Expressions of Time in Ancient Greek

This book presents a more accurate and detailed analysis of Ancient Greek temporal expressions which supersedes all previous studies.

English speakers find it hard to explain why they say something happens at a particular time, but on a certain day, and in a given year; however this book does just that for Ancient Greek, describing not only variation among Classical authors, but also diachronic change in the following centuries.How did Ancient Greek express that an event occurred at a particular time, for a certain duration, or within a given time frame? The answer to these questions depends on a variety of conditions - the nature of the time noun, the tense and aspect of the verb, the particular historical period of Greek during which the author lived - that existing studies of the language do not take sufficiently into account. This book accordingly examines the circumstances that govern the use of the genitive, dative, and accusative of time, as well as the relevant prepositional constructions, primarily in Greek prose of the fifth century BC through the second century AD, but also in Homer. While the focus is on developments in Greek, translations of the examples, as well as a fully glossed summary chapter, make it accessible to linguists interested in the expression of time generally.