[*] 272. Periphrastic future with me/llw, In very common use is the periphrastic future with “μέλλω”, I am thinking (compare the use of penser in French), I expect, I am about, I am (destined) to. As a verb of thinking, “μέλλω” takes the typical future, but also the present, seldom the aorist and then to make a special point. Whatever difference there may have originally been between the present and the future, has been abraded. Sometimes there seems to be a conscious interval with the future, but the distinction vanishes and authors vary. The imperfect of the “μέλλω”-periphrastic may be called the future of the past, and it plays an important part in a large class of sentences.
Syntax of Classical Greek from Homer to Demosthenes. Basil L. Gildersleeve. New York. American Book Company. 1900.
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