A grammar of the Homeric dialect - Wilbourhall.org

237-] WITH RELATIVES WITH HPIN. 2OI
(5) The Infinitive may also be equivalent in sense to the Genitive
depending on a Noun; as
II. 7- 49 V "/UP TIS ei8o> VKV(6V KaTaT0VT](dT(i)V
yiyVtT 7Tl K OdvtiKTL TTVpOS ^i\l(T(ri^V
&>KCL
i. e. there is no grudging about the appeasing of the dead.
Hence is developed an idiomatic use of the Genitive parallel to
that of the Accusativus de quo: see Shilleto on Thuc. i. 61, i.
With Relatives. It is remarkable that the use of the
235.]
Infinitive with obs, s re only occurs twice : II. 9. 42 eTreVcrvrai
cos re v(T0ai is eager to return, and Od. 17. 20 ov -yap
em
(TTaO[jLol(TL fJLevtiv TL rrjAtKOs eijut, cos r' eTTtreiAajuero) TH^eV^at.
. .
The other instances are: Od. 2,1.
173 rotor olov re such
e'ju,ei>ai
a one as to be ; Od. 5. 484 ocro-ov re . . epixrflai so far as to skelter ;
Od. 19. 1 60 av7]p otos re juaAto~ra OIKOU K?]6ecr$aij 21. 117 otos r' .
236.] With irptV and irdpos. This use is common in Homer :
as II. T.
98 TTpiV y ttTro Trarpt tXa) 8o'/>tez/at before they give back to
LI. 573 Trapos xpoa \VKOV eTrcwpeiV before touching the
her father ;
The tense is nearly always the Aorist the :
exceptions are, Od.
19. 475 Kplv a/^a0dao-0at (a verb which has no Aorist),
1 8.
245 Trapes bopiroLo jme'deo-flat. Perhaps however /utedecr^at
Aorist : see 31, 2.
and II.
is an
irpti/
with the Indicative first appears in H. Apoll. 357 irpiv ye
01 Ibv tyrJKtv. For the use with the Subj. see 297.
The origin of this singularly isolated construction must evidently be sought
in the period when the Infinitive was an abstract Noun ;
so that (e. g.} irplv
86fj*vai meant before the giving. The difficulty is that a word like irpiv would
be construed with the Ablative, not the Dative : as in fact we find Ablatives
used as Infinitives in Sanscrit with purd 'before ' (,Whitney, 983). It may
be conjectured that the Dative Infinitive in Greek was substituted in this
construction for an Ablative. Such a substitution might take place when
the character of the Infinitive as a Case-form had become obscured.
It is held by Sturm (Geschichtliche Entwickelung der Constructionen mit irpii',
p. 15) that the Inf. has the force of limitation: e.g. irplv ovraaai 'before in
respect to wounding/ before the time of wounding. But on this view the
sense would rather be 'too soon to wound.' It is better to say, with Mr.
Goodwin ( 623"!, that irpiv is :
'quasi-prepositional' and if so the Infinitive
had ceased to be felt as a Dative when the use arose.
The restriction to the Aor. Inf. may date from the time when Infinitives
or Case-forms on the way to become Infinitives ( 242) were chiefly formed
from the same Stem as the Aorist. Cp. the Aor. Participles which are without
Tense-meaning ( 243, i).
237.] Accusative with the Infinitive. Along with the use
of the Infinitive as an abstract Noun ;
we find in Homer the