I’m trying my hand at Herodotus. On the very first page we find the following: ἀπικομένους δὲ τούς Φοίνικας ἐς δὴ τὸ Ἄργος τοῦτο διατίθεσθαι τὸν φόρτον.
Why is the subject in the accusative?
Then a couple of lines later: ἐλθεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν γυναῖκας ἄλλας τε πολλάς καὶ δὴ καὶ τοῦ βασιλέος θυγατέρα
Steadman notes that we see here an accusative subject of an infinitive. Is there a similar construction for an accusative subject of a participle?
1.1.1 has φασὶ which extends all the way there. So it is an accusative + infinitive clause.
As for the second question, a participle would agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it refers to. In the first quote ἀπικομένους is a participle agreeing with the subject τούς Φοίνικας in the accusative.
Helpful; thankyou.
Does the indirect speech encompass the participial construction too? Is that why it is accusative?
It is in the accusative because it refers to the subject of the clause, τούς Φοίνικας. Ancient Greek uses participles much more often than English. Instead of having this ugly sentence: ἀπικέσθαι τούς Φοίνικας καὶ διατίθεσθαι τὸν φόρτον, Herodotus uses only the second infinitive and a participle instead of the first.
Yes, once the narrative has shifted into acc.& infin., all governed by the earlier φασι, you can have lots of subject accusatives, usually with participles in agreement with them, leading up to infinitives representing what in direct speech would be the main verbs.
So in this sentence we have a pair of aorist participial phrases in the accusative and eventually an infinitive: “having arrived … and … having settled this land … they immediately applied themselves (aor.infin.) to long boats.”
And the next sentence follows the same basic pattern: “and carrying Egyptian and Assyrian merchandise … they arrive (present infin.) … at Argos” …
“and having arrived at this Argos the Phoenicians set out (pres.infin.) their cargo”
“and on the fifth or sixth day … almost everything having been sold (gen.absol.), women came (aor.infin.), many others and a daughter of the king.”
And on goes the tale. It’s a narrative style with a clearly organized structure, easy to follow without being at all monotonous. Herodotus makes very good reading.
You have been very helpful. I am most grateful.