Here's a breakdown of what the flexibility means:
* Inflection's dominance: Because nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adjectives are heavily inflected, the word order often doesn't strictly determine grammatical function. The case endings on a noun tell you whether it's the subject, object, or something else, regardless of its position in the sentence.
* Emphasis and focus: Word order is frequently used to highlight specific elements of a sentence. Placing a word at the beginning or end often emphasizes it. This is similar to English, but in Greek, the effect is stronger because inflection already handles the core grammatical structure.
* Rhetorical effect: Greek writers used word order to create different stylistic effects, mirroring the flow and rhythm they desired.
* Basic order tendencies: While SVO is frequent, other orders are also common, like SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) and variations thereof. These variations often serve to highlight certain aspects of the sentence. A specific word may be placed at the beginning for emphasis (similar to "Topicalization" in English linguistics), or at the end to create a sense of suspense.
* Anaphora and other stylistic devices: Repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses (anaphora) is a common stylistic device, and the word order plays a crucial role in achieving this effect.
In short: While a basic SVO order exists, word order in Ancient Greek doesn't dictate grammatical function in the same way it does in English. It's far more flexible, used to emphasize, create flow, and achieve stylistic effects, with the core grammatical roles determined primarily by inflection.