Monographs

Herbert Weir Smyth [n.d.], A Greek Grammar for Colleges; Machine readable text [info] [word count] [Smyth].

1888

In subordinate clauses, the action expressed by the present may be (a) contemporaneous, (b) antecedent, or (c) subsequent to that set forth by the main verb. The context alone decides in which sense the present is to be taken: (a) ἔλεγεν ὅτι ἕτοιμος εἴη ἡγεῖσθαι αὐτοῖς he said that he was ready to lead them X. A. 6.1.33; (b) when the present states an action begun in the past and continued in the present: ἐπείτε δὲ Πέρσαι ἔχουσι τὸ κράτος, (τὸ πεδίον) ἐστὶ τοῦ βασιλέος from the time that the Persians began to hold sway, it belongs to the king Hdt. 3.117; and with the historical present: ὡς δὲ γίγνονται ἐπ' αὐτῷ, ἐσπί_πτουσιν when they came to it, they rushed in T. 7.84; (c) ἐγένετο ῥήτρα_ . . . εἰ παρὰ ταῦτα ποιοῖεν, κολάζειν an ordinance was passed . . if they act contrary to this, to punish them X. C. 1.6.33.

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Herbert Weir Smyth [n.d.], A Greek Grammar for Colleges; Machine readable text [info] [word count] [Smyth].