I would appreciate any recommendations the veterans of the forum may offer on beginner texts in Attic to those who've completed a grammar book (I am working through Mastronarde).
I am looking for specific commentaries. Particularly ones like Pharr's Aeneid which are very convinient, displaying text, vocabulary, and commentary on the same page. Otherwise, any helpful text & commentary for the beginner will be fine.
Thank you.
Done the grammar, now what?
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chad
- Textkit Zealot
- Posts: 757
- Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2003 2:55 am
Hi Alon, the only Attic one i can think of which has all those things on the one page is "Xenophon's Anabasis Fully Parsed Book 1" if you can find it. there are non-Attic ones: I have Draper's Iliad 1, Odyssey 9 by someone: these have vocab and commentary on the same page or facing page of the greek. you can also see Will's commentaries on poems which have all those things:
http://www.aoidoi.org/texts/
if you just want a greek text with commentary and vocab at the back, there are lots of these for each major author. cheers
http://www.aoidoi.org/texts/
if you just want a greek text with commentary and vocab at the back, there are lots of these for each major author. cheers
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messalina
- Textkit Neophyte
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- Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2004 11:58 pm
Hi Alon,
you might want to try Plato: Apology with commentary, text, and vocab by James J. Helm. The book has lots of commentary/glossing next to the text, and a virtually complete vocab section in the back, in addition to sentence diagrams of some of the more complex sentences, and full principal parts of quite a few verbs. I'm reading this currently in a second year greek class - we read xenophon's anabasis first. This book does a really good job with help in the tricky bits, esp. in the beginning (remember that relative pronouns may be attracted into the case of the omitted antecedent!) and has tons of references to specific Smyth passages. There are a few people in my class who started off with Mastronarde, i started with H&Q.
While my experience with a *variety* of texts is limited, i find this book to be pretty straightforward and understandable.
(it's a little pricey for being such a slim book, but it's well worth it!)
hope this helps, and good luck!
M
you might want to try Plato: Apology with commentary, text, and vocab by James J. Helm. The book has lots of commentary/glossing next to the text, and a virtually complete vocab section in the back, in addition to sentence diagrams of some of the more complex sentences, and full principal parts of quite a few verbs. I'm reading this currently in a second year greek class - we read xenophon's anabasis first. This book does a really good job with help in the tricky bits, esp. in the beginning (remember that relative pronouns may be attracted into the case of the omitted antecedent!) and has tons of references to specific Smyth passages. There are a few people in my class who started off with Mastronarde, i started with H&Q.
While my experience with a *variety* of texts is limited, i find this book to be pretty straightforward and understandable.
(it's a little pricey for being such a slim book, but it's well worth it!)hope this helps, and good luck!
M
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adz000
- Textkit Member
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- Location: Cantabrigiae Massachusettensium
Just wanted to add some more suggestions. Helm's Plato is very helpful for intermediate students. Bryn Mawr commentaries have the advantage of being cheap and being very basic (which also happen to be their chief weaknesses). Bristol Classical Press publishes a series of Greek reading books titled "A Greek Prose Reading Course for Post-Beginners", which consists of four units (Unit 1: Lysias' On the Murder of Eratosthenes; Unit 2: Plato's Crito; Unit 3: Demosthenes' Third Philippic; Unit 4: Thucydides' narration of events at Pylos and Sphacteria). They provide a lot of helps for the intermediate reader.
Of course, if you're feeling adventurous, why not go for the greatest Greek reader ever made: Wilamowitz's Lesebuch in 4 volumes. The assistance is minimal, but you'll be exposed to an incredible range of Greek literature, picked out by one of the greatest classicists of all time. I think Marchant made a translation and selection from it for English students, if your Deutsch isn't up to speed.
Of course, if you're feeling adventurous, why not go for the greatest Greek reader ever made: Wilamowitz's Lesebuch in 4 volumes. The assistance is minimal, but you'll be exposed to an incredible range of Greek literature, picked out by one of the greatest classicists of all time. I think Marchant made a translation and selection from it for English students, if your Deutsch isn't up to speed.