8.1 ‘Of’ and the genitive case

‘The daughter of Kadmos’ in Euripides’ Bacchae is ἡ Κάδμου κόρη (hē Kadmou korē), literally ‘the of Kadmos daughter’. There is no Greek word for ‘of’ here. Instead, the -ου (-ou) ending of the word Kadmos signals the relationship between ‘Kadmos’ and ‘daughter’. The ‘of’ relationship is frequently one of ownership, although here it is the relationship between a father and a daugher.

Here are some more examples:

Unusually, English can also express this ‘of’ relationship through a change of ending. If we were referring to ‘the daughter of Martha’, we might choose to say ‘Martha’s daughter’, with an apostrophe followed by the letter ‘s’ tacked onto the end of the word ‘Martha’. This is a rare instance of English working just like Greek by modifying the ending of a word.

The genitive case

These endings are examples of the genitive case. Although the genitive case has a range of meanings, it is helpful when beginning Greek to think of it as the ‘of’ case.

Caution

English uses ‘of’ in a wider range of situations than Greek

• I speak of many things

Note that ‘of’ in the above example does not express a relationship between two nouns. Instead it relates closely to the verb ‘speak’ and is similar in meaning to ‘about’.