Berthold Delbrück and Homeric Verbal Morphosyntax

verbal morphosyntax in Homer, discussing the following issues: the use of the moods, the differences between them, (apparently) special uses and the “rise” of the indicative; the use of the modal particles (MP) in epic Greek; the injunctive and the augment in (Vedic and) Homeric Greek; the use and interaction of tense and aspect; the origins of the “Ionic-epic” iterative forms in -σκ-; the origins of subordination, parataxis and hypotaxis. In my analyses, I first describe his findings, compare them to earlier scholarship at the time, then contrast and / or expand it with later scholarship, pass my “judgement” on them and finally apply them to disputed passages. It goes without saying that an extensive discussion of (the bibliography of) all these issues cannot be performed here (for this, the reader is referred to other works). I hope that the article will show that, while Delbrück was not always the πρῶτος εὑρετής, he was nevertheless the first to provide an in-depth analysis for many syntactical issues and that most of his observations have been confirmed. In some cases, alternative explanations were also possible (this applies to the use of the aspect of the verba dicendi, the origin of the iterative forms, the use of the injunctive in Greek and the origin, use and meaning of the augment).