A grammar of the Homeric dialect - Wilbourhall.org

359-]
lest she have persuaded thee (i. e. prove to have persuaded) cp. Od. 21. 395
fjir) Kepa lires !8oiej> lest worms should (be found to) have eaten ( 303, i). Cp. Matth.
xvi. 5 irf\d6ovTo aprovs XafieTv they found that they had forgotten (Field's Otium
Noroicense, Pt. 3, p. 7).
The use of the Past Indicative after Verbs of fearing is closely parallel to the
use in Final Clauses, noticed in 325. While the Clause, as an expression of
the speaker's mind about an event his fear or his purpose should have
a Subj. or Opt., the sense that the happening of the event is matter of past
fact causes the Indicative to be preferred. Cp. the Modal uses noticed in
324-326, and the remark in 323 as to the tendency in favour of the
Indicative.
The essence of these idioms is the combination of the imperative
tone shown in the use of ^ with the Mood proper to a
simple assertion. The tendency to resort to the form oi prohibition
in order to express strong or passionate denial
may be
seen in the use of p] with the Optative in deprecating a supposition
( 299, e), and of fjnq with the Subj. in oaths, as Od. 12.
300., 18. 56.
359.] Conditional Clauses. The rule which prescribes ^ as
the negative Particle to be used in every Clause of Conditional
meaning does not hold universally. In Homer
When (a) the Verb is a Subjunctive or Optative
is jjnq
used :
the very few exceptions being confined to OVK etfe'Aoj (II. 3. 289.,
which are treated almost as
15. 492) and OVK eao> (II. 20. 139),
Compounds ( 355). Cp. the use of OVK e0e'Aco in Final Clauses,
as II. 5- 233 jurj . . juarrjo-erou ovb' efle'Arjroz; KrA.
With (b) the Relatives 09, GO-OS, &c. when the Verb is an
Indicative ou is generally used as
;
II. 2. 143 Tracrt /utera r n\t]0vv, 6Vot ov fiovXrjs TTaKovo~av.
Od. 3. 348 cos re' rev TJ irapa TiapTtav avtiiJiovos rj Tremx/ 30^
to ov TL yXaivai KrA. (a general description).
II. 2.
338 vrjTHaxois, ot? ov TL KrA. jute'Aei (so 7. 236., 18. 363).
The only clear instance of u-rj is II. 2. 301 eore 8e irdvres pdpTvpoi,
ovs /AT) K?7pes (Bav davdroio tyepovcrai, where the speaker wishes to
make an exception to what he has just said. In Od. 5. 489 o> /mr)
Trdpa ytLTovts aAAot we may supply either eto-t or ecoo-t : the latter
is found in the similar cases Od. 4. 164., 23. 118. But Hesiod
uses [AT)
with the Indie.; see Theog. 387, Op. 225.
With cl and the Indicative ou is used when the Clause
(c)
with el precedes the Principal Clause as
:
II. 4. 1 60 et Tre/o ydp re KCH CLVTLK.' 'OAv/zTTios OVK ere'Aecro-ej
and similarly in II. 9. 435., 15. 213, Od. 19. 85, and the (eight)
other places quoted in 316. But when the Clause with el follows
the other, ^ is used, as in the sentences of the form
II. 2. 155 eV0a Key . . VOCTTOS trvyQ-t) \
et JUT)
KrA.