ἔδει (edei)

ἔδει is an Ancient Greek form of δέω, meaning “lack, need; (mid.) need, ask for”. It is the 3rd person singular imperfect active indicative.

It can also be a form of δεῖ, “it is necessary, one must”.

Found 1,603 times in the Ancient Greek texts on Socratos.

Where it is used

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.74.4: εἰ δὲ προσεχωρήσαμεν πρότερον τῷ Μήδῳ δείσαντες, ὥσπερ καὶ ἄλλοι, περὶ τῇ χώρᾳ, ἢ μὴ ἐτολμήσαμεν ὕστερον ἐσβῆναι ἐς τὰς ναῦς ὡς διεφθαρμένοι, οὐδὲν ἂν ἔδει ἔτι ὑμᾶς μὴ ἔχοντας ναῦς ἱκανὰς ναυμαχεῖν,ἀλλὰ καθ’ ἡσυχίαν ἂν αὐτῷ προυχώρησε τὰ πράγματα ᾗ ἐβούλετο.

New Testament, John 4.4: Ἔδει δὲ αὐτὸν διέρχεσθαι διὰ τῆς Σαμαρίας.

Lucian of Samosata, Dialogi deorum 8.4: … ήσειας αὐτὸν ἐμοῦ γε οὕνεκα· μέμνησο γοῦν οἷά μοι διὰ τὸν οἰνοχόον τοῦτον ἐμπαροινεῖς. Οὔκ, ἀλλὰ τὸν Ἥφαιστον ἕδει τὸν σὸν υἱὸν οἰνοχοεῖν ἡμῖν χωλεύοντα, ἐκ τῆς καμίνου ἥκοντα, ἔτι τῶν σπινθήρων ἀνάπλεων, ἄρτι τὴν πυράγραν ἀ …

All forms of δέω (conjugation table)

Source: Socratos (socratos.org), a free reader for Ancient Greek and Latin. Grammar from the Perseus Treebank and Morpheus; dictionary entries from Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA). Counts are from the texts on Socratos.