Expressions of Agency in Ancient Greek

300 Pages·2005·2.2 MB·English

by  Coulter H. George

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ExpressionsofAgencyinAncientGreek
AncientGreekexpressedtheagentsofpassiveverbsbyavarietyofmeans,and
this work explores the language’s development of prepositions which marked
these agents. After an initial look at the pragmatics of agent constructions, it
turnstothiscentralquestion:underwhatconditionsistheagentexpressedbya
constructionotherthan(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:3)withthegenitive?Thebooktracesthedevelopmentof
theseexpressionsfromHomerthroughclassicalproseanddrama,payingattention
to the semantic, syntactic, and metrical conditions that favored the use of one
prepositionoveranother.Itconcludeswithastudyofthedeclineof(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:3)asan
agentmarkerinthefirstmillenniumAD.Althoughthefocusisondevelopmentsin
Greek,translationoftheexamplesshouldrenderitaccessibletolinguistsstudying
changesinprepositionalsystemsgenerally.
Coulter H. George is currently a Research Fellow at Trinity College,
Cambridge.HehaspreviouslytaughtatRiceUniversity.

cambridge classical studies
Generaleditors
R. L. HUNTER, R. G. OSBORNE, M. D. REEVE,
P. D. A. GARNSEY, M. MILLETT, D. N. SEDLEY,
G. C. HORROCKS

EXPRESSIONS OF AGENCY IN ANCIENT GREEK
COULTER H. GEORGE
TrinityCollege,Cambridge
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments page ix
Abbreviations x
1 Passiveverbsandagentconstructions 1
Passivevoice 2
OriginsanddevelopmentofthepassivevoiceinGreek 8
Identifyingpassive-with-agentconstructions(PACs) 16
ThepragmaticsofPACs 19
2 AgentconstructionsinHomer 43
Problematiccases 44
ThedativeofagentinHomer 51
ThegenitiveofagentinHomer 60
(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:3)inHomer 61
AblativalprepositionsinHomer 67
LaterGreekepic 71
Conclusion 76
3 Agentconstructionswithperfectpassiveverbs 78
Theoriginofthedativeofagent 79
ThedevelopmentoftheGreekperfectsystem 81
Thedevelopmentofthedativeofagent 84
Conclusion 102
4 Agentconstructionswithprepositionsotherthan
(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:3):prose 103
Surveyofearlierliterature 103
Motivationfornon-standardagentmarkers:overview 113
Herodotus 115
Thucydides 130
Xenophon 140
Lysias 153
Plato 158
Demosthenes 178
Conclusion 193
vii
contents
5 Agentconstructionswithprepositionsotherthan
(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:3):tragedyandcomedy 195
Aeschylus 196
PrometheusBound 202
Sophocles 204
Euripides 212
Comedy 217
Conclusion 220
6 Thedeclineof(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:3)inagentconstructions 222
Surveyofearlierliterature 223
Septuagint 232
TheNewTestament 240
FromtheNewTestamentthroughthefifthcenturyAD 247
Thesixthcentury 248
Papyri 252
Theeighthtoeleventhcenturies 256
Thetwelfthcentury 258
Conclusion 262
Summary 264
Bibliography 271
Generalindex 277
IndexofGreekwords 281
Indexofpassagesdiscussed 283
viii