[Serpens] dixit ad mulierem: Cur praecepit vobis Deus ut non comederetis de omni ligno paradisi? Cui respondit mulier: De fructu lignorum, quae sunt in paradiso, vescimur: de fructu vero ligni quod est in medio paradisi, praecepit nobis Deus ne comederemus, et ne tangeremus illud, ne forte moriamur. Dixit ergo serpens mulieri: Nequaquam morte moriemini.
The serpent said to the woman: Why did God order you not to eat from every tree of paradise? The woman responded to him: We eat the fruit of the trees which are in paradise, but the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of paradise, God ordered us not to eat of it, and not to touch it, or we would die. Then the serpent said to the woman: By no means will you die.
Dative of Indirect Object
The primary function of the dative case is to indicate an indirect object.
Review the dative case with direct objects
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While the direct object, indicated in Latin by the accusative case, indicates the thing that participates in the action (e.g. "the ball" in "I gave the ball to the dog"), the indirect object indicates the recipient or person affected by the action ("the dog" in the example above).
Indirect objects will often appear in English with the word to or for. Here are some examples:
He threw the ball to me.
He threw a birthday party for me.
It is too hot in here for me.
As you can see, the idea of the indirect object spans a lot of different situations, and all of these would be represented in Latin by the dative case. Many indirect objects are governed by compound verbs, that is, verbs with the following prefixes:
ad
ante
con
in
inter
ob
post
prae
pro
sub
super
circum
Even though those prepositions by themselves would take another case, like an accusative or ablative, when compounded with a verb they frequently take a dative. For example, "he orders me to leave" will be represented in Latin by mihi exire praecipit. In this situation, I am affected by the verb of ordering, but not its direct object (which, if expressed, would have to be something like "the order") - so I put myself in the dative.
The excerpt given above, taken from Genesis (3.1-4), tells the story of the sin which Rufus discusses in his test. It is a good introduction to these uses of the dative.
As you can see in the first and last sentences, dico can take either a dative indirect object, or an accusative with ad. This second variation is more common in medieval than in classical Latin.
Other verbs will also take the dative; in many cases they will lend themselves to an English translation involving "to" or "for", but sometimes the fact that they take the dative of the indirect object requires a little more thought. For example, credo takes the dative, as in this example from the Rufus passage:
Videtur quod Eva dubitavit et non credidit firmiter verbis Dei
It seems that Eve hesitated and did not firmly trust in the words of God.
Just as in the examples above, the words are not the direct object of the verb, but they are involved, hence the translation "trust in the words of God."
Another, related use of the dative is to express the person who is helped or harmed by the action of the verb. This dative is often called the "dative of advantage" (or disadvantage!). Compare, for example, English expressions such as "This food is bad for me" with Latin expressions like Hoc tamen non fuit poena spiritui Evae (Yet this was not punishment for Eve's spirit).
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Fill in the blanks below with the correct case of the noun.
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