William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb

---

[*] 674. 1. In Homer, where clauses with ὅτι, ὡς, etc. are not yet constructed on the principles of indirect discourse (see 671), a present or perfect of the direct form appears as an imperfect or pluperfect in these clauses after past tenses. E.g. Οὐδέ τι ᾔδη ὅττι δηιόωντο λαοί. Il. xiii. 674 (here the present optative or indicative would be regular in Attic Greek). Ἐπόρουσε, γιγνώσκων ὅ οἱ αὐτὸς ὑπείρεχε χεῖρας Ἀπόλλων (later ὑπερέχοι or ὑπερέχει). Il. v. 433. Οὐ γάρ οἵ τις ἤγγειλ᾽ ὅττι ῥά οἱ πόσις ἔκτοθι μίμνε πυλάων. Il. xxii. 438.See Od. xxiv. 182; and iii. 166, discussed in 671.

2. We sometimes find the imperfect and pluperfect with ὅτι or ὡς representing the present or perfect of the direct form after past tenses, even in Attic Greek. In such cases the context always makes it clear that the tense represented is not an imperfect or pluperfect (672). E.g. Ἐν πολλῇ ἀπορίᾳ ἦσαν οἱ Ἕλληνες, ἐννοούμενοι μὲν ὅτι ἐπὶ ταῖς βασιλέως θύραις ἦσαν, κύκλῳ δὲ αὐτοῖς πόλεις πολέμιαι ἦσαν, ἀγορὰν δὲ οὐδεὶς ἔτι παρέξειν ἔμελλεν, ἀπεῖχον δὲ τῆς Ἑλλάδος οὐ μεῖον ἢ μύρια στάδια, προὐδεδώκεσαν δὲ αὐτοὺς καὶ οἱ βάρβαροι, μόνοι δὲ καταλελειμμένοι ἦσαν οὐδὲ ἱππέα οὐδένα σύμμαχον ἔχοντες, the Greeks thought: We are at the king's gates; hostile cities surround us; no one will supply us a market; we are not less than ten thousand stades from Greece; the barbarians have betrayed us, and we have been left alone. XEN. An. iii. 1, 2. (The direct forms would be the present and perfect indicative.) “Διὰ τὸν χθιζινὸν ἄνθρωπον, ὃς ἡμᾶς διεδύετ᾽, ἐξαπατῶν καὶ λέγων ὡς φιλαθήναιος ἦν καὶ τἀν Σάμῳ πρῶτος κατείποι,” “i.e. saying φιλαθήναιός εἰμι καὶ τἀν Σάμῳ πρῶτος κατεῖπον.” AR. Vesp. 283. (Here εἰμί is changed to ἦν, not to εἴη or ἐστί: κατεῖπον could be changed only to κατείποι.)

3. In such cases the more thorough incorporation of the dependent clause which is required to make the oratio obliqua complete is wanting, and the clause stands in the loose relation in which, for example, causal sentences usually stand to their leading verb (see 715). For the same incomplete oratio obliqua in dependent clauses of a quotation, see 691 and 701.