§ 28.

THE IMPERSONAL CONSTRUCTION 173

a kernel, this sentential component is itself of NVQ form. We are left with
only a very few cases where no definite sentential subject or kernel can be
identified from the context.
Hence the NVQ pattern, which is typical for Greek generally, is well-nigh
universal in Homer. Although we find a considerable increase in the number
and variety of impersonal constructions in classic Attic, this form still
remains marginal in comparison, say, with the importance of impersonals
like es rauscht or esfriert mich in modem German. I illustrate the three types,
with special reference to the use of eIIl!.

§28. IMPERSONAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF ELEMENTARY FORM (TYPE 1):

BXPRESSIONS FOR WEATHER AND TIME

The privileged domain of elementary impersonals is the class of meteorologi-

cal verbs, illustrated above by modem Greek ~pexel "It rains" and STJlleprovel
"It dawns", "Day breaks". There are no examples of this type to be found
in the Homeric corpus.10o Statements concerning the weather are given either
(a) with the name of a god as subject N, given in the sentence or specified
by the context, as n.9.236 Ze~ ... Q.CT'tpa1t-rel "Zeus sends lightning", or
(b) the weather event itself is expressed as noun with a verb of occurrence
(Od. 14.476 xuov yeve-r' ",tYre 1taXVTJ "Snow came like hoarfrost") or with
an ordinary descriptive verb (n. 12.278 6)<;; -re vupaoe<;; X16vo<;; m1t-rcoO"l
3allelat "as flakes of snow fall thick").
Closely related to meteorological verbs are the locutions for time of day
or season of the year. In Homer these are normally of form (b) above:
11. 9.474 lhe 81) 8elCa-rTJ 1l0t t1t11A.u3e vU!; "when the tenth night came upon
me", 11. 21.111 ~O"O"t'talf't ",roe;; i't 8etA.TJ f't 1lE000v i'lllap/61t1t6-re ... There will be
a dawn, an afternoon, or midday, when ... ", yeve-r' ",roe;;, tcpaVTJ ",roe;; "Dawn
arose, appeared." These sentences with a verb of occurrence belong to a
subclass of Type V existentials; see Chapter VI §§ 15 and 16. In post-
Homeric Greek the verb of occurrence with nouns of time and weather is
typically ytyve-ral: Hdt. 1.11.1 d><;; 8e T!llePTJ -raX10"-ra tyey6vee "as soon as
it was day", I.12.1 VUlC'tOc;; yevollEVTJ<;; "when night had come".
The absence of impersonal constructions for weather and time in Homer
is all the more striking in view of the contrast not only with Modem Greek
STJlleprovel "it dawns" but with the probable existence of a corresponding
impersonal verb in the etymological background of'f)roc;; (cf. Sanscrit uccMti,
Lithuanian auJta "it dawns"). There is no reason to suppose that the

100 See Hermann, "Subjektlose Sitze", pp. 275f. Cf. Chantraine, Gran/moire homo lI, p. 7
§9, Remarque; Schwyzer-Debrunner p. 621.3.
174 IV. DESCRIPTION OF THE COPULA USES

Homeric situation is in any sense primitive: it represents a high point in

the development of the personal or NVD sentence type for expressions which
other languages, and other periods of Greek, render in impersonal form. 101
If we take into account the vivid pictorial value of 1'j~ PoOOoaKWA.O~
"Dawn the rosyfingered", like Zeus the Thunderer or Poseidon the Earth-
shaker, we see that the suppression or repersonalizing of impersonal meteoro-
logical verbs in Homer corresponds to the dramatic anthropomorphism of
Greek epic poetry, and to a certain descriptive vividness in Greek art and
literature generally. In any case, the Homeric precedent remains influential.
In classical prose a divine subject for a verb like uet need not be provided,
but ZEu~ uet remains possible, just as one may also say () E>EO~ ppeXEt "God
rains" in Modem Greek. 102
Nevertheless, even in Homer some expressions for time are open to an
impersonal construal of scr'ti as copula or verb of occurrence. In most cases,
I think, the NVD or N is «J construction is far more natural, as in 11. 8.66
( = 11.84), lScppa J,LSV 1'jro~ ~v Kai a.t~e'to {epov ~Jlap, "As long as morning
lasted and the sacred daylight was increasing", and Od. 23.371 11011 J,LSV
cpO;~ ~ev trrl xlMva "Light was already (spread) over the earth." 103 But
the surface syntax is no longer unambiguous in a sentence like the following:

