Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges

SIMPLE SENTENCES AND INDEPENDENT CLAUSES

[*] 2704. In wishes μή is used with the indicative (1780-1781) or the optative (1814, cp. 2156).

““εἴθε σε μήποτ᾽ εἰδόμα_ν” would that I had never seen thee” S. O. T. 1218, μήποτ᾽ ὤφελον λιπεῖν τὴν Σκῦρον would that I had never left Scyrus S. Ph 969.

““μὴ ζῴην” may I not live” Ar. Eq. 833, ““ἀναιδὴς οὔτ᾽ εἰμὶ μήτε γενοίμην” I neither am nor may I become shameless” D. 8.68, ““οὔτ᾽ ἂν δυναίμην μήτ᾽ ἐπισταίμην λέγειν” neither could I tell nor may I be capable of telling” S. Ant. 686.

a. That ὤφελον takes μή, not οὐ, shows that it has lost to a certain extent its verbal nature. In late Greek it even became a particle like εἴθε.

b. Indirect expressions of wishing with πῶς ἄν and the optative (1832), βουλοίμην ἄν (1827), ἐβουλόμην (ἄν) with the infinitive, take οὐ (1782, 1789).

c. The use is the same in dependent clauses; as ἐπειδὴ δ᾽ ἃ μήποτ᾽ ὤφελε (συμβῆναι) ““συνέβη” but when that happened which I would had never happened” D. 18.320.