Futur nach ἄν bei Isokrates

Abstract

Abstract This article deals with two questions: 1) Is ἄν with future tense attested in classical Greek prose? 2) If it is attested, what is its meaning? The history of research from antiquity until present times shows that opinions on these questions were divided. Today, the construction is widely rejected by both authors of grammars and editors of classical Greek prose texts. A new collation of all independent manuscripts of Isocratesʼ works leads to a more precise and more differentiated picture: there are passages where ἄν with future tense is to be rejected, but there are also passages where we should accept it on stemmatic and semantic grounds. In Isocrates, ἄν with future tense expresses a reserved and polite assumption about a future event. Formally and semantically, the construction stands between the potential optative with ἄν and the future without ἄν. I suggest to call it conjective.