what's the best book for...

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blue
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what's the best book for...

Post by blue »

learning to read the fragments of heraclitus?

i know different books prepare students more for certain styles of writing than others, so i'd like to know which book would be best for this.

even if you don't have an opinion on this, i'd still like your opinion on which is the most simple to use. i've been using wheelock's for latin, and i've liked it a lot. a greek book with a similar structure would be good.

thankyou.

annis
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Post by annis »

Well, Heraclitus wrote in the Ionic dialect, so the closest widely read prose author would be Herodotus. However, I know of no beginning books that start you out with that.

So, I'd think any of the standard courses, starting either with Homeric (Ionic with extra bits) or Attic (Athenian, but very closely related to Ionic) would do about as well. If you plan to read philosophy further, then stick with Attic.

As for which book is simplest to use, that seems to be a matter of personal preference most of the time. If you liked Wheelock, you could take a look at the White PDF available here. It'll be somewhat different, but closer than the other primers currently available. If you want hardcopy, Crosby and Schaeffer has recently become available again, in softcover. Hanson and Quinn is also generally available in bookstores, but is an intensive course.

I personally always like to suggest people start with Homeric with the Pharr textbook, but that can be pretty intensive, too.
William S. Annis — http://www.aoidoi.org/http://www.scholiastae.org/
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1%homeless
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Post by 1%homeless »

I'm going to have to disagree with the Crosby and Schaeffer recommendation. :) The explanations are too sparse and --correct me if I'm wrong-- it feels like the book is geared towards classroom study and not for independent study.

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Post by Bert »

1%homeless wrote: ....and --correct me if I'm wrong-- it feels like the book is geared towards classroom study and not for independent study.
I am not going to correct you..but.. I think most textbooks are geared toward a classroom setting.
It seems to me that Pharr's textbook is not designed for independent study either.
Textkit is a good forum to fill the gap between these books and the self-learner.

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