# What does the phrase ''ες μαχην'' mean?



## Il chirurgo

I'm familiar with greek grammar (not an expert ) and I just don't get this phrase ''ες μαχην'', can someone translate and ''grammatically'' explain this for me?


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## ireney

_Possibly _"in/to battle" but we do *need *more context.


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## Il chirurgo

Yeah, most probably it means ''To battle!'', but why is it ''ες μαχην'' and not ''στη μαχη'' ?


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## artion

ες is the preposition meaning (usually) "to". Μαχην is the the form I think called "accusative" in english (αιτιατική). Probably means "to the battle" or "in a position for battle".


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## Δημήτρης

> ες is the preposition meaning (usually) "to".


In order not to give the wrong impression: ες is _not_ Modern Greek. It's an ancient form (variant of εις) that survives in some expressions. In modern Greek, it's στον/στην/στο.

I'd say "in a battle".


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## Il chirurgo

and the accusative form ''μαχην'', is it also ancient greek?


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## Δημήτρης

Yep. The final -ν is lost in Modern Greek (in most dialects, this is).


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## webskate101

If it's an ancient phrase, I think the meaning is definitely "to battle", not "in battle". Εις/ες usually has a sense of motion and direction. "In battle" would more likely be "ἐν μάχῃ" (using the archaic dative case)


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## ireney

Moderator's note: All the posts above make it clear that we need more context.


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## Il chirurgo

Thank you all for clearing that out for me, i suspected it was ancient greek. Ευχαριστω πολυ


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