ὥστε

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From ὡς (hōs, “as”) + τε (te, “and”).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /hɔ̌ːs.te/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈ(h)os.te/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈos.te/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈos.te/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈos.te/

Adverb

ὥστε • (hṓste)

(chiefly Epic, used in similes, similarly to ὡς (hōs))
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.459
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 3.23
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.474
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 11.68
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 16.428
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 22.302
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 5.136–139
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 18.518
- 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 452
(to mark the power or virtue by which one does a thing) as
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 3.381
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 9.423
- 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.8, (compare 5.35, 5.83)

Conjunction

ὥστε • (hṓste)

(to express the actual or intended result, the effect)
1. (mostly with the infinitive)
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 9.42
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 17.21
  - 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Works and Days 44
  - 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 8.96
  - 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Olympian Ode 9.113
  - 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Nemean Ode 5.2.64
  - 428 BCE, Euripides, Hippolytus 1327
  - 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 656
  - 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 5.17
  - 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.13
  - 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 2.2.4
  - 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 595
  1. (after comparatives with ἤ (ḗ), when the possibility of consequence is denied)
    - 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Memorabilia 3.5.17
    - 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 1293
    - 424 BCE, Euripides, Hecuba 1107
    - 438 BCE, Euripides, Alcestis 230
    - 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Memorabilia 3.13.3
    - 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Protagoras 314B
    - 425 BCE, Euripides, Andromache 80
    - 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 6.109
    - 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.61
  2. (used with infinitive, of contingencies which may be more or less improbable)
    - 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.49, (compare Sophocles, Oedipus the King 374)
  3. (sometimes) on the condition that
    - 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 4.37, (compare Xenophon, Anabasis 5.6.26)
2. (with the indicative, to express the actual result with emphasis)
  - 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 2.120
  - 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 3.12
  - 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 82, (compare Oedipus the King 533)
  - 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 1.9.28
  - 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.2.3
  - 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 271
  - 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 5.6
  - 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Agesilaus 1.26
  1. (at the beginning of a sentence, to mark a strong conclusion) therefore, consequently
    - 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 75
    - 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 65
    - 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Electra 1172
    - 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 1.3.18
    - 341 BCE, Demosthenes, Third Philippic 70
    - 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Metaphysics 2.3.13
  2. (with the optative, to express a supposed consequence)
    - 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Memorabilia 3.1.9
    - 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Oeconomicus 1.13
    - 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 2.16
    - 408 BCE, Euripides, Orestes 379, (compare Sophocles, Oedipus the King )
3. (with the participle instead of the infinitive, by a sort of attraction, after a participle in the principal clause)
  - 436 BCE – 338 BCE, Isocrates, Collected Works 53D
  - 4th century BC, Isaeus, Collected Works 76.19
  - 349 BCE, Demosthenes, Third Olynthiac 1

References

“ὥστε”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“ὥστε”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“ὥστε”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
ὥστε in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
“ὥστε”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
G5620 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- as idem, page 42.
- condition idem, page 157.
- far idem, page 306.
- like idem, page 491.
- on idem, page 573.
- prepare idem, page 635.
- provide idem, page 654.
- proviso idem, page 655.
- reservation idem, page 701.
- so idem, page 790.
- tear idem, page 859.
- that idem, page 863.