AB URBE CONDITA CONSTRUCTIONS IN GREEK, WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION TO HOMERIC GRAMMAR

Abstract

This article will examine ab urbe condita constructions in Homer (a typical example: ἐς ἠέλιον καταδύντα “until sunset”) and, subsidiarily, in other Greek authors. It aims to prove that these constructions can be distinguished from other analogous ones by four features, to wit: a) the participle is necessary, except in a limited group of verbs (“to be”, “to become” and the like); b) the participle always modifies the nucleus of a prepositional term; c) the participle is predicative, not attributive; d) the participle has a relatively fixed position.