This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[*] 192. The adverb ἄν (with the epic κέ, Doric κά) has two uses, which must be distinguished. 1. In one use, it denotes that the action of the verb to which it is joined is dependent upon some condition, expressed or implied. This is its force with the secondary tenses of the indicative, and with the optative, infinitive, and participle: with these it belongs strictly to the verb, to which it gives a potential force, like our would. 2. In its other use, it is joined regularly to εἰ, if, to relative and temporal words, and sometimes to the final particles ὡς, ὅπως, and ὄφρα, when any of these are followed by the subjunctive. Here, although as an adverb it qualifies the verb, it is so closely connected with the relative or particle, that it often coalesces with it, forming ἐάν, ἤν, α?ν ὅταν, ὁπόταν, ἐπειδάν, ἐπάν or ἐπήν (Ionic ἐπεάν). These statements include only the constructions which are in good use in Attic Greek. For the epic use of κέ or ἄν with the subjunctive in a potential sense (as with the optative) see 201, 1; for κέ or ἄν with the future indicative see 196.
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.