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Dative: direction as satellite
αἱματόεσσα δὲ χεὶρ πεδίῳ πέσε
‘His bloody hand fell to the ground.’ (Hom. Il. 5.82)
The dative signals a direction (and more specifically a destination that has been reached) as a satellite, albeit mainly in poetry.
Lexical usage
This dative is used with verbs of motion such as βάλλω ‘to throw’, ἕζομαι ‘to sit down’, κλίνω ‘to lean’, ὀρέγω ‘to reach out’, πελάζω ‘to approach’, πήγνυμι ‘to fix in’, πίπτω ‘to fall’, ῥίπτω ‘to throw’ or τίθημι ‘to place’.
Syntactic usage
Prose writers tended to use a preposition (εἰς or πρός) with the accusative.
Historical background
The adverb χαμαί ‘on(to) the ground’, in origin a fossilised locative, can also express direction. Since it can be used in combination with the same verbs it comes under this rule.
Frequency
In theory, this construction is typically Homeric, although it also occurs in Attic poets such as the tragedians.