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476.Εἰ μή.) Εἰ μή is used without a verb in various expressions to introduce an exception.

1. With nouns and adjectives. E.g. Τίς γάρ τοι Ἀχαιῶν ἄλλος ὁμοῖος, εἰ μὴ Πάτροκλος; who is like to you, except (unless it be) Patroclus? Il. xvii. 475.See Il. xviii. 192, Il. xxiii. 792; Od. xii. 325, Od. xvii. 383.Such expressions are like the simple εἰ τό γ᾽ ἄμεινον, if this is better, Il. i. 116; εἰ ἐτεόν περ, Il. xiv. 125; εἴ περ ἀνάγκη, Il. xxiv. 667.

2. With participles. E.g. “Εἰ μὴ κρεμάσας τὸ νόημα,” “i.e. I could never have done it, except by suspending thought.” AR. Nub. 229. So οὐδέν ποτ᾽ εἰ μὴ ξυνθανουμένην, AESCH. Ag. 1139; εἰ μὴ καταδύσαντες, THUC. vii. 38; ἐὰν μὴ τῆς ἀδείας δοθείσης, DEM. xxiv. 46.

3. In the expression εἰ μὴ διὰ τοῦτο (or τοῦτον). E.g. Καὶ εἰ μὴ διὰ τὸν πρύτανιν, ἐνέπεσεν ἄν, and, had it not been for the Prytanis, he would have been thrown in. PLAT. Gorg. 516E. (Compare διά γε ὑμᾶς, DEM. xviii. 49, quoted in 472.) Οὐ γὰρ ὡς εἰ μὴ διὰ Λακεδαιμονίους, οὐδ᾽ ὡς εἰ μὴ Πρόξενον οὐχ ὑπεδέξαντο, οὐδ᾽ ὡς εἰ μὴ δἰ Ἡγήσιππον, οὐδ᾽ ὡς εἰ μὴ διὰ τὸ καὶ τὸ, ἐσώθησαν ἂν οἱ Φωκεῖς, οὐχ οὕτω τότε ἀπήγγειλεν, for he did not then report that if it had not been for the Lacedaemonians, or if they had not refused to receive Proxenus, or if it had not been for Hegesippus, or if it had not been for this and that, the Phocians would have been saved. DEM. xix. 74.

4. In the rare expression εἰ μὴ εἰ, except if, except in case that. E.g.

χρηματιστικὸς τὴν τοῦ τιμᾶσθαι ἡδονὴν τὴν τοῦ μανθάνειν οὐδενὸς ἀξίαν φήσει εἶναι, εἰ μὴ εἴ τι αὐτῶν ἀργύριον ποιεῖ, the money-maker will say that the pleasure of receiving honour or that of learning is not worth anything, unless (it is worth something) in case either of them produces money. PLAT. Rep. 581D. In Prot. 351C,ἐγὼ γὰρ λέγω, καθ᾽ ἡδέα ἐστὶν, ἆρα κατὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἀγαθὰ, μὴ εἴ τι ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν ἀποβήσεται ἄλλο;—for I ask this: so far as they are pleasant, are they not just so far good, without taking into account any other result (i.e. other than their pleasantness) which may come from them?μή is not a mistake for εἰ μή, but it seems to imply a conditional participle like ὑπολογιζόμενος (though no precise word can be supplied), very much as μὴ ὅτι and μὴ ὅπως imply a verb of saying (707). The meaning clearly is, Are not things good just so far as they are pleasant, if we take no account of any other (i.e. unpleasant) element in them? This sense would hardly be found in the emended reading εἰ μή τι. In THUC. i. 17 the Cod. Vat.reads εἰ μή τι, although εἰ μὴ εἴ τι can be understood as in PLAT. Rep. 581 D (above).

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