Mastronarde ch. 33

Greek Learning Greek
1

I’m having trouble grasping “ὅστις, ἥτις, ὅ τι”. There’s one short paragraph on its use in Mastronarde which doesn’t explain it very well, and it’s illustrated with only one example (in the context of indirect questions):

“Direct: τίς σε ἀδικεῖ;
Indirect: οὑκ οἶδα τίς (or ὅστις) σε ἀδικεῖ (primary).
οὐκ ΅ηδησθα τίς (or ὅστις) σε ἀδικοίη (or ἀδικεῖ) (secondary).”

(I couldn’t figure out how to make a smooth-breathing-acute-iota-subscript eta)

What is the difference between τίς and ὅστις in this example? Where would you use it and expect it to be used in place of the simple interrogative? The paragraph on usage:

“The pronoun ὅστις, ἥτις, ὁ τί is a combination of the relative pronoun and the indefintie pronoun, both elements of which are declined. By origin, ὅστις is an indefinite relative pronoun (or adjective), whoever, whichever, whatever; but like other indefinite relative words in Greek, it has a second function as well, as indirect interrogative introducing an indirect question.”

Very well. Would the oblique cases be used something like “I don’t know whose book this is” (with οὗτινος), “I don’t know to whom he gave the book” (with ῷτινι), etc.? In that case, what does ὅστις mean to be preferred over τίς? It must be said that even in Latin I’m weak with indirect questions (though I think I may understand them better in this book as they’re introduced as noun clauses expressing a question – conceptually that makes it make a bit more sense to me).

2

It really is that simple. τίς (etc.) is the direct interrogative form. In indirect questions you can use either the direct form, τίς etc., or the indirect form, ὅστις etc. There’s little or no difference.

Direct Q.: τί ποιήσω; What am I to do?
Indirect Q.: ἀπορῶ τί or ὅ τι ποιήσω I’m at a loss as to what to do.
(In secondary aka past sequence, this could be ἠπόρουν τί or ὅ τι ποιήσαιμι, optative, I was at a loss as to what to do; but that’s a different issue.)

ουκ οιδα τίνι or ᾧτινι το βιβλιον εδωκεν I don’t know to whom he gave the book, I don’t know who he gave the book to.

οὗτινος (or τίνος) εχεις βιβλια, (τουτ’) ουκ οιδα I don’t know whose books you have.

That’s how indirect questions work. But this is what Mastronarde refers to as the “second function” of ὅστις etc. For it’s also the indefinite form of ὅς, the relative pronoun, and as such is used, like ὅς, to introduce relative clauses. This is the enclitic τις, not the interrogative τίς as in indirect questions.
ὅς+τις makes ὅς indefinite, ὅς+τίς makes τίς indirect.
The effective difference between ὅς and ὅστις in rel. clauses is often very slight or even nonexistent, but indefinite rel. clauses (with ἄν and subjunctive, or plain optative in secondary sequence) tend to use ὅστις etc. in preference to the simple ὅς etc.

E.g.:
Definite relative pronoun: (ὁ ἀνὴρ) ὃς τοτ’ εἰσῆλθεν, (οὗτος) φίλος ἐστίν. The man who entered at that moment is a friend
Indefinite relative pronoun: ὅστις ἂν ταῦτ’ εἴπῃ, (τοῦτον) ου φίλον νομίζω I don’t consider anyone who says that a friend, Whoever says that I don’t consider a friend.

τα βιβλια ἃ εχεις, (ταυτα) δος μοι Give me the books you’re holding (definite)
τα βιβλια ἅτινα ἂν εχῃς, (ταυτα) δος μοι Give me the books you’re holding (whatever they may be), Give me whatever books you have. (indefinite)
(Sec.seq. τα βιβλια ἅτινα εχοι, (ταυτα) εδωκε μοι He gave me the books he had, whatever books he had.)

οὗτινος αν εχῃς βιβλια, (τουτου) δος μοι Give me whosever books you (may) have (relative pronoun)
οὗτινος (or τίνος) εχεις βιβλια, (τουτο) ου οιδα I don’t know whose books you have (indirect question)

Now I’ve made it look complicated! Sorry about that.

3

Thanks! That clears everything up.