Dative of location

Greek Homeric Greek and Early Greek Poetry
1

(I’m referring to the use of a dative noun to indicate the location of the verb’s action in poetic dialects.)


Is this just [size=150]ἐν[/size] +dative with the [size=150]ἐν[/size] left off?

Or, is the meaning in any way different from [size=150]ἐν[/size] +dative?

2

The meaning will often be the same, but the dative should be considered on its own. The IE locative case merged with the dative in Greek, and this poetic usage is the last vestage of it (along with things like οἴκοι). It merely indicates a fixed location; a preposition refines that meaning.

Smyth 1531 has various examples, too.

3

Ah, thanks William.


…So, it’s basically the exact opposite of what I guessed. Perhaps I need to look at the Sanscrit noun cases and find their Greek equivalents, to see the logic behind there things.

4

Do you mean that this usage is mostly poetic?
I think that Romans 14:10 is an instance of dative of location (πάντες γὰρ παραστησόμεθα τῳ βήματι τοῦ θεοῦ.)
I knew that this usage is not that common in koine but is this also a rare exception even in earlier Greek?

5

I think Smyth does a good job of this, actually, though he doesn’t make direct reference to Sanskrit. If you look at the dative section you’ll see that he splits it up into proper dative, locative and instrumental sections (1450). Same with the proper and ablative genitive.

6

Yep.

I think that Romans 14:10 is an instance of dative of location (> πάντες γὰρ παραστησόμεθα τῳ βήματι τοῦ θεοῦ.> )

Well, once a verb is compounded with a preposition all sorts of case fun can happen. I’d take the dative here to be the result of παρα‐ in the verb, not a true bare dative of location.