Note 132 — THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.

"We embrace this opportunity of making a grammatical observation with respect to the older poets, which, to the best of our knowledge, has not hitherto been noticed by any grammarian or critic. Wherever a wish or a prayer is expressed, either by the single optative mood of the verb, or with μὴ, εἴθε, εἰ γὰρ, εἴθε γάρ, the verb is in the second aorist, if it have a distinct second aorist; otherwise it may be in the present tense, but is more frequently in the first aorist."—Edinb. Rev. xix. 485.