Progressive Subjunctive
The subjunctive is used for statements considered less certain or more vague than the indicative. Compare the following pairs of sentences:
When the Spartans fought (indicative), they won.
Whenever the Spartans fought (subjunctive), they won.
The first sentence refers to a specific factual instance and therefore uses the indicative. “When the Spartans fought” is called a simple temporal clause. In contrast, the second sentence makes a general claim and therefore uses the subjunctive. “Whenever the Spartans fought” is called a general temporal clause.
Athens built a navy so strong that it won (indicative).
Athens built a navy so that it would win (subjunctive).
The first sentence expresses the actual result of building the navy and therefore uses the indicative. The clause “that it won” is called a result clause. In contrast, the second sentence explains the purpose of building the navy but makes no claim about whether it succeeded or not. Therefore, it uses the subjunctive. The clause “so that it would win” is called a purpose clause.
We will learn how to make and translate these and a few other subjunctive clauses in this lesson. There are several other uses of the subjunctive, but we will learn them later. The thing already to observe is that the correct translation of a verb in the subjunctive depends on context. We must look elsewhere in the sentence (“whenever” in the first example, “so that” in the second example) in order to interpret a subjunctive correctly.
Forming the Subjunctive
The marker of the subjunctive is simply a lengthened theme vowel (ω, η). Consider these forms of the progressive indicative and subjunctive:
| λέγομεν (indicative active) we speak | λέγωμεν (subjunctive active) <untranslatable without context> |
| λέγεται (indicative passive) it is said | λέγηται (subjunctive passive) <untranslatable without context> |
Only indicative verbs mark time, so the subjunctive does not. The difference between a progressive subjunctive and an aorist subjunctive is merely aspect:
<give examples>
The subjunctive uses primary (not past time) personal markers regardless of aspect:
PROGRESSIVE SUBJUNCTIVE ACTIVE
| BASE | Aspect Marker | Lengthened Personal Markers |
| <as appropriate depending on verb> | /ω /ωμεν /ῃς /ητε /ῃ /ωσι* |
*The 3rd person plural /ουσι of the indicative is from /ο/ṆτJ: /οντJ > /ονσι > /ο_σι > /ουσι. In the subjunctive, the lengthened grade theme vowel does not stretch: omega (“big o”) cannot get any bigger: /ω/ṆτJ > /ωντJ > /ωνσι > /ω_σι > /ωσι.
PROGRESSIVE SUBJUNCTIVE MIDDLE OR PASSIVE
| BASE | Aspect Marker | Lengthened Personal Markers |
| <as appropriate depending on verb> | /ωμαι /ωμεθα /ησαι > ῃ* /ησθε /ηται /ωνται |
*When intervocalic σ drops from /ησαι, ηα contracts to η and ι goes subscript.
Thus:
γίγνηται (progressive subjunctive)
γένηται (aorist subjunctive)
In Classical Ionic and Attic, all verb formations (thematic, athematic, and alpha formation) use a lengthened theme vowel:
ἐλύσαμεν (aorist indicative)
λύσωμεν (aorist subjunctive)
The Original Greek Subjunctive
The original rule for forming the subjunctive, which is operative in Homer, is to increase the grade of the theme vowel. Thus, verbs that use the theme vowels ε/ο for the indicative use the lengthened grade η/ω for the subjunctive. However, since athematic formations use a zero-grade theme vowel (that is, no theme vowel), in the subjunctive they used the full grade (ε/ο):
ἴμεν (progressive indicative)
ἴομεν (archaic progressive subjunctive)
This was true also of sigmatic aorists. Since the α connecting vowel is not a theme vowel, it was treated as athematic:
ἐλύσαμεν (aorist indicative)
λύσομεν (archaic aorist subjunctive)
Because most verbs are thematic, the lengthened grade subjunctive was most prevelant. So the use of lengthened grade theme vowels was generalized to athematic verbs:
| Archaic Subjunctive ἴομεν λύσομεν | Classical Subjunctive ἴωμεν λύσωμεν |
In short, the original way to form the subjunctive was to increase the grade of the theme vowel:
athematic ø including α > full grade ε/ο
thematic ε/ο > lengthened grade η/ω
By the Classical Period, all verbs use lengthened grade η/ω.
Vocabulary for this lesson (see here for the full lexicon)
add how we get e.g. δηλοῖ
reading morphologically 