Download Clyde Pharr's Homeric Greek - A Book For Beginners. At 439 pages this Homeric Greek textbook is intended for the beginner with no Greek experience.
In 1918 the Classics Journal published an article by Clyde Pharr in which he called for the teaching of beginning Greek via Homer, because "the student who has taken only a very little of beginning Greek, even if he has progressed no farther than the end of the first book of the Iliad, has come into vital contact with the magic and the music of the Greek language, used in one of the most beautiful, one of the most varied, and one of the most influential literary compositions of all ages; and though he may have devoted considerable labor to mining the gold, he cannot truthfully say, and probably will not want to say, that Greek for him has been a waste of time"
Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners was published shortly after that article, and has appeared in print for most of the 80 years since. Starting with the alphabet in the first lesson, the beginner is reading the first lines of the Iliad by the 13th. At first only a few lines appear each lesson, and they are well commented to explain grammar not yet seen. A few sentences for translation, both Greek to English and English to Greek, occur in the first 53 lessons, and prepare you for the phrasing and grammar of the lesson's Iliad passage. When you reach lesson 77 you'll have read all 611 lines of the first book of the Iliad, and will be well prepared for further Epic reading.
Like all Greek textbooks of the period, this book assumes students know Latin. Fortunately it does not explain Greek grammar by constant reference to Latin, but it does expect the student to be familiar with the mechanics of inflecting languages, grammatical terminology and, in a few places, Latin syntax. For the student who does know some Latin, this will present no problems. If you've had neither Greek nor Latin and are studying on your own, this textbook may be rough going at first. If you don't have a Homerist handy for help, bring your questions to the Textkit Forum and someone will usually answer your question in a few hours.
For those who already know Greek, the book is an agreeable introduction to the Epic dialect, and provides not only text and commentary on the first book of the Iliad, but also acts as a compact Epic reference grammar which you'll find useful long after you've finished the lessons.
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