Here is an image of some examples of more prepositions for me to learn:
With Part III, No. 7, I am supposed to write, "The sailors are going down along the river with difficulty, for they are being pelted with stones by the enemy. "
I wrote, “Ὁι ναῦτας κατὰ τὸν ποτεὸν χαλεπῶν, μετὰ ψὺφων ὐπὸ τῶν πολιμὶων Βὰλλουσιν.” There are accents at syllables before the end that look like grave, but they should be acute.
Here is what the answer book wrote:
I understand two mistakes I made:
I should have used the verb for “come” or “go”.
I should have had “pelt” in the middle/passive voice.
I do not know why the answer book used the preposition, “ἀνὰ” rather than “κατὰ” as the the sailors went “down,” not “up.”
I also do not know why the preposition “μετὰ” was not included, as I was supposed to write, “pelted with,” not just “pelted.”
I think that you are correct with the first. It should be κατὰ for “down along.”
λίθοις is an “instrumental dative” and means “with stones.” μετὰ + gen. means “with” as in “together with” not “using”.
Notice ναῦται (nom.), not ναῦτας. ποταμὸν not ποτεὸν. χαλεπῶς (adv.) not χαλεπῶν. I don’t know what ψὺφων is meant for. πολεμίων not πολιμιων. βάλλονται passive, not βάλλουσιν active.
I am trying to review datives and am getting confused. If the stone is an instrumental dative, would not “the enemy” also be an instrumental dative, since they are the instrument throwing the stones? I am getting very confused as to when to use a preposition and when to let the grammatical case do the work.
Dative of instrument is generally used with inanimate objects. It’s the tool or instrument used to perform an action. The enemy are people, the agents actually performing the action, and so genitive of agent with ὑπό.
