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Reading Ανάβασις Ξενοφόντος. Here Xenophon is talking to Χειρίσοφος about what to do about some lurking non-Greeks (i.e. Persian adversaries) because the Greeks are in a bit of a tight spot.

ἀλλὰ δίδωμι σοι, ἔφη ὁ Χειρίσοφος, ὁπότερον βούλει ἑλέσθαι. εἰπὼν ὁ Ξενοφῶν ὅτι νεώτερος ἐστιν αἱρεῖται πορεύεσθαι, κελεύει δέ οἱ συμπέμψαι ἀπὸ τοῦ στόματος ἄνδρας.

It's the end of the second sentence I'm struggling with. The parallel translation has this:

Then Xenophon, with the remark that he was the younger, elected to go, but he urged Cheirisophus to send with him some troops from the front.

It's "οἱ συμπέμψαι" that I don't really understand. In fact I can't work out whether "συμπέμψαι" is aorist active infinitive or 3s aorist active optative. I think it's probably the former, so perhaps another variation of the "accusative + infinitive" construction which seems to be used often in Ancient Greek.

So this would be "he urges ... men ... from the front (of the army) to be sent with (him)"... but in that case what is "οἱ" doing there? This is the nominative plural article, obviously. Why wouldn't it be the accusative plural article?

(I'm assuming in the above that the article can indeed function as a relative pronoun, and believe I've seen this before a few times already...)

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What is "οἱ" doing there? This is the nominative plural article, obviously.

Not so fast!

οἷ (enclitic οἱ) is also the dative form of the third person personal pronoun (See Smyth §325).

Though it is much more common to see the intensive pronoun αὐτός in the oblique cases (e.g. dative αὐτῷ), these personal pronouns are often used as indirect reflexives, i.e. reflexives which refer to the subject of the main clause.

Here's Smyth 1225 and 1228(b) on this construction:

1225. Indirect Reflexives. The reflexive pronouns are used indirectly when, in a dependent clause, they refer to the subject of the main clause.
...
1228. Instead of the indirect ἑαυτοῦ, etc., there may be used
a. The oblique cases of αὐτός....
b. Of the forms of the third personal pronoun, οἷ and σφίσι (rarely οὗ, σφεῖς, σφῶν, and σφᾶς). Thus,

"ἠρώτα αὐτὴν εἰ ἐθελήσοι διακονῆσαί οἱ": he asked her if she would be willing to do him a service (Ant. 1.16)
"τοὺς παῖδας ἐκέλευον τοῦ Κύρου δεῖσθαι διαπράξασθαι σφίσιν": they ordered their boys to ask Cyrus to get it done for them (X. C. 1.4.1)
"κελεύουσι γὰρ ἡμᾶς κοινῇ μετὰ σφῶν πολεμεῖν": for they urge us to make war in common with them (And. 3.27) ...

Thus, in your sample case, οἱ is an enclitic dative third person personal pronoun that refers back to the subject of the main clause, i.e. Xenophon himself. This also shows why συμπέμψαι is (as you suspect) an aorist active infinitive.

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  • Thanks. Dang. Blind spot. Failed to check on "οἱ" in all its forms in Perseus: it's there. Straightforward. Commented Mar 6 at 15:59

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