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Optative Mood

We have now learned four moods of Greek verbs: the indicative, infinitive, imperative, and subjunctive.

• The INDICATIVE mood indicates FACTS about actions or states.
• The INFINITIVE mood is a VERBAL NOUN.
• The IMPERATIVE mood is used to give COMMANDS.
• The SUBJUNCTIVE mood refers to hypothetical actions.

In this lesson, we introduce the final mood: the OPTATIVE.

Like the subjunctive, the OPTATIVE mood refers to HYPOTHETICAL actions. The type of hypothetical actions differ from the subjunctive, however, as we see below. Like the subjunctive, there are also three tenses, each of which expresses ASPECT, not time:

• PRESENT
  • ongoing aspect
• AORIST
  • simple aspect
• PERFECT
  • completed aspect

Since the mood is hypothetical, it NEVER receives an augment.

Optative Mood: Personal Endings

For most verbs, the personal endings for optative verbs are THEMATIC SECONDARY endings, with one exception:

• the active first person singular ending ends in –μι.

To mark the optative mood, an –ι– is inserted between the thematic vowel and the personal ending. Inserting this –ι– caused the thematic vowel not to degrade from ο to ε, as it does in other thematic verb inflections. As a result, the thematic vowel remains ο throughout all persons and numbers (S 459).

Τhe importance of inserted –ι– as a marker of the optative mood is reflected by the fact that –οι and –αι (see below) at the end of optative forms are LONG DIPHTHONGS, not short (S 427).

ACTIVE personal endings:

MIDDLE personal endings:

All tenses of the optative use these endings except for the FIRST AORIST, which replaces the thematic vowel –ο– with –σα-.

FIRST AORIST ACTIVE personal endings:

FIRST AORIST MIDDLE personal endings:

The Optative Mood: Present and Aorist

Like the subjunctive, the tense of the optative is indicated by the TENSE STEM. Also like the subjunctive, the PRESENT and AORIST are the most common tenses that you will encounter. The rarer PERFECT optative forms are discussed separately below.

To see how to form the optative in the PRESENT and AORIST tenses, let’s take a look at these examples:

• λύω, λύσω, ἔλυσα, λέλυκα, λέλυμαι, ἐλύθην
• λαμβάνω, λήψομαι, ἔλαβον, εἴληφα, εἴλημμαι, ἐλήφθην
• δείκνυμι, δείξω, ἔδειξα, δέδειχα, δέδειγμαι, ἐδείχθην

Let’s begin with λύω, λύσω, ἔλυσα, λέλυκα, λέλυμαι, ἐλύθην

• present tense stem: λυ–
• aorist tense stem: λυσ–
  • Note that for optatives, like subjunctives, the α of the –σα ending is dropped from the first aorist stem.

The Present Optative Active of λύω (S 383; GPH p. 72)

The Present Optative Middle of λύω (S 383; GPH p. 72)

The Aorist Optative Active of λύω (S 383; GPH p. 80)

The Aorist Optative Middle of λύω (S 383; GPH p. 80)

Now let’s take a look at this verb, in the active voice: λαμβάνω, λήψομαι, ἔλαβον, εἴληφα, εἴλημμαι, ἐλήφθην

• present tense stem: λαμβαν–
• aorist tense stem: λαβ–

The Present Optative Active of λαμβάνω

The Aorist Optative Active of λαμβάνω (S 384; GPH p. 85)

Finally, let’s take a look at this verb, in the active voice: δείκνυμι, δείξω, ἔδειξα, δέδειχα, δέδειγμαι, ἐδείχθην

• present tense stem: δεικνυ–
• aorist tense stem: δειξ–

The Present Optative Active of δείκνυμι (S 418; GPH p. 159)

The Aorist Optative Active of δείκνυμι 

Optative Mood: Alternative Personal Endings

While the most common marker of optative mood is the inserted –ι-, for the sake of clarity and pronunciation some Greek authors expand this marker to –ιη-. This happens most often in present tense contract verbs and some –μι verbs (S 393). When this expanded marker is inserted, the regular SECONDARY ATHEMATIC ACTIVE personal endings are used.

εἰμί

For example, the present optative of εἰμί (verb stem: ἐσ-) uses –ιη– as its optative marker, as seen below. Note that the original forms (e.g. ἐσ–ιη–ν) have lost their intervocalic sigma (S 770).

Present Optative Active of εἰμί (S 768; GPH p. 179)

Contract Verbs

The rules for contract verbs work as expected for the optative. For example:

• ποιέοιμι → ποιοῖμι
• δηλόοιμι → δηλοῖμι
• νικάοιμι → νικῷμι

However, many Greek authors prefer to mark the present optative of CONTRACT VERBS with the expanded optative mood marker –ιη– (S 393).

