Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges

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[*] 2054. The circumstantial participle is added, without the article, to a noun or pronoun to set forth some circumstance under which an action, generally the main action, takes place.

a. The circumstantial participle thus qualifies the principal verb of the sentence like an adverbial clause or supplementary predicate. Cp. μετὰ ταῦτα εἶπε afterwards he said with γελῶν εἶπε he said laughingly. Such participles usually have the force of subordinate clauses added to the main verb by conjunctions denoting time, condition, cause, etc.; but may often be rendered by adverbial phrases or even by a separate finite verb, which brings out distinctly the idea latent in the participle.

b. The circumstantial participle has no article. In agreement with a noun and its article, it stands before the article or after the noun (i.e. in the predicate position). By the agreement of the participle with a noun or pronoun, the predicate of the sentence is more exactly defined.