clause with brackets as follows:
Thus, we can see where the temporal clause begins and ends and work with the main clause and the dependent clause separately. In the main clause (outside of the brackets), we have a structure with an aorist active verb: “The boy sent the horses away from the road.” The ἐπεί clause, then, adds some more information and answers a question posed by the main clause: when did the boy perform that action? He sent the horses away when he saw them (αὐτούς takes τοὺς ἵππους as its antecedent, since both are masculine plural).