A grammar of the Homeric dialect - Wilbourhall.org

246.] GENITIVE ABSOLUTE. 213
the time or circumstances in which the action of
the Verb takes
place :
II. i. 88 ov TIS tfjLv &VTOS KT\. no one, while lam living shall tyc.
2. 551 TrepireAAo^eVcoz/ tviavr&v as years go round.
5. 203 avbp&v etAo/*eVo>z> where men are crowded ; so avbp&v
AiKju&>jjro>i>, avbp&v Tpev, -TroAAoSv \KOVTMV, &c.
Od. i.
390 KCU Kev TOVT efleAotjuu ALOS ye bibovros a/oecr#at that too
I would be willing to obtain if Zeus gave it.
The Subject
is understood in Od. 4. 19 {JLoXirijs ^dp^ovros when
the singer began the music.
The Aorist Participle is less common in Homer than the Present,
especially in the Odyssey: the instances are, II. 8. 164,
468., 9. 426., 10. 246, 356-, ii. 59" I 3- 409-> J 4- 522., 16. 306.,
19. 62, 75., 21. 290, 437., 22. 47, 288, 383, Od. 14. 475., 24.
88, 535 (Classen, Beob. p. 180 ff.j.
The * Genitive Absolute ' must have begun as an extension of
one of the ordinary uses of the Gen. ;
most probably of the Gen.
of Time ( 150). For, ^eAtou aviovros within the time of the suns
rising is a Gen. like rjovs in the morning, VVKTOS by night, &c., and
answers, as a phrase denoting time, to arf i?eA.lcp
KarabvvTi at sunset,
cs f\i\iov KaTabvvra up to sun-set, &c. So we may compare
rovb' avrov XvitdfiavTos eAewerat he will come within this year with
o-*0v v6ab'
r\
eoVro? eAevo-erat he will come within your being here ;
and again TrepireAAojueVcoz; tviavr&v in the years as they go round,
with rS)v irpoTpa)v erecoz> in the former years.
The transition may
be seen in eapos viov ivrapevoio in the spring when it is beginning.
Compare also the phrases brtiyophtov avipav, Bopeao Treo-oWos,
&c. with vr]Vnir]s in calm weather, &c.
The circumstance that the Ablative is the ' Absolute ' Case in Latin is far
from proving that the Greek Gen. in this use is Ablatival. In Sanscrit the
Case used in this way is the Locative, occasionally the Genitive : and the
Latin Abl. Absolute may represent a Locative of time at which, or an Instrumental
of circumstance ( 144). The hypothesis that such Participial Clauses in
Greek expressed space of time within which (rather than point of time, or circumstance)
is borne out by the interesting fact, noticed above, that in Homer
this construction is chiefly found with the Participle which implies continuance,
viz. the Present : whereas in Latin the Abl. Abs. is commonest
with the Perfect Participle.
An approach to a ' Dative Absolute ' may
II. 8. 487 Tpaxrlv \ikv
12. 374 eireiyoftfvoiffi
5' IKOVTO.
'
afKOvaiv eSy