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2668. After verbs of saying, knowing, seeing, making known, perceiving, etc. (but not after verbs of asking) the simple relatives are found where the indefinite relatives (or the interrogatives) might stand in an indirect question. Where ὅς is so used, it has the force of οἷος (cp. qualis in such questions); and rarely follows a negative clause, because verbs denoting lack of knowledge are allied in meaning to verbs of asking. The usual forms are e.g. οἶδά σε ὃς εἶ and οὐκ οἶδά σε ὅστις εἶ. But we find οἶδά σε ὅστις εἶ and οὐκ οἶδά σε ὃς εἶ. Thus, ““πέμπει . . . εἰπὼν ὃς ἦνhe sends . . . telling who he wasX. C. 6.1.46 (here ἦν represents the point of view of the writer), ““ἐκέλευσε . . . δεῖξαι ὃς εἴηhe ordered him to explain who he wasD. 52.7, μήποτε γνοίης ὃς εἶ mayest thou never come to know who thou art S. O. T. 1068, ὁρᾷς ἡμᾶς, ὅσοι ἐσμέν; do you see how many there are of us? P. R. 327c. So with the adverbs ἔνθα, οὗ, , ὡς, ὅθεν; as ““τὴν ὁδὸν ὁδὸν ἔφραζεν εἴηhe told where the road wasX. A. 4.5.34. In some cases these sentences may be exclamatory (2685).

a. That the simple relatives are never thus used after verbs of asking indicates that such clauses are not true indirect questions (as in Latin), and that the pronouns have their value as relatives. But some scholars allow an indirect question after all these words except ὅς; and others admit no such limitation.

b. Only in late Greek are the pronouns or adverbs of the indirect form used in direct questions.

c. ὅπως is used occasionally (often in poetry) in the sense of ὡς. Thus, μή μοι φράζ᾽ ὅπως οὐκ εἶ κακός tell me not that (lit. how) thou art not vile S. O. T. 548.

d. The context must sometimes determine whether a sentence is an indirect question or a relative clause. Thus, without the context, οὐκ εἶχον ὅποι ἀποσταῖεν (X. H. 3.5.10) might mean they did not know to whom ( = ἠγνόουν πρὸς τίνας) to revolt or they had no allies to whom ( = πρὸς οὕς) to revolt. But the present or aorist optative in relative final clauses is rare; cp. 2554 c.

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