Greek Accusative (of Respect)
When a Latin poet wants to say "bare AS TO the knee" or "bound AS TO the head," he reaches across into Greek and uses an accusative. Nūda genū — "with her knee bare" — Vergil writing of Venus in Aeneid I.
The accusative names the part affected; an adjective or participle does the affecting. Prose almost never does this. When you meet it, you are reading verse.
A&G calls it the Greek Accusative or accusative of specification — and there is the trap. Prose handles the same idea with the ablative of specification (maior nātū, "older in birth").
The accusative version is the poetic dialect of the same construction. If your text is Vergil, Ovid, or Horace and a stray accusative refuses to be a direct object, suspect this.
"X-ed as to / in respect of [the body part]" — the accusative names the part, the adjective or participle describes its state.
Almost exclusively poetic (Vergil, Ovid, Horace). Prose uses the ablative of specification for the same idea.
See It In Action
— Verg. Aen. i. 320
Two Greek accusatives in one line — genū with nūda, sinūs with collēcta. The adjective and participle stay nominative, agreeing with Venus; the body parts go to the accusative.
— Verg. Aen. ii. 210
Vergil's serpents from the Laocoön scene. Suffectī is nominative (the snakes are the subject); oculōs is accusative because that is where the suffusion shows.
— Verg. Aen. v. 309
Nectentur is passive; caput is accusative because it names the part being bound. Latin prose would write capite olīvā nectentur with the ablative.
— Verg. Aen. i. 658
Cupid disguised as Ascanius. Mūtātus is nominative (it agrees with the subject Cupīdō); the two accusatives faciem and ōra name the parts of him that have been changed.
"X-ed as to [the body part]"
nūda genū → "bare as to the knee"
use a possessive: "X-ed [body part]"
nūda genū → "with bare knee"
use "in" or "about": "X-ed in / about [the body part]"
caput nectentur → "bound about the head"
shift the participle to a finite verb of having: "having [body part] X-ed"
oculōs suffectī → "having their eyes suffused"
Latin has two ways to say "in respect of X." Genre decides which one you'll meet — and which one to write back.
the part affected — accusative
nūda genū
bare as to the knee (Verg.)
in what respect — ablative
maior nātū
older in birth (Cic.)
Tip: Ask: am I in verse or prose? Vergil/Ovid/Horace use accusative; Caesar/Cicero use ablative. Same idea, different dialect.
Vergil writes ārdentīsque oculōs suffectī sanguine et ignī of the snakes attacking Laocoön. Why is oculōs in the accusative?
Study Tips
- •When a participle of clothing, wounding, or covering sits next to a bare accusative noun, ask whether that accusative names the part of the body — that's almost always the Greek accusative.
- •If you can swap the accusative for an ablative without changing the sense (nūda genū ≈ nūda genū in prose would be ablative genū), you're looking at the poetic counterpart of the ablative of specification.
- •Expect this in Vergil and Ovid; do not expect it in Caesar or Cicero. Genre is the single best predictor.