H&Q 8.15 Parsing/Translation Help?

Greek Learning Greek
1

Hey guys..
I suspect unusual case functions here w/ the middle voice verb, and yet this one eludes me.

ἦγεν εἰς τὸ πεδίον τοὺς στ?ατιώτᾱς ὡς δὴ μάχης ἀ?ξόμενος.

as i read this, the cases/conj’s go…
ἦγεν - acc. s. masc.
εἰς - prep. + acc
τὸ - nom/acc. n. sing. art.
πεδίον - n. acc. sing.
τοὺς στ?ατιώτᾱς - acc. m. plur.
ὡς - causal part.
δὴ - emph. part.
μάχης - gen. f. sing
ἀ?ξόμενος - pres. nom. m. sing. part.

so…i know that ἀ?ξό (+ gen) in the middle voice has the meaning to begin. but how does the middle voice participle here work w/ multiple nouns in the accusative (although certainly one is linked to the prep. eis).
is τὸ a substantive neuter nominative, rather than an accusative article for
πεδίον ?
where am i wrong here? can someone explain this to me?

cheers!!!
jordan.

2

Indeed, ‘τὸ πεδίον’ is accusative, and it is the object of ‘εἰς’ (the preposition ‘εἰς’ ALWAYS takes objects in the accusative - no exception), and ‘τοὺς στ?ατιώτᾱς’ is the object of ἦγεν. Therefore none of the accusatives in this sentence are the objects of ἀ?ξόμενος, so you really don’t have to concern yourself with how the middle voice participle takes accusative objects (though just because in this sentence the middle voice participle does not have a direct relationship with accusative nouns, there are sentences where the relationship would be direct),