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501.c) In most cases, however, the present indicative in the apodosis precedes, containing a general statement, and the optative adds a remote future condition where we should expect a general present supposition. E.g. Οὔ μοι θέμις ἔστ̓, οὐδ᾽ εἰ κακίων σέθεν ἔλθοι, ξεῖνον ἀτιμῆσαι, “it is not right for me—even supposing a more wretched man than you should come—to dishonour a stranger.” Od. xiv. 56. Θαρσαλέος γὰρ ἀνὴρ ἐν πᾶσιν ἀμείνων ἔργοισιν τελέθει, εἰ καί ποθεν ἄλλοθεν ἔλθοι. Od. vii. 51.So v. 484, Od. viii. 138; Il. ix. 318. Οὔτ᾽ οὖν ἀγγελίῃ ἔτι πείθομαι, εἴ ποθεν ἔλθοι, οὔτε θεοπροπίης ἐμπάζομαι, ἥν τινα μήτηρ ἐξερέηται, “neither do I any longer put trust in reports— should any one come—nor do I regard any divination which my mother may ask.” Od. i. 414. (Here the remoteness of the supposition in εἰ ἔλθοι is contrasted with the greater vividness of that expressed in ἐξερέηται). Δεινόν τ̓, εἴ κ᾽ ἐφ᾽ ἅμαξαν ὑπέρβιον ἄχθος ἀείρας ἄξονα καυκάξαις τὰ δὲ φόρτἰ ἀμαυρωθείη, it is hard, . . . supposing you should break your axle and your load should perish. HES. Op. 692. Κέρδος δὲ φίλτατον, ἑκόντος εἴ τις ἐκ δόμων φέροι, it is the dearest gain, if one should bring it from the house of a willing giver. PIND. Py. viii. 13. See Isth. ii. 33. So SOPH. Ant. 1032.

In most of these examples a general supposition with the subjunctive (or present indicative) in the protasis would have agreed more closely with the thought. If the protasis had preceded, so as to determine the character of the sentence, the apodosis would naturally have had the optative with κέ or ἄν, or some future form (as in the cases under a).

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