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Dative: adjective complement
ἔτι οἱ γεωργοὶ τί χρήσιμοι τῇ πόλει;
‘In what respect are the farmers still useful for the city?’ (Aristot. Pol. 1268a.20)
The dative signals a complement with adjectives, especially in the roles of standard of comparison, beneficiary or malefactive.
Lexical usage
Beneficiary
εὐμένης, εὔνους ‘well-disposed’, χρήσιμος, ὠφέλιμος ‘useful’, πιστός ‘faithfulness’, πλήσιος ‘close’, φίλος ‘friendly’ etc.
Malefactive
ἀντίπαλος, ἐναντίος ‘opposite’, ἐχθρός ‘hostile’, κατήκοος ‘obedient’, πολέμιος ‘hostile’ etc.
Standard of comparison
ὁ αὐτός ‘the same’, ὅμοιος ‘similar’, παραπλήσιος ‘nearly resembling’, ἴσος ‘equal’.
Further also with ἴδιος or οἰκεῖος [also + gen.] ‘own, peculiar’, κοινός [also + gen.] ‘common, shared’.
ἡμεῖς γάρ, ὦνδρες οἱ παρόντες ἐν λόγῳ,
νόσον νοσοῦμεν τὴν ἐναντίαν Σάκᾳ
For, men who are present at this discourse, we suffer from a disease which is the opposite of that of Sacas. ֍
αἰσθήσεως μὲν οὖν καὶ νοῦ ἀφαιρεθεὶς ἄνθρωπος φυτῶι γίγνεται παραπλήσιος.
A human, deprived of his senses and his intellect, becomes very much like a plant. ֍