Greek grammar
The dative
δοτικὴ πτῶσις
The dative marks to whom or for whom something is done. It also took over the work of two older cases, so it says by what means, and where or when.
What it does
- The indirect object: ἐκείνῳ τὴν νίκην ἀπονεῖμαι, “to give the victory to that one”.
- With impersonal verbs: ἔδοξε δὲ αὐτοῖς, “it seemed good to them”.
- Means and cause: σφετέρῃσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὄλοντο, “they died by their own recklessness”.
- Place and time, often with ἐν: ἐν ἀρχῇ, “in the beginning”; ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ, “in the darkness”.
How to spot it
In the singular the dative’s vowel carries an iota written underneath it (-ῳ, -ῃ, -ᾳ): a quick sign of the case.
Endings
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | τῷ | τῇ | τῷ |
| Plural | τοῖς | ταῖς | τοῖς |
Nouns: -ῳ, -οις (2nd declension), -ῃ, -ᾳ, -αις (1st), -ι, -σι(ν) (3rd). Homer lengthens the plurals to -οισι(ν) and -ῃσι(ν).
In the texts
Real lines from the graded passages, as the reader shows them: the dative stands out in its colour, and an arc joins the word to what it goes with.
ἔδοξε δὲ αὐτοῖς ἐκείνῳ τὴν νίκην ἀπονεῖμαι, ὃς ἂν αὐτῶν ἄνθρωπον ὁδοιπόρον ἐκδύσῃ.
It seemed good to them to assign the victory to him, whichever of them should strip a traveling man.
Ἐκείνῳ is the one the victory goes to; αὐτοῖς, to them, goes with ἔδοξε.
καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Ἐν with the dative gives the place: in the darkness.
αὐτῶν γὰρ σφετέρῃσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὄλοντο, νήπιοι, οἳ κατὰ βοῦς Ὑπερίονος Ἠελίοιο ἤσθιον·
For they perished through their own recklessness, fools who devoured the cattle of Hyperion Helios.
Ἀτασθαλίῃσιν, in Homer’s long plural ending, gives the cause: they died by their own recklessness.
Words read in the dative
Words from the library’s analysed texts, with the forms they took in the dative.