This text is part of:
[*] 93. In a few passages of Homer the aorist subjunctive with μή seems to express a similar fear that something may prove to have already happened; as “δείδοικα μή σε παρείπῃ,” “I fear it may prove that she persuaded you,” Il. i. 555. So Il. x. 98, “μὴ κοιμήσωνται ἄταρ λάθωνται” , and x. 538, “δείδοικα μή τι πάθωσι” , I fear lest it may prove that they have met some harm. The reference to the past here cannot come from any past force of the aorist subjunctive itself, but is probably an inference drawn from the context. As the later language would use a perfect subjunctive in such cases, these aorists seem to be instances of an earlier laxity of usage, like the use of ἀπόλοιτό κε for both would have perished and would perish (440). In Il. x. 537 there is a similar case of the aorist optative in a wish: αἲ γὰρ δὴ ὧδ᾽ ἄφαρ ἐκ Τρώων ἐλασαίατο μώνυχας ἵππους, i.e. may it prove that they have driven the horses away from the Trojans (95).
Macmillan. London, Melbourne, Toronto. 1889. reprint edition:. St. Martin's Press. New York. 1965.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.