Professor Mastronarde Unit 32 Part III Exercise 5

Greek Learning Greek
1

Χαίρετε!
I have a sentence that I am supposed to render into Greek and am confused by at least a couple things about the answer. The sentence is, “Never will you (singular) demonstrate that you are more just than the others.” I wrote, μήποτε ἐπιδείκνύῃς δικαιότερος ὢν τῶν ἄλλων.
The answer book wrote, "οὔποτε μὴ ἀποδείξῃς (or ἐπιδείξῃς) δικαιοτέρα οὖσα τῶν ἄλλων. or οὔποτε μὴ ἀποδείξῃς (or ἐπιδείξῃς) δικαιότερος ὢν τῶν ἄλλων.
At least two spots that are confusing me:

  1. Why did the answer book write οὔποτε μὴ rather than just μήποτε?
  2. It looks like the answer book used the aorist subjunctive while I used the present. Why is the answer have an aorist subjunctive verb?
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Mastronarde explains this usage in section 4d of this chapter.

The aorist subjunctive with οὐ μή expresses a very strong denial.

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If I want to have a strong denial with an indicative sentence, would I use an aorist subjunctive or something different?

4

The future indicative can also be used with οὐ μή in a similar sense, but the aorist subjunctive is more usual. Check Smyth §295 et seq. for more info. However, these are not the only ways to express denial in Greek – there are several.

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