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[*] 417. These are all originally expressions of past necessity, obligation, etc., involving no reference to any condition (unfulfilled or otherwise); and in this sense they may always be used, as in DEM. xix. 124, ἔδει μένειν, he was obliged to stay (and did stay), and HDT. i. 8, χρῆν γὰρ Κανδαύλῃ γενέσθαι κακῶς, for C. was doomed to fall into trouble. It is only by idiomatic usage that the denial of the action of the infinitive comes to be implied in them, and that a past tense comes to express present time, both of which characteristics are found in Greek, Latin, and English; as ἔδει σε αὐτὸν φιλεῖν, debebas eum colere, you ought to love him (but you do not), ought being the past of owe. The infinitive is felt to be negatived, even when the negative belongs to the leading verb.
Macmillan. London, Melbourne, Toronto. 1889. reprint edition:. St. Martin's Press. New York. 1965.
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