THE DATIVE

 Linguistic development from the Indo-European mother language into Greek has caused various originally separate cases to converge into one form. The basic values of the D seem to have been fourfold: 1) to express the indirect object, 2) to express that which is instrumental to the action, 3) to express that which accompanies the action, 4) to express place & time of the action.

In ordinary practice this results in the following:

 I. Attracted (i.e. occurrence of certain words causes one to expect a D):

a) indirect objects of verbs that mean “to give”and “to say” and suchlike;

b) as complement to the prepositions ἐν (=εἰν), ἐπὶ/ἐπ’/ἐφ΄, παρὰ/παρ’, περὶ, πρὸς, συν, ὑπὸ/ὑπ’/ὑφ’, (μετὰ/μετ’/μεθ’ in Homer); underlined are those which attract only the D.

c) as complement to verbs meaning
            i)“to approach” (μείγνυμι, μίσγω, ὁμιλέω, πελάζω, πλησιάζω),
            ii) “to (make) equal” (ἔοικα, ὁμολογέω, εἰκάζω),
            iii) verbs that express undergoing/causing emotions
                 (ἀγανακτέω, ἀπειλέω, ἥδομαι, (μετα)μέλει, μέμφομαι, ὀργίζομαι,
                        φθονέω, χαλεπαίνω, χαίρω),
           iv) verbs that are composed with dative-accompanied
                 prepositions (not all) (ἐν-, ἐπι-, περι-, προσ-, συν-);

d) as complement to certain adjectives: ὁ αὐτός, εὔνους, ἴδιος, ἐχθρός,
      ἱερός, ἱκανός, ἶσος, κοῖνος, οἰκεῖος, ὅμοιος/ὁμοῖος, ὅμορος, (παρα)πλήσιος,
      πολέμιος, συγγενής, ὑπήκοος, φίλος, and many more of similar            
     meanings.

All the above Datives, and many more, are treated lexically; when consulting the lexicon, due attention must be paid to these aspects.

II. Not attracted:

a) D of possessor: ἔστι μοι ἀδελφός. ("a brother is to me" >) I have a brother.

b) instrumental D: κτενῶ αὐτὸν τῷ ξίφει. I shall kill him with my sword.  

c) D of cause: ἀποθνῄσκουσι φθόνῳ. They are dying of jealousy.

d) D of manner: κόσμῳ προβαίνετε. Proceed in order.

e) D of time/place: ταύτῃ τῇ νήσῳ ἐγενόμην τρίτῳ μετὰ τὸν πόλεμον ἔτει. I was born on that island in the third year after the war.

f) D of agent: Διὶ πεπρωμένον ἐστίν. It has been ordained by Zeus.

g) D of measure: πολλῷ μείζών εἰμί. I am much bigger.

h) D of relation: ἀνὰ τὸν Νεῖλον πλέοντι Μέμφις ἐν δεξίῳ ἔστιν. To a person sailing up the Nile Memphis is on the right.

k) ethical D: a person not actually engaged in the action, but (supposed to be) deeply interested in it: τότέ σοι μάχη ἐγένετο δεινή. At that moment, mind you, a terrible fightbroke out.

III. Agreeing Datives.