140 Od. 3.180

'ta'tpa'tov ~Jlap ~11V, 5'te ...
"It was the fourth day, when (they landed their ships in Argos)."
The translation suggests an impersonal copula construction ( ) was AN,
but we can also construe this as a normal N is A copula "The day was the
fourth", or we can take ~Jlap as subject of a verb of occurrence: "The fourth
day was taking place, when", like 1'jro~ ~v and oeKO;'t11 JlOt s1t11A.u3e vU~ cited
above. These parallels show that we need not take ~11V as impersonal or
subjectless in 140. However, we certainly can do SO,104 and this possibility
is one which will later be exploited.

101 Meillet believed that the personal weather expressions in Homer reflected a primitive
I.-E. animism, but the more plausible view is that of Benveniste: "Les locutions ~ Ott
sont, a n'en pas douter, rkentes et en quelque sorte rationaUsees a rebours" (PrQbUmes
de iinguistique geniraie, p. 230).
1011 Hence some ancient grammarians descdbed these meteorological verbs as Seta ~f)j.lafa
"divine verbs"; see Miklosich, Subjektwse Siitze p. 7.
108 See the discussion of these two examples as sentences 103 and III in Chapter VI
§§15-16.
104 As Hermann proposes, p. 269. Some of his parallels seem to be less ambiguous.
E.g. Od. 10.469 6t& of) ~. Ma\)f~ fTtv "when the year end had come" seems to me
syntactically equivalent to lXppa 1I~ flv. For 11. 8.373 A<rta\ ~ 6t&, see my discussion
below of sentences 95 and 96 in Chapter VI § 14.
 § 28. THE IMPERSONAL CONSTRUCTION 175

141 Od. 12.312 (~14.483)

iIi~o~ 0& 'tpiXa Vl)lc'to~ ~11V, ~s'ta o· licr'tpa j3sj3lllCSt
"When it was the third watch of the night, and the stars had
moved across the sky."
(after Palmer)
It is again possible to take this as an impersonal (it) is PN, "'twas in the
third watch of the night" (so LSJ s.v. 'tp{Xa). The classical parallels cited
in the next paragraph tell in favor of this construction. But it is also possible,
within the context of Homeric usage, to preserve the NV form by taking
'tp{Xa vl)1c't6~ as a nominalized phrase in military jargon for "the third
watch", with ii11V as verb of occurrence. If we adopt this NV construction for
140 and 141, there will be no impersonal expressions for time or weather
in Homer.
This solution, which may be plausible in Homer because of the small
number of cases involved, becomes absurdly artificial in classical prose,
where similar formulas are so frequent that we are obliged to recognize an
impersonal sentence form (it) is lP, with adverbs and prepositional phrases
of time as the values of <1>:

1JvilCa o· iliv d~L<pi 'tt)v 'tSASU'ta{av <puAalCllv

"it was about the last watch" (Xen. Anab. IV.1.S)
11011 J.Ltv d~<pi 1JA.iou oucr~~ iliv
"it was now about sunset" (ibid. VIA.26)
6'l'& iliv
"it was late" (ibid. II.2.16)
ti'\~ 1J~p~ 6'l'& iliv
"it was late in the day" (Thuc. IV.93.1)

To assume that we have in every case an understood subject N like time or

hour (Xp6vo~. Olpa), or to take these adverbial and prepositional phrases as
subject, seems to me equally arbitrary.los Better to admit an impersonal
construction here, competing with or replacing the NV construction that
may still be recognized in 1JV£lCa 0& osi)..11 tyiyvs'to, 1JV£lCa o' iliv osi)..11 (Anab.
1.8.8, IIIA.34, etc. cf. d~<pi OsiA11V ibid. II.2.14) "when afternoon came."
The NV or "personal" construction remains dominant, however, as we can
see from the examples with plural verb: ~crat ilicrav WlC'ttS (Anab. ill. 1.33,
cited as 16 in Chapter VII § 3).

