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407.Future Indicative in Present Suppositions.) Even the future indicative with εἰ may be used in a present condition, if it expresses merely a present intention or necessity that something shall be done hereafter; as when εἰ τοῦτο ποιήσει means if he is (now) about to do this, and not (as it does in an ordinary future condition) if he shall do this (hereafter). E.g. Αἶρε πλῆκτρον, εἰ μαχεῖ, raise your spur, if you are going to fight. AR. Av. 759. (Εἰ μαχεῖ in protasis commonly means if you shall fight, like ἐὰν μάχῃ.) νῦν ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ ἀνὴρ, αὕτη δ᾽ ἀνὴρ, εἰ ταῦτ᾽ ἀνατὶ τῇδε κείσεται κράτη, i.e. if this is to pass unpunished. SOPH. Ant. 484. Τί διαφέρουσι τῶν ἐξ ἀνάγκης κακοπαθούντων, εἴ γε πεινήσουσι καὶ διψήσουσι καὶ ῥιγώσουσι καὶ ἀγρυπνήσουσι καὶ τἄλλα πάντα μοχθήσουσιν ἑκόντες; how do they differ, etc., if they are to suffer hunger, thirst, etc.? XEN. Mem. ii. 1, 17. So εἰ πόλεμός τε δαμᾷ καὶ λοιμὸς Ἀχαιούς, if both war and pestilence are to lay the Achaeans low, Il. i. 61; and εἰ διαβληθήσομαι, if I am to be slandered, EUR. Hec. 863.In Il. v. 715, ῤ̔ ἅλιον τὸν μῦθον ὑπέστημεν Μενελάῳ, . . . εἰ οὕτω μαίνεσθαι ἐάσομεν οὖλον Ἀρῆα, vain is the word we pledged, if we are to permit, etc., the verb of the apodosis is past, showing that the condition is not future.

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