ἄρχεσθαι (archesthai)

ἄρχεσθαι is an Ancient Greek form of ἄρχω, meaning “to begin; to rule, lead”. It is the present middle/passive infinitive.

Found 262 times in the Ancient Greek texts on Socratos.

Where it is used

Diogenes Laertius, Vitae philosophorum 1.2.57: … ῇ, θάνατον εἶναι τὴν ζημίαν. Τά τε Ὁμήρου ἐξ ὑποβολῆς γέγραφε ῥαψῳδεῖσθαι, οἷον ὅπου ὁ πρῶτος ἔληξεν, ἐκεῖθεν ἄρχεσθαι τὸν ἐχόμενον. μᾶλλον οὖν Σόλων Ὅμηρον ἐφώτισεν ἢ Πεισίστρατος, ὥς φησι Διευχίδας ἐν πέμπτῳ Μεγαρικῶν. ἦν δὲ μ …

Plato, Phaedo 80: … ἶναι καὶ πότερον τῷ θνητῷ; ἢ οὐ δοκεῖ σοι τὸ μὲν θεῖον οἷον ἄρχειν τε καὶ ἡγεμονεύειν πεφυκέναι, τὸ δὲ θνητὸν ἄρχεσθαί τε καὶ δουλεύειν; ἔμοιγε. ποτέρῳ οὖν ἡ ψυχὴ ἔοικεν; δῆλα δή, ὦ Σώκρατες, ὅτι ἡ μὲν ψυχὴ τῷ θείῳ, τὸ δὲ σῶμα τ …

Aesop, Fables 41: … έοντα, θηρᾶν ἀντὶ τοῦ μηνύειν ᾑρεῖτο. Καὶ πειρωμένη ποίμνης τι λαβεῖν, κατέστη πρώτη τοῖς θηρῶσιν εἰς θήραμα. Ἄρχεσθαι μᾶλλον ἀσφαλῶς ἄμεινον, ἤ κρατεῖν σφαλερῶς.

All forms of ἄρχω (conjugation table)

Source: Socratos (socratos.org), a free reader for Ancient Greek and Latin. Grammar from the Perseus Treebank and Morpheus; dictionary entries from Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA). Counts are from the texts on Socratos.