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If the leading verb denotes a repeated or customary action or a general truth, a temporal clause takes the subjunctive with ἄν after primary tenses, the optative after secondary tenses. The negative is μή. Cp. cross2336.
a. A present tense denotes action continuing (not completed) and is of the same time as that of the leading verb; an aorist tense denotes action simply occurring (completed) and time usually antecedent to that of the leading verb when the action of the dependent clause takes place before the action of the main clause. In clauses of contemporaneous action the aorist denotes the same time as that of the main verb; in clauses of subsequent action, time later than that of the main verb.
b. ὡς is rare in these temporal clauses (
c. On Homeric similes with ὡς ὅτε, ὡς ὁπότε, see cross2486.
2410In temporal sentences of indefinite frequency the temporal clause has the subjunctive with ἄν when the principal clause has the present indicative, or any other tense denoting a present customary or repeated action or a general truth. Cp. cross2337.
μαινόμεθα πάντες ὁπόταν ὀργιζώμεθα
ἕως ἂν σῴζηται τὸ σκάφος . . ., χρὴ καὶ ναύτην καὶ κυβερνήτην . . . προθύ_μους εἶναι . . ., ἐπειδὰν δ' ἡ θάλαττα ὑπέρσχῃ, μάταιος ἡ σπουδή
ποιοῦμεν ταῦθ' ἑκάστοθ' . . . ἕως ἂν αὐτὸν ἐμβάλωμεν ἐς κακόν
The verb of the main clause may stand in the participle, or in other tenses than the present indicative: καίπερ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἐν ᾧ μὲν ἂν πολεμῶσι, τὸν παρόντα (πόλεμον) ἀεὶ μέγιστον κρι_νόντων
πολέμιοι . . . ἤδη ὅταν . . . καταδουλώσωνταί τινας, πολλοὺς δὴ βελτί_ους ἠνάγκασαν εἶναι
ἄν (κέ) is frequently omitted in Homer, and occasionally in lyric and dramatic poetry and in Herodotus, e.g. ἐπεὶ δ' ἁμάρτῃ, κεῖνος οὐκέτ' ἔστ' ἀνὴρ ἄβουλος
The present indicative is very rarely used instead of the subjunctive with ἄν in temporal clauses of indefinite frequency. Thus, περὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν ἀδικούντων, ὅτε (ὅτου conj.) δικάζονται, δεῖ παρὰ τῶν κατηγόρων πυθέσθαι
In temporal sentences of indefinite frequency the temporal clause has the optative when the principal clause has the imperfect or any other tense denoting a past customary or repeated action.
ἐθήρευεν ἀπὸ ἵππου ὁπότε γυμνάσαι βούλοιτο ἑαυτόν ὁπότε ὥρα_ εἴη ἀ_ρίστου, ἀνέμενεν αὐτοὺς ἔστε ἐμφάγοιέν τι
The optative is rare after a primary tense, and occurs only when that tense includes a reference to the past (ω 254; cp. cross2573).—ὅτε κεν with the optative occurs once (I cross525).
2416Other tenses than the imperfect in the principal clause: ἀλλ' ὅτε δὴ . . .
ἀνα_ΐξειεν Ὀδυσσεύς, στάσκεν, ὑπαὶ δὲ ἴδεσκε κτλ. (cp. cross495) but whenever Odysseus arose, he always kept his position and looked down T 215, ὁπότε προσβλέψειέ τινας τῶν ἐν ταῖς τάξεσιν, εἶπεν ἄν κτλ.
The indicative (cp. cross2342) is rare in temporal clauses of past indefinite frequency, as καὶ ᾖδον καὶ ἐχόρευον ὁπότε οἱ πολέμιοι αὐτοὺς ὄψεσθαι ἔμελλον
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Herbert Weir Smyth [n.d.], A Greek Grammar for Colleges; Machine readable text [info] [word count] [Smyth].
