Best textbook for someone interested in learning Greek?

elrond32 · Post by **elrond32** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 6:19 pm

My question is twofold: first, I'm looking for advice on the best textbook on Ancient Greek designed for the student who wants to learn on his own; second, I'm wondering if anyone knows if an answer key exists for Chase and Phillips A New Introduction to Greek This is the textbook from which I first studied Greek, and I actually managed to work my way through the entire text. At that time, though, I was working one on one with an excellent teacher who was able to give me guidance and correction for both the translation and composition exercises. It has been at least three years since I studied Greek at all, and I feel that I would benefit immensely from going back to the beginning and starting from scratch. My first impulse was to simply pick up my Chase and Phillips and start again from chapter one. I quickly discovered, however, that without an answer key for the exercises, I had nowhere to turn for explanation or clarification whenever I was confused about a specific grammatical construction or translation. If only there were an answer key for this text to correspond to the very useful answer key for Wheelock's Latin posted on this site. If anyone has any suggestions for a Greek textbook that fits the needs of someone with some previous experience but who is working alone, I would be really grateful for the help.

Timotheus · Post by **Timotheus** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 11:11 pm

I have used various J. Greshem Machines "New Testament Greek For Beginners" and the workbook to go along with it. NOt easy without help (also koine) but very good.

Also I used "Athenaze: Book I" Very easy for attic but I didn't have an Answer key.

This Time I am Useing Pharr's "Homeric Greek: a book for beginners"
The first was the free download from Textkit

.
But I did go through the Textkit store and ordered the revised text by John Wright.
A very useable text. Easy to grasp concepts, and as far as a key: William Annis has done a real nice job and you can download it for free.

That's my two bits. Hope it helps.

elrond32 · Post by **elrond32** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 1:26 am

Timotheus,
Thanks very much for the suggestions! The key that you mention, the one by Annis: is that a key to the exercises in Pharr's Homeric Greek? Have you ever heard of or seen a key to the exercises in Chase & Phillips? Again, thanks for the help.

Timotheus · Post by **Timotheus** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:05 am

here's the link for Mr. Annis' key

http://www.aoidoi.org/articles/pharr/key/

hope you'll join the Homeric crew!!

mingshey · Post by **mingshey** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 8:05 am

Glad to know another C&P fan!

But I could not find keys for C&P, either, sorry.

elrond32 · Post by **elrond32** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:29 pm

Hi Guys, thanks for the helpful replies!

I really enjoyed working with the C & P text with a teacher, but now that I'm going back and trying to re-learn everything on my own, the C& P is pretty rough going. Is there currently an open group working on the Pharr text? That sounds like something I would be interested in.

Frank05 · Post by **Frank05** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:02 pm

I have been studying Ancient Greek and Latin for the past 5 years now and I would recommend North&Hillard's Greek Prose Composition. A key is also available to this book if needed. If one wants to go right back to basics then Athenaze is the book to use.

elrond32 · Post by **elrond32** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 4:23 pm

Hi Frank05,
thanks for the helpful suggestion. I've heard a lot of good things about the North & Hillard prose composition text so I think I'll take your advice and start using it. I tried the Athenaze text when I first started studying Greek a few years back and I didn't like the text at all. It moved far too slowly, and the artificial story about Dikaeopolis wasn't particularly interesting (in my opinion). Is there another textbook that you might recommend I use in conjunction with the North & Hillard Prose Composition? I was thinking about using my Chase & Phillips text, for reading practice, along with Goodwin's Greek Grammar as a guide, but I'd be happy for any suggestions you could make. Also, from your experience (since you've studied both Greek and Latin) do you think it is a good idea for someone to study both languages simultaneously, or does it become confusing? I have previous experience studying both Greek and Latin and what I'd like to do, essentially, is to brush up my skills by starting from scratch and learning thoroughly all of the grammar and vocab that I only grasped superficially the first time around. Anyway, thanks for your response, and any suggestions or advice would be very welcome.

Frank05 · Post by **Frank05** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 4:56 pm

I hope my reply proved useful. I would definitely recommend learning the two languages simultaneously. Both languages share a huge amount of similarities. Although some may find this confusing I feel that It only helps to re-enforce the topics learned in each language. A suitable grammar to accompany the North and Hillard in my opinion woul be the Oxford grammar of Classical Greek. I have only started using this book recently but find It very useful and easy to use. I had been using a green book called A Guide to Greek Grammar but found It quite in-accessible and not very user friendly. The Oxford grammar has only been published recently but I am already benefiting from It's advantages.

elrond32 · Post by **elrond32** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 8:43 pm

Frank05,
Thanks for the suggestion. Can the Oxford Guide to Greek Grammar be found on Amazon? I'll have to go check it out. Do you also use the North & Hillard Latin Prose Composition in your studies? I downloaded both the Greek and Latin Prose Composition texts. Again, thanks for your help.

Frank05 · Post by **Frank05** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:20 pm

I use Richies Third Steps for latin. This is published in America only and had gone out of print. A company now prints the book in steps 1,2 and three as far as I know. I had to order mine from America. Very good book though

amarula4 · Post by **amarula4** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 3:11 pm

Elrond I suggest two books.

The first is Peter Jones' 'Learn Ancient Greek', a sort of fast-and-loose romp thru things with answer key at the end of each chapter, excellent short essays interspersed, and a sharp sense of humour. As he says in his book, this sort of text makes the purists fume but it certainly worked for me. There is even an address to order a cassette tape of some exercises and passages read aloud by the great man himself.

However, you probably want strict declensions and conjugations, etc, so for that I recommend 'Greek to GCSE' by John Taylor in two volumes. This has no answer key so you may need some help checking the answers.

latinbeginsnow · Post by **latinbeginsnow** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 8:51 pm

Hey guys. I have been studying Attic Greek since around Christmas time and have bees using "An Introduction to Attic Greek" by Donald J. Mastronarde. He teaches at Berkeley, and my lucky friend has him as his Greek teacher. I have a tutor who received her Ph.D in the Classics from Cambridge and who currently teaches at Stanford. She wanted to use this book because she thinks it's the best. Well, hope this helps.

William · Post by **William** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 9:46 pm

latinbeginsnow,

Hello! I am a Latin student who is planning a foray into Greek. Did you know you can get a key for that book? There is also a website that more or less follows the book:

http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~ancgreek/

I find the book to be pretty easy to follow and neither too simple nor too complicated.

Best,
William

latinbeginsnow · Post by **latinbeginsnow** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:04 pm

yes, the book is very self explanatory and doesn't leave anything out. the only problem is that it starts to get pretty hard to translate his sentences from the greek a little after half way through the book. this is when the answer key would be helpful, but my tutor would be upset if i bought the answer key! good luck!

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Best textbook for someone interested in learning Greek?

Best textbook for someone interested in learning Greek?

North&Hillard

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