alrighty

[klewlis]

My new Smyth Grammar finally arrived today, and I am ready to tackle some classical greek. I expect that my koine exprience will help greatly (it seems that vocab might be the biggest stumbling block).<br /><br />However, Smyth doesn't have much in the way of reading. So what do you veterans recommend for beginning reading? Do I start with Homer, or is he more difficult because of the time period? Something else?<br /><br />Preferably something that I can print off from this site ;)

[annis]

[quote author=klewlis link=board=2;threadid=376;start=0#2868 date=1060122703]<br />My new Smyth Grammar finally arrived today, and I am ready to tackle some classical greek. I expect that my koine exprience will help greatly (it seems that vocab might be the biggest stumbling block).<br />[/quote]<br /><br />Some morphology will also be different. For example, you have to come to terms with the optative, not just the subjunctive.<br /><br />

<br />However, Smyth doesn't have much in the way of reading. So what do you veterans recommend for beginning reading? Do I start with Homer, or is he more difficult because of the time period? Something else?<br /><br />Preferably something that I can print off from this site <br />

<br /><br />Well, you could go several ways.<br /><br />Since you already have Koine, I might suggest that you take a look at the "First Greek Book" and dash through that quickly. You get a review, you get introduced to the new forms in a more friendly way than just a Grammar and it leads directly to... Xenophon! Many will gripe about how boring he is (I agree) but even if you read only the first book you will be much better prepared to take on more interesting Greek.<br /><br />Homer may be trickier coming from Koine. Again, dash through the "First Greek Book" then hit Seymour's "Introduction to the Language and Verse of Homer" paying special attention to the forrms. Then dive into whichever Homeric texts we have here.<br /><br />In either case, unless you have a lot of experience with continuous Greek you may want to purchase a Loeb for when you absolutely cannot figure out the text.<br /><br />[face=SPIonic]eu)tu/xei[/face]

[klewlis]

[quote author=William Annis link=board=2;threadid=376;start=0#2874 date=1060123994]<br />In either case, unless you have a lot of experience with continuous Greek you may want to purchase a Loeb for when you absolutely cannot figure out the text.<br />[/quote]<br /><br />Or make good use of Perseus <br /><br />Thanks for the suggestions! I will definitely try them out.

[Paul]

Hi,<br /><br />I recommend Homer. Specifically, Clyde Pharr's "Homeric Greek". Its virtues have been mentioned in prior threads. <br /><br />But, it lately has the advantage that at least one other forum member has begun working through this book; and several others of us already have. Hence your questions will here find answers, or at least some kind of response.<br /><br />Cordially,<br /><br />Paul<br />

[Skylax]

For some lighthearted classical Greek, there are also, for example, the Dialogues of the Gods by Lucian :<br /><br />http://www.mikrosapoplous.gr/lucian/thd0.html<br /><br />But lighthearted doesn't automatically mean easy... You must know a lot over Mythology too.

[Thessaloniki]

Over the last several months I have done an intensive learning shift from Koine to Classical Greek. I've read most of the Anabasis and I'm a good way through Pharr's Homeric Greek right now. <br /> I think the actual grammattical differences between koine and classical are probably much smaller than you are expecting, the optative is quite easy to grasp. The problem lies in that most people who think they know koine only really know a small subset of koine greek, New Testament Greek, which doesn't translate over well into reading other authors if that is ones only exposure.<br /> As with all the other people, I highly recommend Pharr as a place to start, cheap copies of his book can be found in many places. He makes a convincing argument about learning to read greek from Homer, and based on the results I've got from his book I think he is right. Something about Homer seems to have really helped me understand how greek works.<br /> Although admittedly, coming from koine greek you will probably think it is a whole new language.<br /> North and Hilliards greek prose composition (with the answer key) is an excellent resource on this site. Since you already know Koine, a good and fast crash course in attic is simply to work it in reverse; translate the greek in the answer key into english and then check your answers in the main book. (Although if you have the time and energy, doing it the right way by actually composing in greek is far better.)<br /> Also, If you really know koine well you can probably jump straight into the anabasis by Xenophon and use your grammar to figure out anything that confuses you. You can find a nice side by side greek/english translation of much of Xenophon's anabasis at the bottom of the following link.<br /><br />http://www.mikrosapoplous.gr/en/t2ten.htm<br /><br />I found it much easier for general use than perseus.<br /><br />Although I would definitely advise going with Homer first, it is much easier to move forward in time with the greek language than backward (IMO).<br /><br />Good Luck<br />