105The latter is proposed by Schwyzer-Debrunner. p. 622 Zusatz 3; the former is suggested

by Kilhner-Gerth I, 33 §352.C) ~.
176 IV. DESCRIPTION OF THE COPULA USES

§29. IMPERSONAL VARIANTS ON NVQ SENTENCES (TYPE 2)

Impersonal constructions which are roughly equivalent in sense to an ordinary

NVQ form may be regarded as transforms of the latter by an impersonal
sentence operator. There are several variants on this transformation:
(A) ~A.st JlOt 'tu~'tu -+ JlEA£t Jlot 'to()'t(OV
"This concerns me"
(B) OEoo (8EoJlut) 'tou'too -+ 8Ei (8Ei'tut) Jlot 'tou'too
"I need this"
In (A) the subject (which is not typically a personal N) is transformed to
the genitive; in (B) the personal subject is shifted to the dative. In both
cases only the left-hand form is represented in Homer, so in this instance
the transformational derivation may also be interpreted as an historical
development. 106 When the personal construction is copulative, the impersonal
transform takes the neuter singular:
(C) ot6~ 'tE EiJlt +infinitive -+ ot6v 'tE tcrn +infinitive
"I am able to" "It is possible to"
So in the periphrastic:
142 Lysias 1.10
0(5-.0:><; 1181'\ cruvEt3tcrJlEVOV ~v
"This had become the custom (in my house)"
(On s' etait ainsi habitue)
Note that in 142, as generally in transformation (C), the verb stJl{ is not
introduced by the impersonal construction but is present in the personal
source: olito:><; cruvEt3tcr~vot ~JlEV "Thus were we accustomed". The trans-
formation simply restricts the verb to third person singular form. This
contrasts with the situation in Latin, where the passive impersonal may
introduce a periphrastic construction with sum as an aspectual transform of
an active verb, e.g. venerunt-+ venturn erat "they came". This impersonal
passive which is so characteristic of Latin is rare in Greek, and I have found
no example involving the verb ElJl{.

108 For the left-hand member of (B), see 11.3.294 SUJ,lOO 8eooJJtv~ "deprived of breath",
Attic 8EtoSat tpoqri'\~ "lack food". I find it strange that LSJ should list the right-hand
member of B as a separate entry, the "impersonal verb" &t, even stranger that they should
derive it from "ab» (A) bind, tie, fetter" rather than from "atco (B) lack, miss, stand In
Med of".
I note that the variant on 8Et J,lOt tOUtOU with an infinitive in place of the genitive (and
hence the possibility of ~ for J,lOl) does occur once in Homer: Il. 9.337 tt at Set
7tOM:l1lC4tEvat TpOOea(JlvrAP'Ye£o~ "Why need the Argives fight against the Trojans?"
 § 29. THE IMPERSONAL CONSTRUCTION 177

The use of the impersonal construction as an optional variant on the

usual NVQ sentence form, as illustrated in A-C and 142, is attested in Homer
but as far as I can see only in two examples: (1) Il. 22.319 ~ uiXJ.lf\<;
U1t8AUJ.l1t' EUT!KEO<; "such was the shining from Achilles' lance", an ex-
pressive alternative for uiXJ.ll't U1t8AUJ.l1tE "the lance shone" (cf. the parallel
simile Il. 6.295 ucr't'I'1P 0' &<; U1t8AUJ.l1t6V, sc. 1t81tAO<;); and (2) Od. 9.143 oooe
1tPOUCPU{VE't' tMcrSat "There was nothing to be seen of them", in contrast
to the NV construction oooe crEAT!VT1 ... 1tPO()cpUtvE "Nor did the moon shine
forth", in the following verses.
One post-Homeric use of EiJ.l{ that might be regarded as an impersonal
transform is the initial occurrence of ecr'ti or flv (also YlYVE'tUl) followed by a
"subject" N in the plural:

