Genitive › dependent › genitive of time and place
GENITIVE OF TIME AND PLACE
Time.—The genitive denotes the time within which, or at a certain point of which, an action takes place. As contrasted with the accusative of time (1582), the genitive denotes a portion of time. Hence the genitive of time is partitive. Cp. τὸν μὲν χειμῶνα ῡ̔́ει ὁ θεός, τοῦ δὲ θέρεος χρηίσκονται τῷ ὕδατι during the (entire) winter the goo<*>rains, but in (a part of) summer they need the water 3.117.
ἡμέρᾱς by day, νυκτός at or by night, μεσημβρίᾱς at midday, δείλης in the afternoon, ἑσπέρᾱς in the evening, θέρους in summer, χειμῶνος in winter, ἦρος in spring, ὀπώρᾱς in autumn, τοῦ λοιποῦ in the future. The addition of article or attributive usually defines the time more exactly. Thus, οὐκοῦν ἡδὺ μὲν θέρους ψῡχεινὴν ἔχειν, ἡδὺ δὲ χειμῶνος ἀλεεινήν; is it not pleasant to have (a house) cool in summer, and warm in winter? M. 3.8.9, ᾤχετο τῆς νυκτός
he departed during the night A. 7.2.17, καὶ ἡμέρᾱς καὶ νυκτὸς ἄγων ἐπὶ τοὺς πολεμίους both by day and by night leading against the enemy 2. 6. 7, ἔλεγον τοῦ λοιποῦ μηκέτι ἐξεῖναι ἀνομίᾱς ἄρξαι they said that for the future (at any time in the future) it should no longer be permitted to set an example of lawlessness 5. 7. 34. (Distinguish τὸ λοιπόν for the (entire) future 3. 2. 8.) ἐντός within is sometimes added to the genitive.
The addition of the article may have a distributive sense: δραχμὴν ἐλάμβανε τῆς ἡμέρᾱς
he received a drachm a day 3.17.
The genitive may denote the time since an action has happened or the time until an action will happen: οὐδείς μέ πω ἠρώτηκε καινὸν οὐδὲν πολλῶν ἐτῶν
for many years nobody has put a new question to me G. 448a, βασιλεὺς οὐ μαχεῖται δέκα ἡμερῶν
the king will not fight for ten days A. 1.7.18.
The genitive may or may not denote a definite part of the time during which anything takes place; the dative fixes the time explicitly either by specifying a definite point in a given period or by contracting the whole period to a definite point; the accusative expresses the whole extent of time from beginning to end: cp. τῇ δὲ ὑστεραίᾳ οἱ μὲν Ἀθηναῖοι τό τε προάστειον εἷλον καὶ τὴν ἡμέρᾱν ἅπᾱσαν ἐδῄουν τὴν γῆν, οἵ τε τριᾱκόσιοι τῶν Σκιωναίων τῆς ἐπιούσης νυκτὸς ἀπεχώρησαν
on the next day the Athenians captured the suburb and laid waste the land for that entire day, while the three hundred Scionaeans departed in the course of the following night 4.130; ἡμέρᾳ δὲ ἀρξάμενοι τρίτῃ ὡς οἴκοθεν ὥρμησαν, ταύτην τε εἰργάζοντο καὶ τὴν τετάρτην καὶ τῆς πέμπτης μέχρι ᾱ̓ρίστου beginning on the third day after their departure, they continued their work (all) this day and the fourth, and on the fifth until the mid-day meal 4. 90.
a. The genitive of time is less common than the dative of time (1539) with ordinals, or with ὅδε, οὗτος, ἐκεῖνος; as ταύτης τῆς νυκτός 6.97, Cr. 44a, ἐκείνου τοῦ μηνός
in the course of that month M. 4.8.2. For θέρους we find ἐν θέρει rarely and, in poetry, θέρει. 4.133 has both τοῦ αὐτοῦ θέρους and ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ θέρει in the course of the same summer; cp. ἶσος ῥέει ἔν τε θέρεϊ καὶ χειμῶνι ὁ Ἴστρος 4.50 and Ἴστρος ἶσος ῥέει θέρεος καὶ χειμῶνος 4. 48 (the Ister flows with the same volume in summer and winter).
In the index: Genitive case · Time · Accusative case · Dative case