Studies in tense, aspect and augment use: An unrecognized (?) timeless injunctive in Early Epic Greek. Part 2: Actual analysis

Abstract

Since West’s seminal 1898 article, it has been assumed that there were (only) four instances in epic Greek (Homer, Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns) in which the injunctive (often called an unaugmented indicative in the commentaries) could be interpreted as having a timeless (or omnitemporal) meaning. In the second part of the article, I will argue and show that there could be more of these injunctive forms than West originally argued for. I will also analyze several other instances in which an injunctive has been transmitted, instances in which it refers to a background action or an event in a remote past, and argue that some injunctive forms indeed describe the timeless habits of the gods, while others are not timeless, but refer to actions in a remote or even mythical past, or describe background actions; moreover, even some indicative present forms could conceal older timeless injunctive forms (without arguing that the indicative forms should be altered, however). In all these instances I will also investigate and describe the aspectual stems, as well as show that their use can be explained by the distinction perfective – imperfective, which agrees with what we would find in Attic Greek and is not controlled by the metre.