Thanks, pstr. That’s a neat, concise summary of Smyth’s sections.
That’s exactly the accepted treatment of μὴ with the participle. Here, it does seem
there’s a connection we make in our minds to Oedipus as the blind man, but the question
is indeed general. Sir Richard Jebb sees a condition in μὴ βλέποντος, which is usually
the way we were instructed in class to read a participle with μὴ:
μὴ βλέποντος, not οὐ, since the blindness is a condition: “if he has not sight.”
My question would be if it is always the case, and if some of the examples in the book
I referenced do present a definite, matter-of-fact statements, rather than conceptions.
In a previous thread, you’ve mentioned line 540 from Sophocles’ Ajax and I’m not sure
what was your final reading of the quote, since you questioned whether it’s an example
of an interrogative expecting negative reply. Sidwick (p.71) wrote this quote slightly differently
and read it as a virtual negation of the negative verb, that is, a question expecting negative
reply.