A grammar of the Homeric dialect - Wilbourhall.org

38 TENSES. [34.
*
5
syncope. Thus we have ayepozro, Part, aypo/xez/ot
:
o>(/>eXov
and the Attic ox^Xoy owed : TreXco and the syncopated forms
TrXero, Part. eTrf/rXo/xez/oy, &c. (not eTrcXez;, eTre'Xero, &c.
in Homer).
d-yepovTo were assembled, Inf. ayepeaOai (so accented in MSS.) imply a Pres.
aytpca but the Part, ayp-opfvoi seems to be an Aor. The e is only lost in
;
the Part., whereas in the undoubted Aor. Zyp-cro the form fyep- never occurs
(Opt. ZypoiTO, Inf. 7/>e6Xov ought ( = would that} bears a different sense from the Aor. &\ov,
but is indistinguishable from the Impf. &q>e\\ov (Od. 8. 312 TOJ ^ yeivaaOai
o^eAXov, so II. 7. 390., 24. 764, Od. 14. 68., 18. 401). Hence u(pc\ov is probably
an older form of the Imperfect which has survived in this particular
use.
e-rrXcv, eirXe-TO, &c. must be Aorists, since
(1) 7r\To occurs in the 'gnomic' use, e.g.
II. 2.
480 iyuT6 jSovs a-ye\7](l>i fjity' foxos TT\CTO iravrwv
and so in II. 24. 94, Od. 7. 217. This use is not found with the Impf.
(2) lirXcro with the meaning of a Present can only be explained as an Aor.
= the English Pf., has turned out, has come to be, (and so is) see : 78, and cp. II.
12. 271 vvv 677A.6TO epyov airavToiv now it has become : with another Aor. similarly
used, II. 15. 227 TroAu KepSiov ZirXfro, on viroeigev it is better that he has yielded:
also II. 6. 434., 7. 31., 8. 552., 14. 337., 19. 57, Od. 20. 304, &c.
The Part, occurs in firi-rr\6iJ.vov troy (Od.) and 7re/H-7rA.o/iei/cwi> tviavruv, with
much the same force as the Pres. Part, in the equivalent phrase irfpireXXo-
H&'