This question is basic so please forgive me. I understand from my text book that the negative conjunctions μήτε and ούτε are employed respectively in accordance with the same rules which govern the correct usage of their negative adverbial counterparts μή and ού. Now, I have come across the below sentence in the exercises section, and am struggling to ascertain exactly why μήτε is being used. I will be most grateful if someone on this forum would be kind enough to clarify things for me:
I translated this as ‘The speakers, at any rate, were persuading the general, although having drawn up the hoplites well, neither to lead the other army to the sea nor to be guarding the land.’ I can think of one instance somewhat similar to this, though materially different, which I have already been introduced to in my textbook, in which μη is used rather than ou and that is the prohibitive subjunctive. Although no subjunctive is being employed here, the speakers persuading the general not to do these two things could perhaps be construed as speaking almost prohibitively? This is the only possible explanation I have been able to posit as to why μητε might be being used here, and it seems even to myself to be a highly tenuous one.
Any help would be much appreciated,
Thanks in advance,
Tom.
The negative of the infinitive is μή; but οὐ, used with a finite mood in direct discourse, is retained when that mood becomes infinitive in indirect discourse. Sometimes, however, μή is used in place of this οὐ (2723 ff.).
Smyth, H. W. (1920). A Greek Grammar for Colleges (p. 438). New York; Cincinnati; Chicago; Boston; Atlanta: American Book Company.
πειθειν is a verb of will or desire with the acc. + inf construction (when it means urge). The same words with οιεσθαι would be a verb of thinking with the acc. + inf construction in indirect discourse.
Hello again Tom,
Your question was a good one. There are times when ου is used to negate infinitives (and ου negates participles very frequently). Here however the negative has to be μή, and you were on the right track when you adduced prohibitions. When you persuade (πείθειν) someone or simply tell (κελεύειν) them not to do something, you use μή, just as you would with a plain imperative.
(You’d use ου only if you were saying that something is not the case, e.g. τοῦτο δοκεῖ μοι ουκ αληθὲς εῖναι, “this seems to me to be not true,” but more normal then would be for the ου to be pulled back ahead of the main verb, τοῦτο ου δοκεῖ μοι αληθὲς εῖναι, “this doesn’t seem to me to be true.” With infinitives μή is much more common than ου.)
οἵ γε ῥήτορες ἔπειθον τὸν στρατηγὸν, καίπερ εὖ τάξαντας τοὺς ὁπλίτας, μήτε ἄλλον στρατὸν ἀγαγεῖν παρὰ τὴν θάλατταν μήτε τὴν γῆν φυλάττειν.
There is a mistake here, τάξαντας cannot be acc but nom, τάξαντες; then, ἔπειθον is imperf de conatu, so they were trying to persuade.