506 The student must observe, that as av is the antecedent of el, when such an indefinite antecedent requires to be expressed, and both ἄν and τις of ὅs, we may write ἐάν=εἰ ἄν and ὃς ἄν, οι ὅστις, οι ὅστις ἄν if we wish to express the English “whensoever" or "whosoever," in regard to the present or future apodosis, that is, in those cases when these indefinite antecedents are not expressed in the apodosis. 507 The following is the general rule respecting the use of åv (ke, kev) in the formation of conditional propositions. (1) With the optative av is always used in the apodosis, seldom, if ever, in the protasis. (2) The subjunctive never stands in the apodosis, but always in the protasis, and is generally attended by av. With regard to the former of these rules, it is to be observed that a complete hypothetical proposition with its apodosis may be occasionally included in the sentence with e, and in this case av may be used with the included apodosis. Thus in Demosth. Mid. p. 582, ad fin.: εἰ οὗτοι, χρήματα ἔχοντες, μὴ πρόοιντ' ἄν, there is an included protasis in the participle exovtes, and the sentence involved is εἰ οὗτοι χρήματα ἔχοιεν, οὐκ ἂν πρόοιντο, so that the full meaning is as follows: "if they, on the supposition that they had money, would not part with it." Similarly in Isocr. Archid. p. 120, ad fin. : εἰ μηδεὶς ἂν ὑμῶν ἀξιώσειε ζῆν ἀποστεροίμevos tĤs πaτpídos, "if no one of you, on the supposition that he was deprived of his country would, on that supposition, think it worth while to live." With regard to the latter rule, we shall see that this does not apply to the Homeric use of the subjunctive mood (below, 513). 508 (a) In the apodosis av is always placed after the word which produces the greatest influence on the predication, which gives its colour to the sentence, and which therefore comes nearest to the notion of an antecedent. It is therefore attracted to negatives, superlatives, demonstrative pronouns, interrogatives, and verbs of thinking. Thus we should write: εἴποι ἄν. ταῦτ ̓ ἂν εἴποι. μάλιστ ̓ ἂν εἴποι ταῦτα. οὐκ ἂν μάλιστα εἴποι ταῦτα. ἐδόκουν ἂν ἐμοὶ ταῦτα μάλιστα εἰπεῖν. H οὐκ ἂν ἐδόκουν ἐμοὶ ταῦτα μάλιστα εἰπεῖν. τί οὖν ἂν ἐδόκουν σοὶ μάλιστα εἰπεῖν; As a result of this rule respecting the position of av, it may be repeated when there is more than one emphatic word in the sentence. This is particularly the case with the negative, and there are instances in which the repetition follows immediately, as Eurip. Troad. 456: οὐκέτ ̓ ἂν φθάνοις ἄν; Id. Heracl. 721: φθάνοις δ ̓ ἂν οὐκ ἄν; Arist. Lys. 361: φωνὴν ἂν οὐκ ἂν εἶχον. And we may have a double repetition in the same sentence, as in Eurip. Andr. 916: οὐκ ἂν ἔν γ' ἐμοῖς δόμοις βλέπουσ ̓ ἂν αὐγὰς τἄμ' ἐκαρποῦτ ̓ ἂν λέχη; Id. Troad. 1233: ἀφανεῖς ἂν ὄντες οὐκ ἂν ὑμνηθεῖμεν ἂν Μούσαις. When a participle appears in these passages, the student must be on his guard against the error, into which some inaccurate scholars have fallen, of supposing that the repeated av belongs to this form of the verb. For example, the first av belongs, like the second, to the finite verb or infinitive which follows in Soph. d. Τ. 446 : συθείς τ ̓ ἂν οὐκ ἂν ἀλγύναις πλέον. Herod. VII. 139 : ὁρῶντες ἂν ἐχρήσαντο ἄν. Thucyd. VI. 18: νομίσατε τό τε φαῦλον καὶ τὸ μέσον καὶ τὸ πάνυ ἀκριβὲς ἂν ξυγκραθὲν μάλιστ ̓ ἂν ἰσχύειν. On the other hand av is omitted in the apodosis, when it is. easily supplied from a parallel sentence, as in Æsch. Agam. 1049: πείθοι ἄν, εἰ πείθοι, ἀπειθοίης δ ̓ ἴσως. Xen. Hier. 11, § 11: οὐ μόνον φιλοῖ ̓ ἄν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐρῷο ὑπ ̓ ἀνθρώπων. (b) In the protasis av always follows the relative word, which expresses the condition, such as os, oπws, ws, &c. (above, 503); and it coalesces with εἰ, ὅτε, ἐπειδή, which become ἐάν, ὅταν, ἐπειδάν, &c. These combinations are always followed by the subjunctive mood; whence the rule for beginners: Relativa et particulæ relativæ cum av subjunctivum exigunt. § III. General Rules respecting the Use of the Moods in 509 In the Attic writers it is only the indicative mood which can, without the aid of the indefinite antecedent av, form the apodosis of a conditional proposition. Of course, it is only this mood which can stand by itself in a categorical proposition. 510 Only the indicative and optative, assisted by åv, can form the apodosis of a conditional proposition, and, with very rare and doubtful exceptions, av is used only with past tenses of the indicative. In the passages quoted by the grammarians as instances of the use of av with the future indicative (Xen. Cyr. VII. 5, § 21; IV. 5, 49; Thucyd. 1. 140; Plat. Phæd. p. 61 c; Crito, p. 53 c; Resp. p. 615 D; Eurip. Andr. 464; Dinarch. in Dem. § 111), the best modern editors have either omitted the av or changed the future into the optative. 511 The other moods and the participles belong to the protasis or to the adverbial sentence; except that the participle and infinitive may be converted into subjects by prefixing the article (above, 400, (a), b, c), and that the participle may form the primary predicate of a sentence (above, 420), and the infinitive or participle may express the apodosis of a condition (505). 512 It is the practice in most treatises on Greek syntax to discuss the uses of the moods according to their conjugational subdivisions. This is false in theory and mischievous in practice. The functions of a mood should be separately stated with reference to the different kinds of sentences in which they may appear. An examination, however, of the use of the moods in conditional propositions, amounts, in effect, to a general discussion of their distinctive employments. § IV. The Subjunctive and Optative in Conditional Propositions. 513 It has been already remarked (292), that these moods are by-forms of the future and aorist. The subjunctive was originally a determinate tense, like the future, and signified "the probable occurrence of something after the time of speaking" (422, (a)). The optative, as an aorist, signified "the probable occurrence of something after the time specified" (422, (B)). Thus, in Homer, we find these forms used as tenses in categorical predications. (a) The subjunctive opposed to the aorist: οὐ γάρ πω τοίους ἴδον ἄνερας, οὐδὲ ἴδωμαι (ΙΙ. Ι. 262), i.e. "for I have not yet seen such men, nor is it probable that I shall behold such men hereafter." 1 (b) The optative parallel with the aorist: ὁ δὲ χερμάδιον λάβε χειρί, Τυδείδης, μέγα ἔργον, ὃ οὐ δύω ἄνδρε φέροιεν i.e. "he, Tydeides, took up a great stone, which it is not probable that men of our time would take up, if similar circumstances were to occur." This categorical or apodotic use of the optative without av is common not only in Homer, but in Pindar (see Ol. III. fin., IX. 80, x. fin.; Pyth. IV. 118, x. 21) and the bucolic poets (see Theocr. VIII. 20; Mosch. III. 108). 514 With this signification of probability is intimately connected the implied ground of such probability, namely, frequent occurrence; insomuch that in later Attic Greek the adverb ToλMáris, "often," is used in a protasis to signify "perchance" or "probably," i. e. "as often happens" (Heindorf, ad Plat. Phæd. p. 19). Hence we find, that, in the protasis of conditional propositions, the subjunctive, preceded by the conditional words and av (506), and the optative without av (507), presume a repetition or frequency of occurrence. If the subjunctive is followed by its cognate tense the future, we have seen that the conditional proposition looks to a probable result; if the optative is followed by another optative with av, we have a mere supposition (499): ἳ ἂν ' ἔχῃ, δώσει, exp, doe, "whatever he shall have, or as often as he ἐάν τι shall have anything, he will give it." εἴ τι exoi, didoin av, “whatever he might have, or as often as he had anything, he would give it." But if the continuous present and past tenses are used in the apodosis, the implication of frequency is more strongly marked: οὓς ἂν ἐάν τινας οὓς εἴ τινας } ἴδῃ, ἐπαινεῖ, ion, éπaiveî, "whomsoever he sees, as often as he sees them, he praises." [idoi, éπývei, “whomsoever he saw, as often as he saw them, he praised." Where the present tense presumes the fact, the imperfect as sumes it. 515 If in this last case the frequency of action requires a more distinct reference to the condition, the antecedent av may be appended to the imperfect indicative, to the frequentative in -σKOV (331, 351), and even to the aorist indicative; thus we may write, with nearly the same signification : εἴ τινας οὓς } ἴδοι, ἐπῄνει ἐπῄνεσεν ἄν When the apodosis alone appears, the student will generally find it easy to supply from the context the frequentative protasis. 516 Both the subjunctive and optative may appear in the protasis without any expression of the apodosis, and often without any relative word. Their signification in this usage is in strict accordance with their original meaning,-namely, the subjunctive commands or deliberates concerning that which is present: the optative wishes or prays that something may become present. (α) σπεύδωμεν, ἐγκονῶμεν· ἡγοῦ μοι, γέρον (Eurip. Hec. 505), "let us hasten, let us make all speed; lead me on, old man." Interrogatively: εἴπωμεν ἢ σιγώμεν; ἢ τί δράσομεν; (Id. Ion, 758), "must we speak, or hold our peace? or what shall we do ?” (b) Without ei: ὦ παῖ, γένοιο πατρὸς εὐτυχέστερος, τὰ δ ̓ ἄλλ ̓ ὅμοιος· καὶ γένοι ̓ ἂν οὐ κακός (Soph. Aj. 550), "my son, mightest thou be more fortunate than thy father, but like him in all other respects, and then thou wouldest not be a bad man.' With ei or ὡς : εἴ μοι γένοιτο φθόγγος ἐν βραχίοσι (Eurip. Hec. 830), "Oh! if I had a voice in my arms!" ὡς ὁ τάδε πορὼν ἔλοιτο (Soph. Electr. 126), "Oh! that he who has done these things were destroyed!” |