This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[*] 402. When the protasis simply states a present or past particular supposition, implying nothing as to the fulfilment of the condition, it takes a present or past tense of the indicative with εἰ. Any form of the verb may stand in the apodosis to express the result if the condition is or was fulfilled. E.g. Εἰ ἐβρόντησε, καὶ ἤστραψεν, if it thundered, it also lightened. (This implies no opinion of the speaker as to the reality of the thunder.) Εἰ δ᾽ οὕτω τοῦτ᾽ ἐστὶν, ἐμοὶ μέλλει φίλον εἶναι. Il. i. 564. Εἰ τότε κοῦρος ἔα, νῦν αὖτέ με γῆρας ὀπάζει. Il. iv. 321. Εἰ μάλα καρτερός ἐσσι, θεός που σοὶ τό γ᾽ ἔδωκεν. Il. i. 178. Εἰ δὲ χρὴ καὶ πὰρ σοφὸν ἀντιφερίξαι, ἐρέω, but if I must match myself against the wise one, I will speak. PIND. Py. ix. 54. Εἰ θεοί τι δρῶσιν αἰσχρὸν, οὐκ εἰσὶν θεοί, if Gods do aught that is base, they are not Gods. EUR. Bell. Fr. 294. “Εἰ ἐγὼ Φαῖδρον ἀγνοῶ, καὶ ἐμαυτοῦ ἐπιλέλησμαι: ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐδέτερά ἐστι τούτων,” “if I do not know Phaedrus, I have forgotten myself; but neither of these is the case.” PLAT. Phaedr. 228 A. Εἰ μὲν (Ἀσκληπιὸς) θεοῦ ἦν, οὐκ ἦν αἰσχροκερδής: εἰ δ᾽ αἰσχροκερδὴς, οὐκ ἦν θεοῦ. Rep. 408C. Εἰ δὲ ἐκεῖνος ἀσθενέστερος ἦν, ἑαυτῷ τοῦ πάθους αἴτιον ἡγήσατο. DEM. xxiii. 54.
Macmillan. London, Melbourne, Toronto. 1889. reprint edition:. St. Martin's Press. New York. 1965.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.