Greek: my goals, your recommendations?

[akhnaten]

I have a (slow) reading ability in Latin, finishing Moreland and Fleischer some years back.
I am beginning my studies of Greek by studying Koine (using Croy + Laura Gibbs online course). Depending on the rigor of the Koine course, I will begin going through Athenaze and Mastronarde while doing Koine, or start them immediately after. When I have finished these texts, I will begin a Homeric Greek textbook. I've actually already worked through a few declensions in the first few units of Mastronarde while I wait for Croy to ship.

I do not anticipate too much of a problem finishing these textbooks. Mastronarde seems on par with Moreland and Fleischer.

My main interest is reading the pre-Socratic fragments collected in Diels. I also have a boxset of the complete Plato (in Greek and German--the German in the famous Schleiermacher translation). I do not know the difficulty level of the authors in Diels, or the relative difficulties of Plato. Ideally, once I finish Mastronarde, I would begin reading texts that could prepare me for Diels.

Would the excerpts gathered in Arthur Sidgwick's "Easy Selections from Plato" (available on textkit) be recommended right after finishing Mastronarde/Athenaze? Or, what about Geoffrey Steadman's editions of Plato (Republic I, Crito, Symposium)?
I can always just pick these books up after I finish the introductory grammars and have an idea if they are too difficult--but it helps to know what I can look forward to on my way to the end-goal (Anaximander, Parmenides, and other authors collected in Diels). I also don't know what, if any, relevant writings will be approachable after finishing Athenaze/Mastronarde.

Thanks for the help! Lurking on this forum helped tremendously in my studies.

[cb]

hi, as an entry point into plato, i'd suggest this book on crito with lots and lots of help, including revisions of the perfect and other points covered in the 2nd-half of textbooks (when students may hit brain overload):

http://www.amazon.com/Greek-Prose-Cours ... 185399538X

for the pre-socratics, you're usually dealing with fragments/quotes without surrounding context and so it's a different approach altogether, you need to do this on a philosopher-by-philosopher basis and so you'll need to gather as much context as you can from a whole range of other sources. e.g. i have a good commentary on parmenides by conche which i picked up here in paris in a philosophy bookstore (vrin), but for surrounding context i'd suggest something more general on the history of philosophy, i'm guessing you already know the good ones, i personally prefer bertrand russell's history of western philosophy but one of my bosses at work is heavily against it, take whichever you prefer.

one thing to really get comfortable with to read the pre-socratics is dialectical differences, you need to be comfortable with reading non-attic to read the pre-socratics, the pre-socratics were in western turkey, southern italy etc. and so in e.g. heraclitus' ἀνθρώποις γίνεσθαι ὁκόσα θέλουσιν οὐκ ἄμεινον, a line i really like, an ionic word like ὁκόσα would be ὁπόσα in attic, things like that. cheers, chad

[akhnaten]

Thank you for your reply. Mastronarde's text sells itself as an intro to Attic Greek, and Athenaze by its very name implies Attic Greek.
Is there an "intermediate" level textbook and/or grammar that can be of value specifically for the non-Attic dialects that may be encountered in the pre-Socratics? Something for after reading Athenaze II and finishing Mastronarde. I am increasingly dedicated to sticking with Croy, Mastronarde and Athenaze (due to money spent on books).

-
I am fairly read in English criticism about the pre-Socratics, and try to read a few articles a month and a couple books a year (or, these days, skim the books for something new). It has been so long since I read Russell's book I forgot he talked about anything before Socrates. For anyone else interested in the pre-Socratics, the classic text is Freeman's translation of the Fragments in Diels, published as "Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers." I have not seen the companion volume that discusses the translations. WKC Guthrie's early volumes of History of Greek Philosopher, and generally Stanford's Online Encyclopedia of Philosophy, contains a good amount of material to help approach Freeman's translations.

[Bart]

Even better than the Crito Chad recommended, is this edition of the Euthyphro: http://www.amazon.de/gp/aw/d/1585100595, with copious annotations to help with the Greek, but also some attention to the philosophical topics under discussion.

[cb]

hi, what i'd suggest at that point is an entry-level book for herodotus (even though not philosophy it'll introduce you to ionic, which is what you need). check out e.g. barbour's selections from herodotus, there is a good bit on ionic in the intro from memory:

http://www.amazon.com/Selections-Herodo ... _cp_9_7E1B

i agree that any good commentary on euthyphro would also be a good entry-point into plato.

cheers, chad

[akhnaten]

ok. i think that will do me for awhile. i really appreciate the intermediary suggestions--a goal makes the brunt work of grammar textbooks more pleasurable.
since i am planning on working through a homeric greek course once i finish the attic books, should i hold off on herodotus until after/during beginning homeric greek?

[cb]

hi, whatever works for you! there's no royal road - try both ways and see which best allows you keep progressing. cheers, chad