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399. The regular types of the conditional sentence, which are given above (390-395) as they appear in Attic prose, have been mainly sifted from a rich variety of forms which are found in earlier Greek. In Homer we have all tenses of the indicative used as in Attic Greek, except that the imperfect has not yet come to express an unreal present condition, but is still confined to the past. The future indicative sometimes has κέ in protasis, and the future with κέ or ἄν can stand in apodosis. The subjunctive in protasis can have εἴ κε (even εἰ ἄν), ἤν, or εἰ alone; and it can stand in a future apodosis either alone or with ἄν or κέ (like the optative). The optative sometimes has εἴ κε in protasis, and occasionally stands in apodosis without ἄν or κέ. Once we find εἴ κε with the aorist indicative ( Il. xxiii. 526).

Thus, while we have in Attic prose two stereotyped forms of future conditional sentences, ἐὰν (ἢν, α?νδῷ, ἑλοῦμαι and εἰ δοίη, ἑλοίμην ἄν, we have in Homer ἢν δῷ, εἴ κε δῷ, εἰ δῷ, and εἰ δοίη, εἴ κε δοίη, in protasis; and ἑλοῦμαι, ἑλοῦμαί κε, ἕλωμαι, ἕλωμαί κε, and ἑλοίμην κε (or ἄν), rarely ἑλοίμην alone, in apodosis; with every variety of combination of these. (For the details and examples, see 450-454 and 460.)

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