Attic basic prepositions questions

Greek Learning Greek
1

Hey, I’m trying to translate the following three sentences:

  1. The brothers that are at home help their friends.
  2. the brothers help their friends that are at home.
  3. the brothers help at home to their friends.

Basically I’ve translated all of them to: “Οἱ ἀδελφοί ἐν ὄικῳ συμπράττουσιν φιλοῖς.” Is this correct? and since word order is fluid in Attic, I can’t see how changing the position of ἐν ὄικῳ will change the meaning of the sentence! How should I translate each of the sentences above?

Thanks

2

I’m no expert but try:

  1. Οἱ ἀδελφοί οἱ ἐν ὄικῳ συμπράττουσιν τοῖς φίλοις
  2. Οἱ ἀδελφοί συμπράττουσιν τοῖς φίλοις τοῖς ἐν ὄικῳ
    The article is what provides the emphasis. The example you give should work for 3.
3

From Sidgwick:

Thus, compare the two sentences–

(1.) > I killed the stranger > from Corinth.
(2.) > I killed the stranger > in the street.

It is clear that in (1) ‘from Corinth’ belongs to the ‘stranger;’ while in (2) ‘in the street’ belongs > not > to ‘stranger,’ but to the verb. In English, the > sense only > is our guide, not the structure. In Greek we know at once what is meant from the use of the Article.

Thus (1) is

τὸν ξένον τὸν ἀπὸ Κορίνθου ἔκτεινα

and (2) is

τὸν ξένον ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ ἔκτεινα

4

Some minor points. Beside φίλοις as already corrected, it should be ἀδελφοὶ with the grave accent and οἴκῳ (accent and breathing on the second letter of the diphthong).

5

Let me just add to these good replies—which you should study before reading this—that there is also another way of binding ἐν οἴκῳ to the noun it belongs to, and that is by sandwiching it between the article and its noun:

  1. οἱ ἐν οἴκῳ ἀδελφοὶ βοηθουσι τοις φιλοις.
  2. οι αδελφοι βοηθουσι τοις εν οικω φιλοις.
  3. οι αδελφοι εν οικω βοηθουσι τοις φιλοις.

In 1, it’s “the at-home brothers” that help their friends.
In 2, It’s “the at-home friends” that the brothers help.
In 3, It’s “at home” that the brothers help their friends.
So these three different Greek sentences, just like daivid’s above, correspond in sense to the three different English ones.

It works just the same with adjectives too, not just with prepositional phrases like εν οικω. Anything put between the article and its noun is restricted to that noun, just as anything put after a repeated article (e.g. οἱ αδελφοι οἱ εν οικω) is likewise restricted to that noun.

#1 has these three parts:
The brothers that are at home, οι-εν-οικω-αδελφοι or οι-αδελφοι οι-εν-οικω
help, βοηθουσι
their friends, τοις-φιλοις.
The order of these three parts is not fixed (you can say e.g. βοηθουσι τοις-φιλοις οι-εν-οικω-αδελφοι without changing the basic meaning), but if you untie εν οικω from οι αδελφοι by freeing it from the article, that results in a different meaning—as exemplified by ## 2 and 3.

The article is a very useful little thing.