What is this word and what is it doing?

Question

I'm reading Ανάβασις by Xenophon. Here Klearchos has basically said: "someone else might want to command at this point".

ὡς δὲ τῷ ἀνδρὶ ὃν ἂν ἕλησθε πείσομαι ᾗ δυνατὸν μάλιστα, ἵνα εἰδῆτε ὅτι καὶ ἄρχεσθαι ἐπίσταμαι ὥς τις καὶ ἄλλος μάλιστα ἀνθρώπων.

It's this word ᾗ that mystifies me. From Perseus and Wiktionary I find 3 possibilities:

• ᾗ adverb: which way; whither; how; as; wherefore; insofar as
• ὅς --> ᾗ: dat. f. s. "to which"
• ἵημι: I release; let go; speak; throw; send; etc. ᾗ: aor. act. subj. "he may have released" OR 2s aor. midd. subj. "you may have been released"

Something makes me suspect that it's the dative relative pronoun here which is the most likely, as πείσομαι almost certainly comes from πείθω (πείσομαι is also 1s fut. midd. ind. of πάσχω), which in the middle voice means "obey" and is followed by the dative.

But if that is the case, what is the feminine noun involved here? For reference, the preceding 2 sentences are:

--ὡς μὲν στρατηγήσοντα ἐμὲ ταύτην τὴν στρατηγίαν μηδεὶς ὑμῶν λεγέτω· πολλὰ γὰρ ἐνορῶ δι᾽ ἃ ἐμοὶ τοῦτο οὐ ποιητέον·

So could ᾗ be referring to στρατηγία? If so I still don't get the grammar involved.

Answer 1

ᾗ is the adverb here, which has a particular usage with a superlative. Liddell & Scott actually cite this exact passage:

III. with Sup., ᾗ ἐδύνατο τάχιστα as quickly as he could, X.An.1.2.4, etc.; ᾗ δυνατὸν μάλιστα ib.1.3.15; (...)

(Wiktionary also has a meaning "as ... as possible (with a form of δύναμαι (dúnamai))", but it doesn't fully understand the construction; it's not δύναμαι that's important, but the superlative.)

You're right about the meaning of πείσομαι. "πείσομαι ᾗ δυνατὸν μάλιστα" means "I will obey as well as possible".