4 - Agent constructions with prepositions other than ὑπό: prose

Summary

While ὑπό is by far the most common agent marker in classical Greek prose, other prepositions do occur in its place. In this chapter, I will explore the linguistic motivation for these non-standard agent markers. Generally speaking, there are two factors that affect the selection of agent markers. The more important is the semantic field to which the verb belongs: verbs of sending and giving often use an ablatival preposition like ἐκ or παρά^+G; verbs of thinking often use a locatival preposition like πρός or παρά^+D. The second, lesser factor concerns the syntax of the verb: participles sometimes take different agent markers than would finite verbs. The body of this chapter will examine the works of six major prose authors in turn (Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Lysias, Plato, and Demosthenes) to demonstrate how these two factors affect the expression of the agent.

Survey of earlier literature

Scholarship on this question has been surprisingly scarce. Aside from the section in Kühner–Gerth (1898) on the uses of prepositions generally, the chief existing studies are Schwyzer’s lengthy article on agent constructions (1943) and a brief article on agenthood by Luraghi (2000). Both Kühner–Gerth and Schwyzer suffer from a failure to address the conditions under which non-standard agent markers are used. They merely offer lists of examples, and vague statements as to their distribution in the various authors.