Hello, I have recently started to learn Greek more intensely again. But because I still want to improve my Latin, at the same time, I am looking for a way to learn both Greek and improve my Latin. Optimally learn Greek through Latin.
I saw a video by Eleanor Dickey, who talked about how the Romans learned Greek and vice versa. The way they did it was by having a translation in their target language in one column and in their mother tongue in the other column. I can´t find any good material with this method from Latin to Greek, maybe you have more success. But even if we would find the texts, I don´t think the data would be sufficient to justify using it to learn Greek. So my question is if you know of any textbook or method to learn, preferably attic, Greek which is in Latin. Thank you.
Learning Greek through Latin
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RandyGibbons
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Re: Learning Greek through Latin
Welcome to Textkit, Greeder.
Wow, that is a really interesting question. I'm a little doubtful you'll find something suitable, but if you do, I'd love to know myself.
I'm certainly not aware of any such text from the modern era, and I'm defining "modern" to be anything from approximately the beginning of the nineteenth century, when grammars began to include a systematic coverage of syntax (and not just forms) and look like what we would call a "grammar" today. But by then students were being taught from the basis of their native language, not Latin, at least as far as I am aware.
You mention Eleanor Dickey. Her Learning Latin the Ancient Way is a fascinating and relatively affordable book which I just bought and just started reading myself, but it's meant as a curiosity, not as a textbook for us moderns. For most of her examples she gives an English translation rather than the Greek from the manuscripts, but she has one chapter (8) with the Greek, just to give us the flavor. She also published a critical edition of the manuscripts, if you're dying (as I am) to see the real thing, but it's prohibitively expensive, and again not intended as a textbook for us moderns.
My first thought would be to go back to the early Renaissance, when the craze for learning Greek began among the Italians and later northern Europeans, and Latin was still the European lingua franca. I'm sure you can find textbooks like this, which I just found in a random search (and which happens to also be prohibitively expensive!). But these again will be books on the history of education and language learning, not textbooks as such useful to you or me. Though, the description in Amazon led me to this downloadable and legible 1580 Grammaticae Graecae Erotemata.
For purposes of learning vocabulary rather than grammar, the two seventeenth century Latin textbooks by Jon Amos Comenius, Janua Linguarum Reserata and Orbis Sensualium Pictus, which were enormously popular across Europe (and beyond) and are still quite useful, were translated into ancient Greek. I have been recording these specifically for the benefit of those simultaneously studying Latin and Greek, so you may want to check it out. (Start with the Speaker's Introduction.)
Holding aside textbooks, there are gobs and gobs of Greek literature translated into Latin. Take a Greek work you're interested in, and you're quite likely to find a Latin translation of it on Google Books (and elsewhere). Because, like you, I strive to keep up my Latin as well as my Greek, I often seek out a Latin translation rather than English.
I look forward to hearing if you or the doctissimae muleries (et viri) on Textkit come up with anything.
Randy Gibbons
Wow, that is a really interesting question. I'm a little doubtful you'll find something suitable, but if you do, I'd love to know myself.
I'm certainly not aware of any such text from the modern era, and I'm defining "modern" to be anything from approximately the beginning of the nineteenth century, when grammars began to include a systematic coverage of syntax (and not just forms) and look like what we would call a "grammar" today. But by then students were being taught from the basis of their native language, not Latin, at least as far as I am aware.
You mention Eleanor Dickey. Her Learning Latin the Ancient Way is a fascinating and relatively affordable book which I just bought and just started reading myself, but it's meant as a curiosity, not as a textbook for us moderns. For most of her examples she gives an English translation rather than the Greek from the manuscripts, but she has one chapter (8) with the Greek, just to give us the flavor. She also published a critical edition of the manuscripts, if you're dying (as I am) to see the real thing, but it's prohibitively expensive, and again not intended as a textbook for us moderns.
My first thought would be to go back to the early Renaissance, when the craze for learning Greek began among the Italians and later northern Europeans, and Latin was still the European lingua franca. I'm sure you can find textbooks like this, which I just found in a random search (and which happens to also be prohibitively expensive!). But these again will be books on the history of education and language learning, not textbooks as such useful to you or me. Though, the description in Amazon led me to this downloadable and legible 1580 Grammaticae Graecae Erotemata.
For purposes of learning vocabulary rather than grammar, the two seventeenth century Latin textbooks by Jon Amos Comenius, Janua Linguarum Reserata and Orbis Sensualium Pictus, which were enormously popular across Europe (and beyond) and are still quite useful, were translated into ancient Greek. I have been recording these specifically for the benefit of those simultaneously studying Latin and Greek, so you may want to check it out. (Start with the Speaker's Introduction.)
Holding aside textbooks, there are gobs and gobs of Greek literature translated into Latin. Take a Greek work you're interested in, and you're quite likely to find a Latin translation of it on Google Books (and elsewhere). Because, like you, I strive to keep up my Latin as well as my Greek, I often seek out a Latin translation rather than English.
I look forward to hearing if you or the doctissimae muleries (et viri) on Textkit come up with anything.
Randy Gibbons
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bedwere
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Re: Learning Greek through Latin
Corrections are welcome (especially for projects).
Blogger Profile My library at the Internet Archive
Meae editiones librorum. Αἱ ἐμαὶ ἐκδόσεις βίβλων.
Blogger Profile My library at the Internet Archive
Meae editiones librorum. Αἱ ἐμαὶ ἐκδόσεις βίβλων.
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RandyGibbons
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Re: Learning Greek through Latin
Greeder, re Greek and Latin vocabulary, I should have mentioned - and I imagine bedwere was too modest to mention 
- another resource, namely, this topic on Textkit itself.
- another resource, namely, this topic on Textkit itself.-
Greeder
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Re: Learning Greek through Latin
Yes, I mean exactly this work of Eleanor Dickey and it the original manuscripts are indeed immensely expensive. I wonder why there are no online versions? They would have, of course, only acted as a fun way to learn more Greek through Latin. You bring up another very interesting point with looking up translations of the Greek text in Latin and using them side by side. Sadly I am not yet at the level of being able to read the originals. Furthermore, I have found similar books to the one you posted. They all just list of the grammar more or less, but of course you cannot expect much more from books meant to be supplied by a teacher, who gives readings and exercises himself. The best book so far is the one of bedwere, to be honest. Concerning your channel, RandyGibbons, it is one of the best on youtube. in my opinion. You put in a lot of work and love and it shows! They are high quality videos with structure to them and besides entertaining also very educating.
I have found a very good Greek to Latin dictionary on lexica.l inguax .com and will from now on try to understand the Greek texts with the Latin vocabulary. Thank you, bedwere, for the excellent book, which can be referred to even without a teacher and to RandyGibbons for the channel suggestion.
I have found a very good Greek to Latin dictionary on lexica.l inguax .com and will from now on try to understand the Greek texts with the Latin vocabulary. Thank you, bedwere, for the excellent book, which can be referred to even without a teacher and to RandyGibbons for the channel suggestion.
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RandyGibbons
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Re: Learning Greek through Latin
Hi, Greeder, and thanks for the compliment. Thanks, bedwere, too, for your reference. It's still for the most part a forms-only "grammar," but within those limits quite useful for Greeder's - and for my - purposes. Also, Greeder, glad you found the Schrevelius and Pinziger dictionaries online - I really should have remembered to mention those. You can also find downloadable pdf versions on Google Books.
Good luck with your studies, and please let us know if you come up any more useful resources.
Good luck with your studies, and please let us know if you come up any more useful resources.