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

2388

The time denoted by a temporal clause is not always solely contemporaneous, antecedent, or subsequent to that of the principal clause, but may overlap with the time of the principal clause (before and at the same time, at the same time and after, until and after).

ἐπεὶ δὲ ἠσθένει Δα_ρεῖος καὶ ὑπώπτευε τελευτὴν τοῦ βίου, ἐβούλετο τὼ παῖδε παρεῖναι when Darius was ill and suspected that his life was coming to an end, he wished his two sons to be with him X. A. 1.1.1 (here the situation set forth by ἠσθένει and ὑπώπτευε occurred both before and after the time indicated in ἐβούλετο), τοιαῦτα ἐποίει ἕως διεδίδου πάντα ἃ ἔλαβε κρέα_ he kept doing thus until he saw that (and so long as) he was distributing all the meat he had received X. C. 1.3.7 (the imperfect is rare with ἕως or πρίν until), ὁ δ' ἔν τε τῷ παρόντι πρὸς τὰ μηνύ_ματα ἀπελογεῖτο καὶ ἑτοῖμος ἦν πρὶν ἐκπλεῖν κρί_νεσθαι he both defended himself then and there against the charges and offered to be tried before he sailed T. 6.29.

a. Conjunctions of antecedent action usually take the aorist, rarely the imperfect except when that tense represents overlapping action, as in T. 5.72. 3. Cp. T. 1.13. 5 with 1. 5. 1.

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b. A verb of aoristic action is used: in the temporal clause when complete priority, in the main clause when complete subsequence, is to be clearly marked.

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