Preliminary Notes on Conditionals

Note well:

The name given to a phenomenon in syntax largely determines a student's conception of the phenomenon, and the popular nomenclature for the forms of the conditional sentence fails to help toward the building-up of a clear understanding of the force of Greek moods. To Goodwin, the essential distinction between the subjunctive mood and the optative mood in the protasis of a conditional sentence is “ one of vividness of expression or distinctness in the form of the supposition, entirely apart from any difference of the speaker’s opinion on any subject.” “The subjunctive is a more distinct and vivid form than the optative, and is therefore chosen to express the supposition which was uppermost in the mind of the one who made it.” The trouble with Goodwin’s “ more vivid ” and “less vivid ” is its vagueness. Moreover, the optative form of the condition is as “vivid” as the future indicative or as the subjunctive, but the "vividness ” is the “vividness ” not of prophecy nor of calculation, but of fancy:

νῦν τοίνυν εἰ δημεύσαιτε τὰ τοῦ Τιμοθέου, ὃ μὴ γένοιτο, εἰ μή τι μέλλει μέγα ἀγαθὸν ἔσεσθαι τῇ πόλει ...

Goodwin: future less vivid: Accordingly then, if you should confiscate the property of Timotheus, which should not happen, unless it is to be some great benefit for the Polis ...



A. The adverb ἄν is regularly joined with εἰ in the protasis when the verb is in the subjunctive, εἰ with ἄν forming the compound ἐάν, ἤν, or ἄν. The simple εἰ is used in the protasis with the indicative and the optative.

B. The adverb ἄν is regularly used in the apodosis with the optative, and also with the past tenses of the indicative when non-fulfilment of the condition is implied.

C. The negative particle of the protasis is regularly μή, that of the apodosis is οὐ.

D. When οὐ is found in a protasis, it is generally closely connected with a particular word (especially the verb), with which it forms a single negative expression; so that its negative force does not (like that of μή) affect the protasis as a whole. But if μή is used in a protasis with οὐ, then the verb negativized by οὐ is then negativized by μή.

εἰ μὴ Πρόξενον οὐχ ὑπεδέξαντο, ἐσώθησαν ἄν: if it had not been that they did not receive Proxenus, they would have been saved

E. Only one class of conditional sentences distinctly expresses non-fulfilment of action: present contrary to fact and past contrary to fact

Goodwin:413 In the contrary to fact conditional sentences, the unreality of the supposition is always implied, and that of the apodosis is generally either assumed or implied. The implied opposite of an imperfect is always a present or imperfect, that of an aorist is an aorist, and that of a pluperfect is usually a perfect or pluperfect. Thus εἰ ἔπρασσε, when it means if he were doing, implies ἀλλ᾽ οὐ πράσσει, but really he is not doing; when it means if he had been doing, it implies ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἔπρασσε, but really he was not doing: εἰ μὴ ἔπραξεν, if he had not done, implies ἀλλ᾽ ἔπραξεν, but really he did do: εἰ ἐπεποιήκει τοῦτο, if he had already done this, implies either ἀλλ᾽ οὐ πεποίηκεν.

F. ἄν may be omitted in the apodosis of a contrary to fact condition when the apodosis consists of an imperfect indicative denoting unfulfilled obligation, possibility, or propriety. Such are the impersonal expressions ἔδει, χρῆν, ἐξῆν, εἰκὸς ἦν, καλὸν ἦν, etc., with the infinitive, the action of which is (usually) not realized:

εἰ ταῦτα ἐποίει, ἔδει (ἐξῆν) αἰτιᾶσθαι αὐτόν: if he were doing this (as he is not), one ought to (might) blame him.





tense = aspect

The negative in the protasis is: μὴ
The negative in the apodosis is: οὐ or οὐκ

1. Future More Vivid

ἐὰν + subjunctive, future indicative

ἐὰν πράττῃ τοῦτο, καλῶς ἕξει
If he does this, he will fare well

2. Future Less Vivid

εἰ + optative, ἄν + optative

εἰ πράττοι τοῦτο, καλῶς ἂν ἔχοι
if he should do this, he would fare well.

3. Future Most Vivid [ typically used in threats and warnings]

εἰ + future indicative, future indicative

εἰ πρήξει τοῦτο, δίκην δώσει
If he does this, he will pay the penalty

Contrary to Facts

4. Present Contrary to Fact

εἰ + imperfect indicative, ἄν + imperfect indicative

εἰ ταῦτα ἐποίεις, καλῶς ἂν ἐποίεις
if you were (now) doing this, you would be doing well

5. Past Contrary to Fact

εἰ + aorist indicative, ἄν + aorist indicative

εἰ ταῦτα ἐποίησας, καλῶς ἂν ἐποίησας
if you had done this, you would have done well

General Conditions [ever]

6. Present general condition

ἐάν + subjunctive, present indicative

ἐὰν ταῦτα ποιῇς (ποιήσῃς), σὲ ἐπαινῶ
if ever you do this, I always praise you.

7. Past General Condition

εἰ + optative, imperfect indicative

εἰ ταῦτα ποιοίης (ποιήσειας), σὲ ἐπῄνουν
if ever you did this, I always praised you.


Conditionals in Indirect Speech

There are two main constructions of indirect speech and each can be subdived into present or secondary sequence.
The two constructions are ὅτι/ὡς or accusative+infinitive.

A. ὅτι/ὡς

（a) After primary tenses, each verb retains both the mood and the tense of the direct discourse, no change being made except (when necessary) in the person of the verb

（b) After secondary tenses, each primary tense of the indicative and each subjunctive of the direct discourse may be either changed to the same tense of the optative or retained in its original mood and tense. The imperfect and pluperfect, having no tenses in the optative, are generally retained in the indicative

In secondary sequence, ἐάν + subjunctive may optionally be changed to εἰ + optative. However, an imperfect or aorist indicative in the protasis of an unreal conditional sentence is not changed to the optative.



Notes on/from Thucydides

1. "Of all Thucydidian 'hyperbata' the most common is the trajection of τε, in some cases so abnormal as to suggest to editors its instant excision, as for instance, in VI.6.2. If any principle can be laid down it would appear to be this, that the logical sequence supersedes the grammatical, and that the conjunction is appended to the particular word which gives the most rhythmical arrangement" Spratt: intro to book iv 1905

"Trajection" here is an older term meaning "transposition" referring to a hyperbaton or the shifting of words"
For example: 4.34 has τε ... καὶ ...

τῇ τε ὄψει ...
καὶ ξυνειθισμένοι ...

In short we have variatio