Gnomic Aspect - Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

In Ancient Greek, a general truth may be expressed in the future, present imperfective, or aorist, which are called in these cases the gnomic present, the gnomic future, and the gnomic aorist. There is also a gnomic perfect. These are not distinct tenses, but simply uses of the tense.

A gnomic future, the rarest of the three usages, similarly states that certain events often occur, and does not imply that an event is going to occur. A gnomic aorist (the most common of the three usages) likewise expresses the tendency for certain events to occur under given circumstances and is used to express general maxims. The gnomic aorist is thought to derive (as the English example does) from the summation of a common story (such as the moral of a fable).

Perhaps in imitation of Greek conventions, Latin sometimes uses a gnomic perfect.