[506] The sentence passes, as usual, from a subordinate to a principal construction; he will not be stayed till he captures or is slain becomes till he captures — or he might be slain. Most MSS. give the subj. “ἁλώη”（“ι”), but the opt. is the common mood in which to put the alternative for which the speaker hardly dares to hope (see 18.308). The clause cannot be regarded as subordinate, like the infin., to “πρίν”, as this particle does not go with “ἄν” or “κε” in H. (the phrase “πρίν γ᾽ ὅτ᾽ ἄν” is a different matter: we cannot compare Od. 2.374-75 “πρίν γ᾽ ὅτ᾽ ἂν . . γένηται, ἢ ποθέσαι”).
