In time, without Greek, a man turned back an attacker (9)
I believe the answer is:
aggressor
'attacker' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'in time without greek a man turned back an' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'greek' could be 'gr' (abbreviation for Greek) and 'gr' is found within the answer.
'time' could be 'ages' (ages can informally mean a long period) and 'ages' is present in the remaining letters.
'man' could be 'r' (abbreviation for rook, a chess piece or 'man') and 'r' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'so' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aggressor that I've seen before include "The one who attacks first" , "He started the fight" , "The one who "started it"" , "Hostile attacker" , "The one who starts the fight" .)