ἀλῶ and other Attic futures (ἐλῶ, καλῶ, and ἀναπετῶ)
(Moer. α 30, Moer. ε 24, Moer. κ 21, Thom.Mag. 10.1–2)
A. Main sources
(1) Moer. α 30: ἀλεῖς Ἀττικοί· ἀλέσεις Ἕλληνες.
Cf. Thom.Mag. 11.15: ἀλεῖς, οὐκ ἀλέσεις.
Users of Attic [employ] ἀλεῖς (‘you will grind’). Users of Greek [employ] ἀλέσεις.
(2) Moer. ε 24: ἐλῶ, ἐλᾷ Ἀττικοί· ἐλάσω Ἕλληνες.
Users of Attic [employ] ἐλῶ (‘I will set in motion’), ἐλᾷ (‘he/she/it will set in motion’). Users of Greek [employ] ἐλάσω.
(3) Moer. κ 21: καλῶ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ καλέσω Ἀττικοί· ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος μόνον τῶν Ἑλλήνων τὸ λεγόμενον καλῶ.
Users of Attic [employ] καλῶ also in place of καλέσω (‘I will call’), whereas the καλῶ that the users of Greek [employ is] only for the present.
(4) Thom.Mag. 10.1–2: ἀναπετῶ ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀναπετάσω, Ἀττικοί· τὸ δὲ ἀναπετάσω, ἁπλῶς Ἕλληνες.
Users of Attic [employ] ἀναπετῶ (‘I will spread out’) instead of ἀναπετάσω, whereas users of Greek only [use] ἀναπετάσω.
B. Other erudite sources
(1) Su. α 2004 (= Phot. α 1592, ex Σ´´): ἀναπετῶ· ἀναπετάσω. Μένανδρος Θεοφορουμένῃ· ‘ἄλλοις ἀναπετῶ τουτὶ προσελθὼν καὶ οὐκ ἀνέξομ’ οὐκέτι’. καὶ ἐν Συνερώσῃ καὶ ἑτέραις.
Θεοφορουμένη only in Photius, omitted by Suda | ἄλλοις–ἑτέραις only in Suda, omitted by Photius.
ἀναπετῶ: [I.e.] ἀναπετάσω. Menander [uses it] in the Demoniac Girl (fr. 3 = C.6): ‘I will open this here for others and won’t hold [it] back anymore’. And also in the Woman in Love (fr. 346) and other [plays].
(2) Thom.Mag. 118.12–119.15: ἐλάω, ἐλῶ ἀντὶ τοῦ ἐλαύνω Ἕλληνες λέγουσιν, οἱ δὲ Ἀττικοὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ ἐλάσω. Ἀριστοφάνης ἐν Νεφέλαις· ‘ἀλλ’ ἐξελῶ σ’ ἐς κόρακας ἐκ τῆς οἰκίας’. Ἡρόδοτος ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ· ‘οὐ τὸ ὀπίσω φεύξονται, ἀλλ’ ἐπ’ ἀρχὰς τὰς σὰς ἐλῶσιν’. ἑπόμενος οὖν Ἀττικοῖς μηδὲ ἐλάσω εἴπῃς ἢ ἐξελάσω, ἀλλ’ ἀντὶ τούτων ἐλῶ καὶ ἐξελῶ, ὡς εἴρηται· ὥσπερ καὶ ὀλῶ ἀντὶ τοῦ ὀλέσω, ὡς ὁ αὐτὸς Ἀριστοφάνης ἐν Πλούτῳ· ‘ἀπό σ’ ὀλῶ κακὸν κακῶς’. καὶ καλῶ ἀντὶ τοῦ καλέσω.
The Aristophanic line is printed here in full, although the manuscripts quote it in different forms: see, in particular, cod. F f. 142r (ἀλλ’ ἐξελῶ σε τῆς οἰκίας) and Ritschl’s apparatus.
Users of Greek say ἐλάω, ἐλῶ in the sense of ἐλαύνω (‘I set in motion’), whereas users of Attic [employ it] in the sense of ἐλάσω (‘I will set in motion’). Aristophanes in the Clouds (123): ‘but I’ll push you out of [my] house [and right] to the crows!’. Herodotus in the first [book] (1.207.3): ‘They will not retreat but will march against your provinces’. Therefore, following the Attic [authors], do not say ἐλάσω or ἐξελάσω, but instead [say] ἐλῶ and ἐξελῶ, as has been explained. Similarly [employ] ὀλῶ instead of ὀλέσω, as Aristophanes himself [does] in Wealth (65): ‘Ι’ll kill you, miserable [man], in a miserable way’. And [employ] καλῶ instead of καλέσω.
