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

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2014

Infinitive in Wishes.—The infinitive with a subject accusative may be used in the sense of the optative of wish, usually with the same ellipsis as in 2013 c.

θεοὶ πολῖται, μή με δουλεία_ς τυχεῖν ye gods of my country, may bondage not be my lot! A. Sept. 253, ὦ Ζεῦ, ἐκγενέσθαι μοι Ἀθηναίους τείσασθαι oh Zeus, that it be granted to me to punish the Athenians! Hdt. 5.105 (cp. ὦ Ζεῦ, δός με τείσασθαι μόρον πατρός oh Zeus, grant that I may avenge my father's murder! A. Ch. 18). This construction is very rare in Attic prose: τὸν κυνηγέτην ἔχοντα ἐξιέναι . . . ἐλαφρὰ_ν ἐσθῆτα the hunter should go forth in a light dress X. Ven. 6.11. Here no definite verb can be supplied.

a. The nominative with the infinitive (instead of the optative) after αι' γάρ occurs in Homer (η 311, ω 376).

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

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