is “an” with the participle always used for the present optative or the imperfect indicative? It seems that, in this example, it is being used with conditional participle; hence, “if nurturing a heart not all in fear, who, either city or mortal man, would still revere justice likewise?” I don’t understand how you you could translate “an” with the participle as a separate question.
the negative makes it clear that the participle has to be conditional. but since “an” shows up in the participial phrase, you’ve got a mixed conditional; i.e. the protasis is present general (to use H&Q’s terminology), and the apodosis is a potential optative. usually that kind of apodosis takes an optative in the protasis, resulting in the “future less vivid” conditional, but there’s nothing wrong with having a present general conditional on a potential optative, especially here, where it makes sense.
the “protasis” is the participial phrase, μη?δ̀εν ἐν δ?εει κα?δ?ιαν ̀ἀν ἀνατ??εφων,
which is equivalent to ἒαν μηδ̀εν ἐν δ?εει κα?δ?ιαν ἀνατ??εφηι. or that’s my impression, at any rate.
sorry about the accents. my computer has different ideas of what unicode input should look like.
That is what I was thinking also, but every grammar I looked at did not say anything about “an” with the participle could be used as a protasis. Without “an,” It would make perfect sense as conditional circumstantial participle, but I don’t think you can say “an anatrephon”=" “ean anatrephei.”