1. as Substantive Verb,
to be, to exist , οὐκ ἔσθ᾽ οὗτος ἀνήρ, οὐδ᾽ ἔσσεται (Odyssey by Homer); τεθνηῶτος, μηδ᾽ ἔτ᾽ ἐόντος (Odyssey by Homer); οὐκέτ᾽ ἔστι he
is no more , (Euripides); θεοὶ αἰὲν ἐόντες (Iliad by Homer); ἐσσόμενοι posterity, (Iliad by Homer); ζώντων καὶ ὄντων Ἀθηναίων (Demosthenes Orator);so of cities, etc, ὄλωλεν, οὐδ᾽ ἔτ᾽ ἔστι Τροία (compare
Troja fuit) , (Euripides) 2. of things,
to be, exist , εἰ ἔστιν ἀληθέως [ἡ τράπεζα] (Herdotus Historicus); ἕως ἂν ὁ πόλεμος ἦι so long as it
last , (Thucydides) 3.
to be , opposite to
appearing to be , as
esse to
videri , τὸν ἐόντα λόγον the
true story, (Herdotus Historicus); τὰ ὄντα ἀπαγγέλλειν (Thucydides); τῶι ὄντι, Lat.
revera, in reality, in fact, (Plato Philosophus) 4. followed by the Relative, οὐκ ἔστιν ὅς,
no one , (Iliad by Homer), etc; εἰσὶν οἵ, Lat.
sunt qui, (Thucydides), etc; ἐστὶν ἅ
some things , (Thucydides); also ἔστιν οἵ, for εἰσὶν οἵ, (Herdotus Historicus), etc;so withrelat. Particles, ἔστιν ἔνθα, Lat.
est ubi, (Xenophon Historicus), etc; ἔστιν ὅπη, ἔσθ᾽ ὅπου,
somewhere , or
somehow , (Plato Philosophus), etc; ἔστιν ὅπως
in some manner , (Herdotus Historicus), etc; ἔστιν ὅτε, ἔσθ᾽ ὅτε,
sometimes , (Sophocles Tragicus), etc. 5. ἔστι
impersonal, with
infinitive, like πάρεστι,
it is possible , (Homer), attic 6.
to be , Copula connecting predicate with subject, both being in the same case, (Homer), etc. 7. sometimes εἶναι with Part. represents finite Verb, ἦν τεθνηκώς, for ἐτεθνήκει, (Aeschulus Tragicus); πεφυκός ἐστι = πέφυκε, (Aristophanes Comicus) 8. the Inf. is redundant in some phrases, ἑκὼν εἶναι (see. ἑκών II); τὸ ἐπ᾽ ἐκείνοις εἶναι
quantum in illis esset , (Thucydides); τὸ σύμπαν εἶναι (Herdotus Historicus); τὸ νῦν εἶναι (Plato Philosophus), etc. (
ML)