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Indicative

The future indicative with “κε” (or “ἄν”) is a construction denied to the earliest period of the epic by some scholars, who maintain (a) that the verbs of A 175 (“τι_μήσουσι”), I 155, and some other places are intended for aorist subjunctives § 146); (b) that undoubted instances of the future indicative with “κε” or “ἄν” (e. g. A 139, “κεχολώσεται”, future perfect) may be attributed to later Homeric poets, who imitated a construction which they falsely understood to be future indicative with “κε”, and which was in reality the aorist subjunctive. This view presents obvious difficulties, since it involves the question of the earlier and later parts of the epic.

Other scholars accept the construction f the future in dicative with “κε” in all the apparent instances, and point out that it differs from the future indicative alone only in the contingent force which is added by the particle. E. g. A 175, “οἵ κέ με τι_μήσουσι”, ‘who in that case [i. e. if you flee] will honor me.’ It is often difficult to render the particle without awkwardness, however.

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