I;n trying to read the opening passage of “Prometheus Bound” and have a question about this sentence:
῞Ηϕαιστε, σοὶ δὲ χρὴ μέλειν ἐπιστολὰς ἅς σοι πατὴρ ἐϕεῖτο (enjoined on),
The note says ἐπιστολὰς is the subject of μέλειν (which governs the dative σοί).
Betts, Gavin; Henry, Alan. Complete Ancient Greek: A Comprehensive Guide to Reading and Understanding Ancient Greek, with Original Texts (Complete Language Courses) (pp. 259-260). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition.
My question is why ἐπιστολὰς is in the accusative if it’s the subject. Is it “attracted” to the accusative case because of the following clause ἅς σοι πατὴρ ἐϕεῖτο? Or is χρὴ followed by an accusative + infinitive as in reported speech?
It’s the subject of an infinitive (μέλειν), and subjects of infinitives are routinely accusative unless they’re also the subject of the leading verb (here χρή, which has no grammatical subject). And yes xρή is routinely accompanied by acc.&infin. So, semi-literally, “you should attend to the commands your father gave you." There’s no grammatical attraction of anything.