εἰ

εἰ: if, if only, whether; conjunction used in the expression of a wish or a condition, and in indirect questions.— I. As particle of wishing, εἰ or εἰ γάρ, would that, O that, is foll. by the optative.—II. Interrogatively, whether, foll. by such construction as the meaning requires, e. g., κατάλεξον | εἰ καὶ Λᾶέρτῃ αὐτὴν ὁδὸν ἄγγελος ἔλθω, ‘am to go,’ Od. 16.138.—III. In conditional clauses εἰ (εἰ μή), and with the subj. often (sometimes w. the opt.) εἴ κεν, rarely w. ἄν, εἰ δ' ἂν ἐμοὶ τῖμὴν Πρίαμος Πριάμοιό τε παῖδες | τίνειν οὐκ ἐθέλωσιν, Il. 3.288. Conditions of which the conclusion is vague are sometimes regarded as interrogative, e. g. ἀναπεπταμένᾶς ἔχον ἆνέρες, εἴ τιν' ἑταίρων | ἐκ πολέμου φεύγοντα σαώσειαν, they held the gates open, in case they might be able to save some fugitive, Il. 12.122; thus often εἴ που or εἴ πως, ‘in the hope that,’ ‘on the chance that,’ etc. —With other particles, εἰ καί, if also (or denoting concession, though), καὶ εἰ (οὐδ' εἰ, μηδ εἰ), even if, denoting opposition; εἴ τε.. εἴ τε (sive.. sive), ὡς εἰ, ὡς εἴ τε, εἰ δή, εἴ περ, εἴ γε (q. v.); in εἰ δ' ἄγε (q. v.), εἰ is probably an interjection.