Expressions of Time in Ancient Greek

Coulter H. George

Jun 2014 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

How did Ancient Greek express that an event occurred at a particular time, for a certain duration, or within a given time frame? The answer to these questions depends on a variety of conditions - the nature of the time noun, the tense and aspect of the verb, the particular historical period of Greek during which the author lived - that existing studies of the language do not take sufficiently into account. This book accordingly examines the circumstances that govern the use of the genitive, dative, and accusative of time, as well as the relevant prepositional constructions, primarily in Greek prose of the fifth century BC through the second century AD, but also in Homer. While the focus is on developments in Greek, translations of the examples, as well as a fully glossed summary chapter, make it accessible to linguists interested in the expression of time generally.

About the author

Coulter H. George is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Virginia. The author of Expressions of Agency in Ancient Greek (Cambridge, 2005), he has also taught at Rice University, Houston and was a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. His research interests include the syntax of the Greek verb, particles and prepositions, and contact phenomena between Greek and the other languages of the ancient Mediterranean.