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2078. The participle of a personal verb may be used absolutely if it is preceded by ὡς or ὥσπερ. Thus, ηὔχετο πρὸς τοὺς θεοὺς τἀ_γαθὰ διδόναι, ὡς τοὺς θεοὺς κάλλιστα εἰδότας ὁποῖα ἀγαθά ἐστι (Socrates) prayed to the gods that they would give him good things, in the belief that the gods know best what sort of things are good X. M. 1.3.2, ““σιωπῇ ἐδείπνουν, ὤσπερ τοῦτο προστεταγμένον αὐτοῖς” they were supping in silence just as if this had been enjoined upon them” X. S. 1. 11.

a. Cases without ὡς or ὥσπερ are rare. Thus, ““δόξαντα ὑ_μῖν ταῦτα εἵλεσθε ἄνδρας εἴκοσι” on reaching this conclusion you chose twenty men” And. 1.81; cp. δόξαν ταῦτα X. A. 4.1.13 (by analogy to ἔδοξε ταῦτα) and δοξάντων τούτων X. H. 1.7.30. Neuter participles so used come chiefly from impersonal verbs, but T. 4.125 has κυ_ρωθὲν οὐδὲν οἱ Μακεδόνες ἐχώρουν ἐπ᾽ οἴκου the Macedonians proceeded homewards, nothing having been accomplished. The neuter subject is a pronoun, very rarely a substantive (I. 5.12).

American Book Company, 1920.

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