Another classical question

kdlitwak (kdlitwak@concentric.net)
Sat, 01 Mar 1997 19:55:18 -0800

I'd like to ask another classical Greek questio please. This has me a
little puzzled. Lucian #40 (How to Write History)
EI TIS HISTORIAN GRAPHO^N IOI
I'm guessing that IOI is an optative from IE^MI, but I can't tell for
sure. I'm not sure how to combine the verb and the participle. Is it
"if someone who is writing history is eager to [do something]" or is it,
as LCLC has it, "while one is going to write history"? Treating the
participle as an infinitive that way doesn't seem right to me, but maybe
I'm missing something. Thanks for your help.

Ken Litwak