the Article

[Bert]

Pharr paragraph 660 reads;"Observe that there are no words used regularly in Homeric Greek with the meaning of the English article,...."<br />Is this because Homer writes poetry or is this the case also in prose of that time?<br />Thanks.

[annis]

[quote author=Bert de Haan link=board=2;threadid=213;start=0#1054 date=1057357355]<br />Pharr paragraph 660 reads;"Observe that there are no words used regularly in Homeric Greek with the meaning of the English article,...."<br />Is this because Homer writes poetry or is this the case also in prose of that time?<br />[/quote]<br /><br />There isn't any prose of that time, so we don't know. Herodotus, the first producer of prose in a dialect similar to Homer's, comes 300-400 years after Homer, and there [size=150]ὁ, ἡ, τό have come to be the article ("the"). Even Homer does show some hints of this.<br /><br />All later Greek poetry accepted a strong Homeric influence in this regard (excepting the Lesbians, I think), and so tended to drop the article at will, where all prose used the article.<br />