Question on Declension of γη ('earth')

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Prometheus
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Question on Declension of γη ('earth')

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I'm a near-beginner in all sorts of ancient Greek (self-taught), and I've been trying to identify the use of cases in this passage of Genesis. Could someone please correct my guesses and/or comment on why such-and-such a case is used? (Things like the "genitive of separation" are particularly puzzling to me.) Thanks!

1 Και συνετελέσθησαν ο ου?ανος και η γη (NOMINATIVE SING.) και πας ο κόσμος αυτων....
4 Αυτη ή βίβλος γενέσεως ου?ανου και γης (GENITIVE SING.), oτε εγένετο, η ημέ?α εποίησεν ο θεος τον ου?ανον και την γην (ACCUSATIVE SING.)...
5 και παν χλω?ον αγ?ου π?ο του γενέσθαι επι της γης (DATIVE SING.?) και παντα χό?τον αγ?ου π?ο του ανατειλαι ου γα? εβ?εξεν ο θεος επι την γην (ACCUSATIVE SING.?), και άνθ?ωπος ουκ ην ε?γάζεσθαι την γην (ACCUSATIVE SING.).
6 πηγη δε ανέβαινεν εκ της γης (GENITIVE SING.?) και επότιζεν παν το π?όσωπον της γης (GENITIVE SING.).
7 και επλασεν ο θεος τον άνθ?ωπον χουν απο της γης (GENITIVE SING.?) και ενεφ?σησεν εις το π?όσωπον αυτου πνοην ζωης, και εγένετο ο άνθ?ωπος εις ψυχην ζωσαν.

(The text is from the second chapter of Genesis according to the Septuagint text on http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/physis/s ... esis/2.asp. I posted this last month on the little-used Ancient Greek tutorial site http://www.kypros.org/LearnGreek/course/view.php?id=11 but didn't get any replies.)

modus.irrealis
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Re: Question on Declension of γη ('earth')

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Bombichka
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Post by Bombichka »



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Prometheus
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Post by Prometheus »

Thanks for your help! That clears a lot of things up. (Compared to Sanskrit, which I'm more familiar with, it looks like the Genitive must have taken over the job of the missing Locative and Ablative cases.)

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Post by modus.irrealis »



Bombichka
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Post by Bombichka »

modus.irrealis wrote:I'm probably wrong then about the frequency of the two cases, but the gen. was used in Attic Greek for place. There are a number of examples in Liddell & Scott.
yes, you're right, there are some instances of epi + gen. for place listed in the LSJ, most of them taken from Xenophon.

but I think epi + dat. was a far more common way for expressing location in Attic.

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