Reading course in Homeric Greek

Are you reading Homeric Greek? Whether you are a total beginner or an advanced Homerist, here you can meet kindred spirits. Besides Homer, use this board for all things early Greek poetry.
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quendidil
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Reading course in Homeric Greek

Post by quendidil »

Has anyone got this book? Its by )Raymond V. Schoder and Vincent C. Horrigan, I just bought it on eBay, could anyone say anything about it>?

ÓBuadhaigh
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Post by ÓBuadhaigh »

I have it, too, but I haven't begun to use it yet.

What I can tell you, is that if you have the old edition the key is almost impossible to come by, and absolutely impossible at a reasonable price. If you have the new version, you already know that it includes a *partial* key.

Just in case you have volume one of the original publication, you might find this URL useful.

http://www.catholicvoice.co.uk/classics/schoder.htm

What do you think of it yourself?

Seán
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't.

bernardo
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Post by bernardo »

I've been starting and stopping my greek studies for a couple of years now. Since research of textbooks and "best method" is a great procrastination, I've became familiarized with several books and ideas for self-teaching of greek and language in general :)

One of the first things I came by was this list
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltgu ... 61-7792600
which is discussed in this recent post
viewtopic.php?t=6786
and thought he sounded like he knew what he was talking about; so I became intrigued by the fact that the book he suggests as the best course for homeric greek (Schoder and Horrigan) is out of print, and extremely hard to find.

As luck would have it, I've found volume 1 of the 2nd revised edition (1985) in a library, and volume 2 of the same edition is not hard to find.

I've done the first twelve lessons of book 1 and this is my opinion:

First, it is absurd that this book is out of print. It is by far the best book I've seen (and used) on learning greek.
Pharr, which is well respected and well thought of, is in my opinion a very, very bad way to start learning greek. It is hard on the eyes, at times boring, at times dreary, unwieldy, old, old school, and poorly revised course. It's grammar, for consultation, is worth the price of the book, though.
Since I agree that starting with Homer is the best way to learn the language, that doesn't leave one with too many options (the only mention of Beetham's Beginning Greek with Homer in Textkit I could find is not encouraging).

Second, I don't think the new edition is on the whole an improvement
http://www.focusbookstore.com/browsepro ... --3-e.html
as I've compared a couple of pages, and thought the 2nd ed more welcoming. It (the 3rd ed) might have many valuable corrections, but the spirit of the writers, imprinted on every idea and suggestion, and in those lovely quotes at the beginning of each lesson, was effaced. Plus, the second volume is now due only in 2008. But if you have the 3rd, it's still better than other titles.

The answer key for the 2nd edition is, as Buadhaigh said, very hard to come by. But the link he posted solves this. Btw, thank you, Buadhaigh!

quendidil
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Post by quendidil »

Alas, I've yet to receive the book due to some address issues with the eBay seller. From what you two have said it sounds easier to use than Pharr however, I haven't started on Greek yet but I'll get right on it once I've completed Lingua Latina II

gfross
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Re: Reading course in Homeric Greek

Post by gfross »

The answer key for the 2nd ed. revised is Teacher's Manual and Key to a Reading Course in Homeric Greek. It is an exact reprint of the teacher's manual and answer key (Book III) originally published by Loyola University Press. This reprint edition was published (2007) by Focus Publishing (http://www.pullins.com). As far as I know, there is still no Teacher's Manual and Key to the course as revised by L. Collins Edwards (3rd ed., revised). However, from what I have seen so far (am now up to Lesson 11 in Book I), most of the material is the same. A few questions and answers don't match, because Edwards has postponed the introduction of the present active and middle/passive participles (feminine), which S and H introduced in Lessons 7 and 8, as well as the "accusative and infinitive" construction, which S and H introduced in Lesson 10 using only the form λέγω.

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