[156] ἵνα εἰδότες, ‘that knowing them we may either die or make our escape, having avoided death and doom.’ In final sentences “ὅπως, ὡς”, and “ὄφρα”, are not uncommon in Homer, but “ἵνα” with “ἄν” or “κε” is not found, except in the present passage. In Attic, “ἵνα ἄν” has always, or almost always, the sense of ‘ubicunque.’ Jelf quotes Demosth. 780. 7 “ἵνα μηδ᾽ ἂν ἄκων αὐτῇ ποτὲ προσπέσῃ”, and Soph. O. C.188“ἄγε νυν σύ με, παῖ”,
“ἵν᾽ ἂν εὐσεβίας ἐπιβαίνοντες”“τὸ μὲν εἴποιμεν τὸ δ᾽ ἀκούσαιμεν”, but there the sense is not strictly final; it is, rather, ‘take me to a spot where I may,’ etc.; so ibid. 405 “μηδ᾽ ἵν᾽ ἂν σαυτοῦ κρατοῖς”, ‘to a place where you may not even,’ etc. So the actual construction of this passage is best given by translating thus, ‘but I will speak, in which case, when we have learned our lesson, we may either die or escape.’ Monro, H. G. § 286, remarks that here “κε—κεν” may be due to the antithesis of the clauses (ib. § 273 n. 2). But some MSS. have “ἠὲ θάνωμεν”, which Nauck adopts, reading in the next line “ἢ καὶ ἀλευάμενοι”.