The Present Optative Active of ποιέω (cf. S 385; GPH p. 113)

The Present Optative Active of δηλόω (cf. S 385; GPH p. 121)

The Present Optative Active of νικάω (cf. S 385; GPH p. 104)

–μι Verbs

Similarly, the verbs δίδωμι, ἵστημι, and τίθημι are essentially CONTRACT forms in the OPTATIVE. These verbs are formed in the PRESENT and AORIST optative by adding the following markers to their short verb stem vowel (S 750):

• –ιη– in the SINGULAR
  • 1st person in –ιην
• –ι– in the PLURAL
  • 3rd person in –ιεν

The accent is the result of the short vowel stem contracting with the –ι-. For example:

• διδο–ίη–ν → διδοίην
• διδό–ι–μεν → διδοῖμεν

The Present Optative Active of δίδωμι (S 416; GPH p. 126)

The Aorist Optative Active of δίδωμι (S 416; GPH p. 131)

The Present Optative Active of ἵστημι (S 416; GPH p. 137)

The Second Aorist Optative Active of ἵστημι (S 416; GPH p. 140)

Recall that ἵστημι has both a SECOND and FIRST aorist to indicate INTRANSITIVE and TRANSITIVE use, respectively. The first aorist conjugates regularly:

The First Aorist Optative Active of ἵστημι

The Present, Optative, Active of τίθημι (S 416; GPH p. 148)

The Aorist, Optative, Active of τίθημι (S 416; GPH p. 153)

The Optative Mood: Main Clause

The Greek optative, like the subjunctive, is used both in MAIN CLAUSES (i.e., as the main verb) and in SUBORDINATE CLAUSES. We discuss subordinate clauses in a later lesson. For now, let us look at the use of optatives as MAIN VERBS.

There are two uses of the optative in a main clause:

• OPTATIVE OF WISH
• POTENTIAL OPTATIVE

Optative of Wish

The OPTATIVE of WISH (cf. Latin opto) is used to convey a wish for the future (S 1814-1819). Common characteristics of the optative of wish are:

• It is often (though not always) introduced by εἰ γάρ or εἴθε.
• The negative is μή.

With or without the introductory εἰ γάρ or εἴθε, the optative of wish is translated as may!, would that, if only…

• τοῦτο μὴ γένοιτο.
  • May this never happen!
• εἰ γὰρ πόλεμον παύσαι.
  • If only he would stop the war.
• εἴθε τοὺς ἵππους δοίη.
  • If only he would give the horses.
• τοὺς ἵππους λύοιεν.
  • If only they would free the horses.
• τοὺς ἵππους λαβοίμεθα.
  • Would that we could take the horses.

Potential Optative

The POTENTIAL OPTATIVE expresses the opinion of the speaker about the possibility or likelihood of an action (S 1824-1834). Common characteristics of the potential optative are:

• It is always accompanied by the particle ἄν.
• The negative is οὐ.

POTENTIAL optatives can be translated with may, might, would, or should.

• τοὺς ἐκ τῆς μάχης φεύγοντας ἂν παύσαιμεν.
  • We might stop the men fleeing from battle.
  • We should stop the men fleeing from battle.
• πόλεμον οὐκ ἂν παύοι.
  • He might not be stopping the war.
  • He should not be stopping the war.
• τοὺς ἵππους ἂν δοίη.
  • He might give the horses.
  • He should give the horses.
• τοὺς ἵππους οὐκ ἂν λύοιεν;
  • Wouldn’t they be freeing the horses?
  • Shouldn’t they be freeing the horses?
• τοὺς ἵππους ἂν λαβοίμεθα;
  • Would we take the horses?
  • Should we take the horses?

The Optative Mood: Perfect

As noted above, the optative can also be formed in the PERFECT tense to express COMPLETED aspect. Though the perfect optative is rarely encountered in Greek (S 696; see S 660 for the even rarer future optative!), its active form is relatively straightforward to identify. As with the PRESENT and AORIST, optative personal endings are simply added to the TENSE STEM, in this case, the PERFECT TENSE STEM.

Let’s look, for example, at this verb: λύω, λύσω, ἔλυσα, λέλυκα, λέλυμαι, ἐλύθην

• perfect active tense stem: λελυκ–

The Perfect Optative Active of λύω (S 383; GPH p. 92)

In the PERFECT tense, the forms of the OPTATIVE mood proved difficult for Greeks to say. Sometimes in the ACTIVE voice, and always in the MIDDLE voice, Greek used the following PERIPHRASTIC forms (S 599, 694):

• perfect active:
  • PERFECT ACTIVE PARTICIPLE followed by the OPTATIVE form of εἰμί .
  • e.g. λελύκοι or λελυκὼς εἴη
• perfect middle:
  • PERFECT MIDDLE PARTICIPLE followed by the OPTATIVE form of εἰμί .
  • e.g. λελυμένος εἴη (never λελυ + ι + το)

The Perfect Optative Middle of λύω (S GPH p. 93)

– τὸ τέλος –