Prepositions (ἡ πρόθεσις)
Preposition is a part of speech, like noun or verb or adjective, in both English and ancient Greek. Its ancient Greek name is πρόθεσις, which means “put before,” which is generally the placement of a preposition in relation to the noun it governs. (“Preposition” comes from Latin that also means “put before.”) Prepositions carry a fixed accent that you should learn as you learn the word.
A preposition is used to create a relationship between a noun and another word. A preposition and a noun create a prepositional phrase. That prepositional phrase may act adjectivally to modify another noun or adverbially to modify a predicate. Compare the uses of the prepositional phrase “on the beach” in these two English sentences:
The women on the beach were playing. (describes which women, adjectival)
The women were playing on the beach. (describes where they were playing, adverbial)
The nouns in a prepositional phrase in ancient Greek will be in the genitive, dative, or accusative case. We have already learned that noun cases in Greek have particular functions. These functions broadly determine which of the cases will be the object of a particular preposition. For example, the genitive conveys motion away from, the dative is used for a stationary position, and the accusative for motion toward or into. That relationship of case and function is apparent also with some prepositions that take more than one case of noun: which case is used shades the meaning of the preposition, sometimes subtly, sometimes substantially.
Therefore, it is important as you learn prepositions as vocabulary that you also learn which case(s) of noun each takes as its object, and how the case of the object affects the meaning of the preposition. Preposition usage in English is highly idiomatic, and so the practice of translation requires, as always, a good understanding of what the Greek is expressing and how English expresses that same idea, rather than a single equivalence of word to word.
Frequently used prepositions that take only one case
| Preposition | case of noun object | English near-equivalents |
|---|---|---|
| ἀπό | + genitive | away from, from |
| εἰς | + accusative | into, to, toward, in regard to |
| ἐκ, ἐξ | + genitive | out of, from |
| ἐν | + dative | in, on, among, within |
| σύν | + dative | with |
Note that the prepositions εἰς, ἐκ/ἐξ, and ἐν are proclitics, so they do not carry an accent or affect the accent of other words in a sentence.
Frequently used prepositions that take more than one case
| Preposition | case of noun object | English near-equivalents |
|---|---|---|
| ἐπί | + genitive | near, at, upon |
| ἐπί | + dative | at, on, upon, in addition to |
| ἐπί | + accusative | to, onto, up to, toward; against |
| κατά | + genitive | down from, against |
| κατά | + accusative | down to, down along, in accordance with |
| μετά | + genitive | among, with |
| μετά | + accusative | after |
| παρά | + genitive | from the side of |
| παρά | + dative | at the side of, next to, beside |
| παρά | + accusative | to the side of, beside, beyond, contrary to |
| περί | + genitive | around, about |
| περί | + dative | around, about |
| περί | + accusative | around, concerning |
| πρός | + genitive | from |
| πρός | + dative | near, beside; in addition to |
| πρός | + accusative | to, toward, against; regarding |
| ὑπό | + genitive | from under; by (personal agent, see below) |
| ὑπό | + dative | under (stationary), at the hands of |
| ὑπό | + accusative | under (motion toward) |
Compound Verbs
In the previous module, you saw how Greek can create new vocabulary by adding prefixes to basic verbs. These prefixes are drawn from the prepositions, and the resulting compound verb will have a more specific meaning that reflections the idea of the preposition. For example, ἔρχομαι “to go” –> εἰσέρχομαι “to go into, enter,” or δίδωμι “to give” -> παραδίδωμι “to hand over, entrust to someone”.
Agent: a use of the preposition ὑπό + genitive
We have seen that the subject of a passive verb is the recipient of the action expressed by that verb: for example, “he is caught.” To express who is the agent of the action of the passive verb, English uses the preposition “by”: “he is caught by her husband.” Ancient Greek expresses the personal agent of a passive verb with the preposition ὑπό plus a noun in the genitive. You can remember the three “P’s” of personal agent: passive verb, preposition ὑπό, and person in the genitive case.
Example:
ἡ ἐμὴ γυνὴ ὑπὸ τούτου τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ὤφθη, “My wife was seen by that man.”
The verb is aorist passive: “my wife was seen.” The phrase ὑπὸ τούτου τοῦ ἀνθρώπου expresses the agent who did the seeing: “by that man.”