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This is the general introduction page for the
Textkit study group for beginning Homeric Greek. Please see this for a full list of current reading groups.
Beginning Homeric Greek Reading Group
Text. While Textkit is most known for
providing free PDFs of older Greek and Latin textbooks we will be
using the venerable
Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners
by Clyde Pharr. The University of Oklahoma Press currently prints a
revision by John Wright, and is available at Amazon. You can also
sometimes find older copies in used bookstores, and the only
difference will be that the Wright revision removed some of Pharr's
wilder digressions. Wright also added some introductions to
grammatical terminology to the early chapters.
An earlier edition is now also available as a
PDF
from Textkit.
The most appealing thing about Pharr's textbook is
that you are reading from the first book of the Iliad (with helpful
notes) by chapter 13, and when you finish the book you will have read
all of Iliad book one.
Schedule. The default schedule is two
lessons a week, with a review and catchup week every third or fourth
with only one lesson. The actual rate of review weeks will be
determined by the needs of the people in the reading group.
Each reading group session web page will have a
current schedule posted at least a month in advance. Let your group
guide know early if a particular date is going to be a problem. From
time to time the guide might need a break, too.
Assignments. We'll do all the translations
for each chapter: English to Greek, Greek to English, and once the
Iliad starts, those too. Since most of the Greek to English sentences
anticipate phrases in the Iliad passage of the same chapter, this
isn't as much extra work as it first sounds.
Once we hit the Iliad I'd also recommend that
people turn in some scanning to get a feel for the meter of the poem.
Of course feel free to ask questions and make
comments to the mailing list as you work on your assignments, too.
Representing Greek. Since many of us do not
yet have Unicode running on our computers, nor the tools to make that
work nicely in our email programs, we're going to use
Beta code to
represent Greek. This system may take a bit to get used to, but is
still the best way to email Greek around when you cannot guarantee
that all the recipients have the same fonts and Operating System as
you.
Corrections. On each assignment date you
will turn in your work by emailing the list guides with your work.
One of the guides will collate all the work and comment on particular
mistakes people have made, when necessary. The collations are
anonymous unless you care to comment on your errors in the discussion
after the guide posts the corrections.
The guides should have the collation and
corrections out at least a day before the next assignment is due, or
announce if there will be delays.
Your Duties. This is not a school, there
are no grades, and we certainly have no accreditation. We assume
you're studying Homeric Greek because you think it's interesting and
valuable to be able to read Homer in the original language. We do,
too. :)
By joining the list we ask for your commitment to
stick with the list until we finish the book. Obviously life can
always interfere with these plans in serious ways, but we ask that you
think seriously about your goals before you join the list. Greek is
hard, and Homer is difficult. At least some study is required nearly
every day, especially for the beginner. These sorts of internet
mailing lists for learners always seem to work better when people
stick with the program.
If a huge life crisis means you have to leave the
list, of course do not hesitate to let us know. But if you're finding
the pace too hard, or you're simply exhausted, contact the guides, and
we'll see what we can do to keep you involved. We want you to finish
Pharr, and to be able to say you've read the at least part of the
Iliad in Greek. We'll do what we can to help you through what has
been described by one lover of the Homeric poems as "tedious and
replulsive work with grammar and dictionary." If some of that
necessary first work is nasty, the results are surely not, and Textkit
exists, in part, to help people see that for themselves.
Sessions
- Session A: Completed.
[Schedule]
- Session B: starting November 8th, 2004.
[Schedule]
- Session C: Reforming.
[Schedule]
- Session D: Beginning (closed - full).
[Schedule]
Handouts
Sometimes a question will lead to a much longer
discussion of some tricky point of Homeric grammar.
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