C. Loci classici, other relevant texts
(1) Hes. Op. 180:
Ζεὺς δ’ ὀλέσει καὶ τοῦτο γένος μερόπων ἀνθρώπων.
But Zeus will destroy this race of speech-endowed human beings too. (Transl. Most 2018, 103).
(2) Soph. Ant. 751:
ἥδ’ οὖν θανεῖται καὶ θανοῦσ’ ὀλεῖ τινα.
Then she will die and by her death she will destroy another. (Transl. Lloyd-Jones 1994, 73).
(3) Eur. HF 886–7:
ἰὼ Ζεῦ, τὸ σὸν γένος ἄγονον αὐτίκα
λυσσάδες ὠμοβρῶτες ἄδικοι Ποιναὶ
κακοῖσιν ἐκπετάσουσιν.
Ah, Zeus! Your son will be laid out in ruin, his sons gone, by spirits of madness, bloodthirsty and unjust spirits of punishment! (Transl. Kovacs 1998, 393–5).
(4) Ar. Eq. 242–4:
νῦν ὁ καιρός. ὦ Σίμων,
ὦ Παναίτι’, οὐκ ἐλᾶτε πρὸς τὸ δεξιὸν κέρας;
ἅνδρες ἐγγύς.
Now is the time! Simon, Panaetius, won’t you move to the right wing? The men [are] close!
(5) Pl. Smp. 175a: οὔκουν καλεῖς αὐτὸν καὶ μὴ ἀφήσεις;
Won’t you call him (i.e. Socrates) and not let him go? (Transl. Emlyn-Jones, Preddy 2022, 151).
(6) Men. Th. fr. 3:
ἄλλοις ἀναπετῶ
τουτὶ προσελθὼν καὶ οὐκ ἀνέξομ’ οὐκέτι
I’ll go forward and spread this out for others and won’t hold [it] back any longer.
(7) LXX Ge. 2.19: καὶ ἔπλασεν ὁ θεὸς ἔτι ἐκ τῆς γῆς πάντα τὰ θηρία τοῦ ἀγροῦ καὶ πάντα τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἤγαγεν αὐτὰ πρὸς τὸν Αδαμ ἰδεῖν, τί καλέσει αὐτά.
And out of the earth God furthermore formed all the animals of the field and all the birds of the sky and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. (Transl. R. J. W. Hiebert in Pietersma, Wright 2009, 7).
(8) LXX Ex. 25.12: καὶ ἐλάσεις αὐτῇ τέσσαρας δακτυλίους χρυσοῦς καὶ ἐπιθήσεις ἐπὶ τὰ τέσσαρα κλίτη.
And you shall cast four gold rings for it (i.e. the Ark of the Covenant) and put them on the four sides. (Transl. L. J. Perkins in Pietersma, Wright 2009, 68–9).
(9) M.Ant. 10.35: τὸν ὑγιαίνοντα ὀφθαλμὸν πάντα ὁρᾶν δεῖ τὰ ὁρατὰ [...] καὶ τὸν ὑγιαίνοντα στόμαχον πρὸς πάντα τὰ τρόφιμα ὁμοίως ἔχειν ὡς μύλην πρὸς πάντα ὅσα ἀλέσουσα κατεσκεύασται.
The healthy eye should see all there is to be seen [...] and the healthy stomach should behave towards all foods just as a mill [behaves] towards all the things it has been built to grind.
D. General commentary
Three entries in Moeris’ lexicon (A.1, A.2, and A.3) and two in Thomas Magister’s (A.4, B.2) deal with the sigmatic and contract (‘Attic’) futures of the following verbs: ἀλέω ‘to grind’, ἐλαύνω ‘to set in motion’, καλέω ‘to call’, ἀναπετάννυμι ‘to spread out’, and ὄλλυμι ‘to destroy’ (on the Attic future in general, see Hauri 1975; cf. also Rix 1992, 223–5; Sihler 1995, 556–7; Willi 2018, 441–52; for a more comprehensive discussion on the Atticists’ perspective on the Attic future, see AGP vol. 2, Verbal morphology, forthcoming, and the entries βαδιοῦμαι and the Attic future of other verbs in -ίζω; ἀναβιβῶμαι and the Attic future of other verbs in -άζω; κρεμῶ, κρεμάσω, ὀμοῦμαι, ὀμόσω).
