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(4) EI is used in wishes or prayers to the god, often in the combination εἴθε or εἰ γάρ (EI = if or if only).
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(5) EI, if, is an indispensable word in logic for the construction of a syllogism (EI = if).
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(6) Five is a most important number in mathematics, physiology, philosophy, and music (EI = E, five).
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(7) EI means thou art and is the address of the consultant to Apollo, to indicate that the god has eternal being (EI = thou art).This explanation is accepted by Poulsen (Delphi, p. 149), but is open to very serious objections.
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Attempts to explain the letter have been also made in modern times by Göttling, Berickte der Sacks. Gesell. der Wiss. I. (1846-47) pp. 311 if., and by Schultz in Philologus (1866), pp. 214 if. Roscher, in Philologus (1900), pp. 21 if.; (1901), pp. 81 if.; (1902), pp. 513 if.; Hermes (1901), pp. 470 ff. (comment also by C. Robert in the same volume, p. 490), and the Philologische Wochenschrift (1922), col. 1211, maintains that EI is an imperative from εἶμι, go, addressed to the person who carne to consult the oracle, and that it means go on, continue into the temple. The value of this explanation is somewhat doubtful, since EI in this word (εἶμι) is a true diphthong, and so is not generally spelled with simple E except in the Corinthian alphabet. Although Roscher cites a few examples from inscriptions in other dialects where the true diphthongal EI seems to be represented by simple E, his evidence is not convincing.
