Abstract
Although the aorist is traditionally defined as a temporal stem, its function in the Greek verbal system is primarily aspectual: it corresponds to the cross-linguistic category of perfective aspect, by representing the event as a single whole. The indicative also has a temporal meaning, in being a past tense, whereas the non-indicative moods only have an aspectual function.
The aorist is one of the so-called temporal stems of the Greek verbal system (Aorist Formation, Aorist (aóristos), Ancient Theories of). However, its functio…