# dea viridibus oculis



## Casquilho

_dea viridibus oculis_ (ablativus qualitatis)
_dea viridium oculorum_ (genitivus qualitatis)
_dea virides oculos_ (Greek acusative)

I intended to say, "goddess of green eyes", or "green-eyed goddess" if you want so. Are the three forms gramatically correct? Is the only difference between them one of style?


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## BjesniStakor

From what I have learned, the Ablative case is used for qualities such as eye color, hair color, height and so on. I have been taught this because I am a Slavic speaker amd Slavic languages use the Genitive case on such occasions. So while both versions should be(and are) grammatically correct, using the Ablative would be, well, 'more Latin'. The Accusative(no matter is it Greek or not, and that what you wrote as Greek Accusative is regular Latin Acc.) would be grammatically incorrect, because it then becomes the sentence's direct object. That's a no-no.


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## Casquilho

BjesniStakor said:


> The Accusative(no matter is it Greek or not, and that what you wrote as Greek Accusative is regular Latin Acc.) would be grammatically incorrect, because it then becomes the sentence's direct object. That's a no-no.



I didn't even know Greek accusative existed till a couple of weeks ago, when I was told of here in the forum. Then members furnished me examples in Spanish. Apparently, Greek Accusative is the name bestowed to such grammatical construction, when the accusative case substitutes the ablative. But I haven't understood it that well, so I'll wait for more replies. Anyway, thank you, now I know the ablative and genitive both works. (I was also told that ablative of quality is more classical and the genitive more late Latin.)


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## BjesniStakor

Oh no, the Greek Accusative is a normal Accusative by its function, but the 'abnormal' thing about it is its form. Aeneas,ae m. is a word that has a Greek declension(the order is N,G,D,Acc,V,Abl): Aeneas,ae,ae,am,as,a. Musice,es f. is an even better example: Musice,es,ae,en,es,e. Greek words ending in -on use a specific declension, but I can't think of an example right now. Latin borrowed a lot of words from Greek, and since Greek words were used mostly by educated Romans, who knew Greek, they retained their original declensions almost completely.


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## Casquilho

I found the thread. The member told me that the ablativus qualitatis would be mainly used in classical prose, the genitivus qualitatis in postclassical prose, and, in poetry, there is some times the Greek accusative. I was asking for a translation of "La fille aux cheveux de lin", and he gave me

_puella linteam comam_

Got it? In the same spiriti, I wrote _dea virides oculos_


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## BjesniStakor

No, that's not greek Accusative, haha, it is a substitution common in vulgar latin. Not good in Classical Latin, though. The ablative falling out of use, it would make sense that it be substituted more and more by other cases as time went by.


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## Casquilho

A member explained to me how the Greek accusative (so called because it is more common in Greek, in Latin it is exclusive of poetical style) works.

_flava comas_ (Ovid, imitating Homer's phrasing)
_puella lintea comam
dea viridis oculos_

Now I'm no more confused. Thank you, BJ.


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## Ben Jamin

BjesniStakor said:


> From what I have learned, the Ablative case is used for qualities such as eye color, hair color, height and so on. I have been taught this because I am a Slavic speaker amd Slavic languages use the Genitive case on such occasions. So while both versions should be(and are) grammatically correct, using the Ablative would be, well, 'more Latin'. The Accusative(no matter is it Greek or not, and that what you wrote as Greek Accusative is regular Latin Acc.) would be grammatically incorrect, because it then becomes the sentence's direct object. That's a no-no.


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