Greek primer, colloquial and constructive

by John Stuart Blackie

LESSON XIV

The Optative Mood

The optative mood, or subjunctive in a historic sequence after a past tense, is distinguished by the domination of the diphthong οι, and runs thus—

βουλεύω,	I advise.
βουλεύοιμι,	βουλεύοις,	βουλεύοι,	I, thou, he		might
βουλεύοιμεν,	βουλεύοιτε,	βουλεύοιεν,	we, you, they		advise.

And so in the second aorist, where there is one, as λάβοιμι, λάβοις, λάβοι, etc., from λαμβάνω, might, could, would, or should get.

In the first aorist the vowel α rules, and becomes αι, as singular, βουλεύσαιμι, βουλεύσαις or ειας, βουλεύσαι or ειε; plural, βουλεύσαιμεν, βουλεύσαιτε, βουλεύσαιεν or ειαν.

The most common uses of the optative may be classified thus—

(1) In narrating what some one said, without guaranteeing the fact; as if I should say in English, he said that he were going to do so, instead of was; e.g. ἔλεγεν ὅτι ἀνδρὶ νέῳ καὶ σφοδρῷ οὐ ῥᾴδιον εἴη κολάζειν τὰ πάθη, he said that it was not easy for a man young and vehement to control his passions.

(2) To express a purpose or consequence in past time, with ὡς, ἵνα, or ὅπως, as ἐπόνει σταθερῶς ἵνα ἆθλον λάβοι, he laboured steadily that he might gain a prize.

(3) After εἰ, if, to express an indefinite future, generally with ἄν in the dependent clause, as εἴ τις αἵρεσίν μοι δοίη, σπουδάζοιμι ἂν περὶ τὴν Ἑλληνικὴν γλῶσσαν μᾶλλον ἢ περὶ τὴν Ἰταλικήν, if one gave me the choice, I should prefer to study Greek rather than Italian.