ὥσπερ οὖν ἄν, εἰ τῷ ὄντι ξένος ἐτύγχανον ὤν, συνεγιγνώσκετε δήπου ἄν μοι εἰ ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ φωνῇ τε καὶ τῷ τρόπῳ

[sjoerd222]

Hi!

I got problems with translating the following ancient Greek sentence. I know the solution but could anyone give my an explanation how I come to this solution.

The part of the sentence is:

ὥσπερ οὖν ἄν, εἰ τῷ ὄντι ξένος ἐτύγχανον ὤν, συνεγιγνώσκετε δήπου ἄν μοι εἰ ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ φωνῇ τε καὶ τῷ τρόπῳ

I know the solution but this dative τῷ ὄντι with the ξένος ἐτύγχανον ὤν part does make no sense to me. Can anyone help?

And συνεγιγνώσκετε is past but always translated with present or conjunctive. For example PERSEUS: "Hence, just as you would, of course, if I were really a foreigner, pardon me if I spoke in that dialect and that manner"

Thank you!

sjoerd222

[billberg23]

Here is the rule for unreal (contrary to fact) conditions in present time:
Use εἰ in the protasis (the "if" clause) with the imperfect indicative (e.g., ἐτύγχανον), and the imperfect indicative + ἄν in the apodosis (the result clause: e.g., συνεγιγνώσκετε ἄν).  See Smyth's Greek Grammar 2302-2309.

Tῷ ὄντι is an adverbial phrase using the dative present participle of εἰμί to mean "in fact," "actually."  So "if I actually happened to be a foreigner."