I have been spending time for the past few days back-translating English to Greek as an alternative to composition practice. I use the actual Greek as my model for all review. One thing that I’m noticing is all the different constructions that use ὡς in Xenophon.
On the first page of the Anabasis:
ὡς acc. subst. – “as (but not in fact)”
ὡς opt. – reported speech (with διαβάλλει)
ὡς future participle – purpose
ὡς past indict. – temporal conj. “when”
ὡς opt. – used like ὅπως in violation of normal Attic usage
ὡς superlative – to strengthen it
ὡς present participle – giving the reason
Other than reading through the LSJ article on ὡς before breakfast every morning for a month, does anyone have some advice for helping me to get a handle on this? Can ὡς by used as a general replacement for ἵνα, ὅστε, ὅπως, etc.?
ὡς opt. – used like ὅπως in violation of normal Attic usage
ὡς superlative – to strengthen it
ὡς present participle – giving the reason
1, 2, 3 and 7 – a representation of the state of mind or understanding or intention of an agent without necessarily indicating validation by the narrator (although I think they could be used to represent a past mental state or intention of the narrator).
One other use unrelated to any of the above: a preposition indicating travel “to” a person.
At the end of the LSJ article, there is an etymological note to the effect that the various uses of this word represent different etymologies.
And that’s just for starters. There’s also exclamatory use (ὡς πολλὰ ἐστίν “How many there are!"), and more.
You might find it helpful to break down uses like this:
ὡς used to introduce subordinate clauses, as 2 = ὅτι (ind.speech), 4 = ἐπεί “when," and 5 with subj./opt. (purpose)—sequence rules apply with all these;
ὡς with participles, as 3 & 7, lending a certain nuance to the participle (and making no difference to the construction);
and other uses, as 1 (cf. 3 & 7), and 6 (= ὅτι with superl.).
Thank you both. To keep things apart practically, I’m going to try to think of what other words are (mostly) equivalent to a particular “ὡς” usage each time I come across it.
It almost seems that, like with prepositions and case, it’s the construction that is the first class citizen, while the adverb/conjunction is there for flavor.
It almost seems that, like with prepositions and case, it’s the construction that is the first class citizen, while the adverb/conjunction is there for flavor.
Another “use” of ὡς is .. as / also (to in fact be). Perhaps you had this use in mind when you wrote “ὡς superlative – to strengthen it.” Take a look at the following for instance: