Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges

---

CASE OF THE SUBJECT: THE NOMINATIVE

[*] 938. The nominative is the case of the subject; the oblique cases, with the exception of the adnominal genitive (1290 ff.) and adnominal dative (1502), are complements of the predicate.

[*] 939. The nominative is the case of the subject of a finite verb and of a predicate noun in agreement with the subject. ““Πρόξενος παρῆν” Proxenus was present” X. A. 1.2.3, Κλέαρχος φυγὰς ἦν Clearchus was an exile 1. 1. 9.

a. On the nominative subject of the infinitive, see 1973; in exclamations, 1288.

[*] 940. Independent Nominative.—The nominative may be used independently in citing the names of persons and things: προσείληφε τὴν τῶν πονηρῶν κοινὴν ἐπωνυμία_ν συ_κοφάντης he received the common appellation of the vile, i.e. ‘informer’ Aes. 2.99, τὸ δ᾽ ὑ_μεῖς ὅταν λέγω, λέγω τὴν πόλιν when I say You, I mean the State D. 18.88. Cp. 908. (The accus. is also possible.) So in lists (cp. 904 c): ““τίθημι δύο ποιητικῆς εἴδη: θεία_ μὲν καὶ ἀνθρωπίνη” I assume two kinds of poetry: the divine and the human” P. Soph. 266d.

[*] 941. A sentence may begin with the nominative as the subject of the thought in place of an oblique case: οἱ δὲ φίλοι, ἄ_ν τις ἐπίστηται αὐτοῖς χρῆσθαι, τί φήσομεν αὐτοὺς εἶναι; but as for friends, if one knows how to treat them, what shall we call them? X. O. 1.14 (for τοὺς δὲ φίλους . . . τί φήσομεν εἶναι).

a. On the nominative in suspense see under Anacoluthon (Index).

[*] 942. In referring to himself in letters a man may use his own name in the nominative, either in apposition to the first person contained in the verb (976), or as subject of a verb in the third person: Θεμιστοκλῆς ἥκω παρὰ σέ I, Themistocles, have come to you T. 1.137, ““Ἀρταξέρξης νομίζει” Artaxerxes thinks” X. H. 5.1.31.

a. A speaker referring to himself in the third person usually soon reverts to the first person (D. 18.79).

[*] 943. When there is no danger of obscurity, the subject may shift without warning: μίαν μὲν ναῦν λαμβάνουσιν, τὰ_ς δ᾽ ἄλλα_ς οὐκ ἐδυνήθησαν, ἀλλ᾽ ἀποφεύγουσιν they captured one ship; the rest they were unable to capture; but they (the ships) escaped T. 7.25, τῶν νόμων αὐτῶν ἀκούετε τί κελεύουσι καὶ τί παραβεβήκα_σιν hear what the laws themselves command and what transgressions they (my opponents) have committed D. 59.115.