final relative clause

§2554

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Syntax of the finite verb › dependent › adjective clause › adjective clause proper

Relative Clauses of Purpose (Final Relative Clauses) regularly take the future indicative, even after past tenses (negative μή). The antecedent of final relative clauses is usually indefinite. ὅς is commoner than ὅστις. (The construction with the future participle is more frequent: 2065).

φημὶ δὴ δεῖν ἡμᾶς . . . πρεσβείᾱν πέμπειν, ἣ τοὺς μὲν διδάξει ταῦτα, τοὺς δὲ παροξυνεῖ I say that we must send an embassy, which will inform some of this and incite others D. 2.11, πέμψον τιν᾽ ὅστις σημανεῖ send some one who will announce E. I. T. 1209, ἔδοξε τῷ δήμῳ τριᾱ́κοντα ἄνδρας ἑλέσθαι, οἳ τοὺς πατρίους νόμους συγγράψουσι, καθ᾽ οὓς πολῑτεύσουσι the people voted to choose thirty men who should codify the ancestral laws by which they were to conduct the government X. H. 2.3.2. So in local clauses: κρύψω τόδ᾽ ἔγχος . . . ἔνθα μή τις ὄψεται I will hide this sword where no one shall see it S. Aj. 659.

a. After a secondary tense the future optative occurs rarely: οἱ δὲ τριᾱ́κοντα ᾑρέθησαν μὲν ἐπεὶ τάχιστα τὰ μακρὰ τείχη . . . καθῃρέθη· αἱρεθέντες δ᾽ ἐφ᾽ ᾧτε ξυγγράψαι νόμους, καθ᾽ οὕστινας πολῑτεύσοιντο κτλ. the thirty were chosen as soon as the long walls were destroyed; and having been chosen for the purpose of codifying the laws, according to which they were to conduct the government, etc. X. H. 2.3.11. In local clauses: S. O. T. 796.

b. A past purpose may be expressed by ἔμελλον and the infinitive. Thus, ναύαρχον προσέταξαν᾽ Αλκίδᾱν, δ̀ς ἔμελλεν ἐπιπλεύσεσθαι they appointed Alcidas as admiral who was to sail in command T. 3.16.

c. Homer uses the subjunctive (with κέ, except Γ 287) after primary tenses, the optative after secondary tenses. Thus, μάντις ἐλεύσεται, ὅς κέν τοι ἔπῃσιν ὁδόν a seer will come to tell thee the way κ 538, ἄγγελον ἧκαν δ̀ς ἀγγείλειε γυναικί they sent a messenger to tell the woman ο 458. The future also occurs (ξ 332). The present or aorist optative is rare in Attic (S. Tr. 903, Ph. 281).

In the index: Final · Future tense · Optative mood · Purpose · Relative · Subjunctive mood