πᾶς γοῦν ποιητὴς γίγνεται,“ ‘κἂν ἄμουσος ᾖ τὸ πρίν,’” οὗ ἂν Ἔρως ἅψηται.
(Plato, Symposium, 196e)
Translation: Everybody becomes a poet “even if museless he may have been in the time before”, when [?] Love grabs hold. (i.e. the most prosaic fellow, when love-smitten, writes poems.)
Two questions:
Can we call τὸ πρίν an articular adverb, in the accusative case, for duration of time?
οὗ ἂν Ἔρως ἅψηται: what about the translation of οὗ as “when”?
Adverbial πρίν often has the neuter article, starting with Homer, and obviously it’s better thought of as accusative than nominative, but I wouldn’t assign it any particular grammatical function. Many adverbs behave similarly, cf. e.g. τὰ νῦν (more often τὰ than τὸ I think, significantly or not).
We should recognize that κἂν ἄμουσος ᾖ τὸ πρίν is metrical, and poetic (latter part of iambic trimeter). It’s reportedly a quote from a lost play of Euripides.
οὗ ἂν Ἔρως ἅψηται: οὗ is not “when” but “whom,” the genitive governed by ἅψηται as regularly (partitive gen.). Anyone Eros gets hold of becomes a poet.
Many thanks to Michael!