A.1, A.2, A.3, A.4, and B.2 all belong to a broader group of Atticist entries dealing with verbs that, at some point in Post-classical Greek, developed a secondary, analogical future, different from the one employed by canonical Attic authors. In most cases, the later form is sigmatic, while the contract future is the most ancient, but there are instances of the opposite development (see below and the entry ἀναβιβῶμαι and the Attic future of other verbs in -άζω). In the case of ἀλέω, ἐλαύνω, καλέω, ἀναπετάννυμι, and ὄλλυμι, the Atticists appear to invariably prescribe the contract (‘Attic’) future, regardless of its attestations. Indeed, while the Attic future forms ἐλῶ ‘I will set in motion’, καλῶ ‘I will call’, and ὀλῶ ‘I will destroy’ have plenty of attestations in canonical authors (see e.g. C.2, C.4, and C.5; Hauri 1975, 14–5, 62–5, 68–70), ἀλῶ ‘I will grind’ and ἀναπετῶ ‘I will spread out’ are respectively unattested and attested only once in Menander (C.6), suggesting that, in these cases, the Atticists promoted the contract future in analogy with the other verbs and in contrast with the sigmatic forms that were in use at the time (for the sigmatic ἀλέσω, see C.9 and BGU 4.1067.13, 15 (= TM 9449) [Arsinoites, 101–2 CE]; cf. Hauri 1975, 68).
The issue surrounding the futures of ὄλλυμι and πετάννυμι (and their prefixed derivatives) is of particular interest, as these verbs appear to have originally had a sigmatic future. The contract form is believed to be a relatively recent addition (unlike ἐλαύνω and καλέω, for which the sigmatic future is undoubtedly a post-classical development, cf. e.g. C.7, C.8). Indeed, ὀλέσω is already present in Homer and Hesiod (see e.g. C.1; later it is occasionally also found in Attic drama: cf. Eur. Hel. 888 διολέσω, Pl.Com. fr. 23 ἀπολέσω), while ὀλῶ first appears in Theognis (ἀπολεῖς 2x, ἀπολεῖ 1x) and becomes the standard form in classical prose and poetry (see e.g. C.2), with both forms remaining in use in Post-classical Greek (for an overview of the attestations, cf. Hauri 1975, 63). Similarly, the oldest future form of πετάννυμι (and its prefixed derivatives) appears to be the sigmatic one (cf. the two occurrences of ἐκπετάσουσιν ‘they will lay out’ in Eur. IT 1136 and HF 887 = C.3), which is also regularly employed in post-classical texts (e.g. 3x in the Septuagint). The contract future ἀναπετῶ in Menander (C.6), instead, seems to be an isolated case. Nevertheless, Thomas Magister (A.4) approves of it.
E. Byzantine and Modern Greek commentary
N/A
F. Commentary on individual texts and occurrences
N/A
Bibliography
Emlyn-Jones, C.; Preddy, W. (2022). Plato. Vol. 3: Lysis. Symposium. Phaedrus. Edited and translated by Chris Emlyn-Jones and William Preddy. Cambridge, MA.
Hauri, H. W. (1975). Kontrahiertes und sigmatisches Futur. Göttingen.
Kovacs, D. (1998). Euripides. Vol. 3: Suppliant Women. Electra. Heracles. Edited and translated by David Kovacs. Cambridge, MA.
Lloyd-Jones, H. (1994). Sophocles. Vol. 2: Antigone. The Women of Trachis. Philoctetes. Oedipus at Colonus. Edited and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones. Cambridge, MA.
Most, G. W. (2018). Hesiod. Theogony. Works and Days. Testimonia. Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most. Cambridge, MA.
Pietersma, A.; Wright, B. G. (eds.) (2009). A New English Translation of the Septuagint. Oxford.
Rix, H. (1992). Historische Grammatik des Griechischen. Laut- und Formenlehre. 2nd edition. Darmstadt.
Sihler, A. L. (1995). New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. New York.
Willi, A. (2018). Origins of the Greek Verb. Cambridge.
CITE THIS
Federica Benuzzi, 'ἀλῶ and other Attic futures (ἐλῶ, καλῶ, and ἀναπετῶ) (Moer. α 30, Moer. ε 24, Moer. κ 21, Thom.Mag. 10.1–2)', in Olga Tribulato (ed.), Digital Encyclopedia of Atticism. With the assistance of E. N. Merisio.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30687/DEA/2974-8240/2025/02/026
ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS
AnalogyFuture, Atticὄλλυμι
FIRST PUBLISHED ON
16/12/2025
LAST UPDATE
19/12/2025
