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[*] 686. With μή and the infinitive in indirect discourse we may compare the rare ὅτι μή with the indicative, which occurs in THEOG. 659, οὐδ᾽ ὀμόσαι χρὴ τοῦθ̓, ὅτι μήποτε πρῆγμα τόδ᾽ ἔσται, and ANT. v. 21, ταῦτα σκοπεῖτε, ὅτι μὴ προνοίᾳ μᾶλλον ἐγίγνετο ἢ τύχῃ: see also SOPH. Ant. 685, ὅπως σὺ μὴ λέγεις ὀρθῶς τάδε. Ὅτι μή with the indicative became a regular construction in later Greek (as in Lucian). Ὀμόσαι ὅτι μὴ ἔσται in Theognis suggests the still more puzzling cases of μή alone with the indicative after oaths in Homer and Aristophanes: ἴστω Ζεὺς, μὴ μὲν τοῖς ἵπποισιν ἀνὴρ ἐποιχήσεται ἄλλος, Il. x. 329; ἴστω νῦν τόδε γαῖα . . . μὴ δἰ ἐμὴν ἰότητα Ποσειδάων ἐνοσίχθων πημαίνει Τρῶας, Il. xv. 36; “μὰ τὸν Ἀπόλλω μή σ᾽ ἐγὼ κατακλινῶ χαμαί,” AR. Lys. 917 ; so AR. Eccl. 1000; μὰ γῆν, μὰ παγίδας, . . . μἢ γὼ νόημα κομψότερον ἤκουσά πω, AR. Av. 194.I have no explanation, even to suggest, of the strange use of μή in these last examples.
Macmillan. London, Melbourne, Toronto. 1889. reprint edition:. St. Martin's Press. New York. 1965.
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