143 Hdt. VII.34

gcrn 8t £1t'tu cr'taotot el; , A~Moll e<; 't1'\v U1tuV't{ov
"It is seven stades from Abydus to the other side (of the
Hellespont)."
(For other examples see below, 92 in Chapter VI §14; also LSJ S.v. EtJ.l{
A. V, Kiihner-Gerth I, 68f., Schwyzer-Debrunner p. 608'Y) 2.) Parallel uses
of the copula construction are well attested in the same author: Hdt. VI. 36.2
Etcri oe ou'tot cr'taotOt ~l; 'tE Kui 'tptijKOV'tU 'tofl tcr,!1J.lotl (se. eK Kupo{TJ<;
1t6AlO<; e<; TIUlC'tUTJv)' U1tO ot 'tofl tcr~J.lofl 't01YtOU i} XEpa6V1lcro<; faro dau
ecrn cr'tu8£<ov EtKom Kui 'tE'tPUKOcrirov 'to J.lf\KO<;. (See also under genitive
of measure, above §26.3.) But the initial fan or 1'jv tends to become fixed
and formulaic (like a logical quantifier), and thus it need no longer agree
with its "subject" in number. So fcrn of ... "There are those who", where the
verb is frequently singular before a relative clause in the plural. Since we
would normally regard the agreement in number between N and Vas evidence
for their subject-predicate construction, we may regard the lack of agreement
in 143 as a distinct weakening of this syntax. Should we explain the nomi-
native case of cr'taotOt by taking it as predicate N, as in my translation?
This means construing an emphatic initial fan as a copula with existential
force. (Compare §25 above.) This is possible for 143, but will not do for some
examples where the plural noun cannot be predicate (e.g. it cannot be
predicate in 'tf\<; 8' 1'jv 'tpEi<; KEcpUAU{ "The Chimaera had three heads"
Hesiod Theog. 321). Hence I would regard the lack of agreement in 143 as
idiomatic and the syntax of the noun as essentially ambiguous between
subject, predicate, or "object" position. The ambiguity is trivial, since the
copUlative and existential constructions give the same sense. (Asyntactic
initial asti, followed by plural subject, also occurs in Sanskrit, see Chapter VI
§8, n. 25.)
178 IV. DESCRIPTION OF THE COPULA USES

§30. IMPERSONAL SENTENCE OPERATORS (TYPE 3)

The true home of the impersonal construction in Greek, and already in

Homer, is the class of sentence operators. In the case of cop A and cop N
construed with an infinitival clause, it seems to be only a question of
terminology whether one describes this clause as the sentential subject of
the copula verb (as I did in §§6 and 10) or whether one says it is an epexegeti-
cal-final infinitive to which the impersonal £O'ti is in some sense "bound",
as Brugmann suggested. I07 In either case we have an NVa kernel (in the
infinitival clause) and a modal sentence operator Kepo\6v to'n "it is better",
civ6:YK1'\ (eO't{) "it is necessary", etc. And similarly with a noun clause as
"subject": 0llAOV 5n "it is clear that."
As a special case of this syntax, where ~O'n appears alone as modal sentence
operator without any predicate noun or adjective, we have what I call the
potential construction of ~O'tt + infinitive with the sense "it is possible,
permissible to" (and in later Greek also 7tap-eO'tt, ~~-80'tt +injinilive). This
construction is discussed in Chapter VI § 17. Here I point out only that the
impersonal construal is even more natural for ~O'tt +injinitive than in the
case of cop A and cop N, since there is no direct analogy here with an
elementary construction such as there is for N is A or N is N (i.e. no analogy
comparable to that between 10 die in battle is noble and Achilles is noble).
Furthermore, the sense is more clearly brought out if we take the infinitive
as equivalent to a subordinate clause of purpose or result: "it is possible that
you may do such-and-such." On the other hand, it is easy to see how this
"impersonal" construction develops from the epexegetical-final use of the
infinitive with a more elementary, personal construction for ell1{:
144 n. 13.814
xetp~ cil1uvetv dol Kai. f1l1iv
"We too have hands to defend ourselves"
145 n. 11.339
OQ Se of t7t7tOt I t'Y~ fO'av 7tpoq>uyeiv
"Nor were his horses nearby for fleeing"
146 11. 8.223 ( = 11.6)
ft p' tv 1180'0'at't) fO'lCe yeycovell8v cil1qlotepcoO'e
"(Odysseus' ship) was in the middle (convenient) for shouting in
both directions"

107 See K. Brugmann, Die Syntax des ebt/achen Satzes Im Indogermanischen (Beiheft
zum. 43. Band der Indogerm. Forschungen) Berlin, 1925, pp. 22 and 33.