Postpositive

περί is the only true preposition that may be placed after its case in Attic prose: σοφίᾱς πέρι about wisdom P. Phil. 49a, ὧν ἐγὼ οὐδὲν οὔτε μέγα οὔτε μῑκρὸν πέρι ἐπαΐω about which I understand nothing either much or little P. A. 19c. When used with two substantives πέρι is placed between them: τοῦ ὁσίου τε πέρι καὶ τοῦ ἀνοσίου concerning both that which is holy and that which is unholy P. Euth. 4e. πέρι occurs very often in Plato, only once in the orators and possibly twice in Xenophon. On anastrophe, see 175.

a. ἕνεκα and χάριν (usually) and ἄνευ (sometimes) are postpositive. The retention of the postpositive use of περί may be due to the influence of ἕνεκα. In poetry many prepositions are postpositive.

The particles show different degrees of independence as regards their position. Many are completely independent and may occupy any place in the sentence; some may occur only at the beginning (prepositive particles, as ἀτάρ); others find their place only after one or more words at the beginning (postpositive particles, as γάρ, δέ); and some are attached closely to a preceding word o<*> even form compounds with that word wherever it may occur (γέ, τέ).