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462. In present or past general suppositions, the apodosis expresses a customary or repeated action or a general truth in present or past time, and the protasis refers in a general way to any act or acts of a given class. Here the protasis has the subjunctive with ἐάν after present tenses, and the optative with εἰ after past tenses. The apodosis has the present or imperfect indicative, or some other form which implies repetition. E.g. Ἢν ἐγγὺς ἔλθῃ θάνατος, οὐδεὶς βούλεται θνῄσκειν, if (or when) death comes near, no one is (ever) willing to die. EUR. Alc. 671. Ἢν μὲν ἅδῃ καὶ νήφουσι, χρέωνται αὐτῷ: ἢν δὲ μὴ ἅδῃ, μετιεῖσι. HDT. i. 133. Διατελεῖ μισῶν, οὐκ ἤν τίς τι αὐτὸν ἀδικῇ, ἀλλ᾽ ἐάν τινα ὑποπτεύσῃ βελτίονα ἑαυτοῦ εἶναι, he continues to hate, not if any one wrongs him, but if he ever suspects that any one is better than himself. XEN. Cyr. v. 4, 35. Ἅπας λόγος, ἂν ἀπῇ τὰ πράγματα, μάταιόν τι φαίνεται καὶ κενόν, all speech, if deeds are wanting, appears mere emptiness and vanity. DEM. ii. 12. Ἐὰν δὲ δόξῃ τὰ δίκαια ἐγκαλεῖν καὶ ἕλῃ τὸν δεδρακότα τοῦ φόνου, οὐδ᾽ οὕτω κύριος γίγνεται τοῦ ἁλόντος. Id. xxiii. 69 (so 74, Id. 75, Id. 76).

Ἀλλ᾽ εἴ τι μὴ φέροιμεν, ὤτρυνεν φέρειν, but if we ever stopped bringing him food, he always urged us to bring it. EUR. Alc. 755. Εἴ τις ἀντείποι, εὐθὺς τεθνήκει, if any one objected, he was a dead man at once (52). THUC. viii. 66. Εἴ τινα πυνθάνοιτο ὑβρίζοντα, τοῦτον ἐδικαίευ. HDT. i. 100. Εἰ δέ τινας θορυβουμένους αἴσθοι- το, τὸ αἴτιον τούτου σκοπῶν κατασβεννύναι τὴν ταραχὴν ἐπειρᾶτο, whenever he saw any making a disturbance, he always tried, etc. XEN. Cyr. v. 3, 55. Οὐκ ἀπελείπετο ἔτι αὐτοῦ, εἰ μή τι ἀναγκαῖον εἴη, he never left him, unless there was some necessity for it. Id. Mem. iv. 2, Id. Mem. 40. Ἦν τοῖς μὲν ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐπικούρημα τῆς χιόνος, εἴ τις μέλαν τι ἔχων πρὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν πορεύοιτο, τῶν δὲ ποδῶν εἴ τις κινοῖτο. Id. An. iv. 5, Id. An. 13. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ εἶδον αὐτὸν τάχιστα, συλλαβόντες ἄγουσιν ἄντικρυς ὡς ἀποκτενοῦντες, οὗπερ καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἀπέσφαττον εἴ τινα λῃστὴν κακοῦργον συλλάβοιεν, i.e. where they had been in the habit of killing any others whom they took. LYS. xiii. 78.

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    • William Watson Goodwin, Commentary on Demosthenes: On the Crown, 43
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