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633.Attic Poets.) Aeschylus has one example, after a negative: οὐκ ἦν ἀλέξημ᾽ οὐδὲν, ἀλλὰ φαρμάκων χρείᾳ κατεσκέλλοντο, πρίν γ᾽ ἐγώ σφισιν ἔδειξα κράσεις ἠπίων ἀκεσμάτων, until I showed them, etc., Prom. 479. So likewise Aristophanes: πρότερον δ᾽ οὐκ ἦν γένος ἀθανάτων, πρὶν ἔρως ξυνέμιξεν ἅπαντα, Av. 700.Sophocles has one, after an affirmative: “ἠγόμην δ᾽ ἀνὴρ ἀστῶν μέγιστος, πρίν μοι τύχη τοιάδ᾽ ἐπέστη,” “until this fortune befell me,” O. T. 775 . Euripides has seven examples, all (according to Sturm) after affirmatives, as follows:—

Ἐν εὐδίᾳ δέ πως ἔστη, πρὶν δή τις ἐφθέγξατο. And. 1145. Ἄφρων νεός τ᾽ ἦν, πρὶν ἐσεῖδον οἷον ἦν, I was a witless youth, until I saw, etc. I. A. 489 (where there is a negative force in ἄφρων). Ἀνω- λόλυξε, πρίν γ᾽ ὁρᾷ, she shouted, until she saw, etc. Med. 1173. (Here the contrast of εἶτ᾽ ἧκεν μέγαν κώκυτον in 1176 gives the idea that she did not begin the loud wailing until she saw the foam.) Σπουδαὶ ἦσαν ἴσαι, πρὶν Λαερτιάδης πείθει στρατιάν. Hec. 132.The others are Alc. 128; Rhes. 294, Alc. 568.

These are all the cases of πρίν with the indicative which precede those in prose. It will be seen that the idea of until is always conspicuous, even when the leading verb is affirmative; and in the earlier stages of the construction little regard was paid to the character of the leading sentence. With prose a new and stricter usage begins (634).

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