Hi, I find your “learning log” very interesting as a teacher and inspiring as a learner. You may find it encouraging if I told you that the most successful students of Greek that I have seen were partially or totally self-taught learners (myself included).
I would like to ask you if you have used the books that I recommended on my post, and if so to what effect. From what I can tell Zuntz’s Lehrgang would provide you with what you are looking for right now: 1) Excuse, materials and exercises for composition. 2) Selective reading of Greek. 3) A light but useful introduction to metre and poetry (Zuntz took particular pains to select passages that illustrate the differences and nuances in the poetic language and compared it to prose, so that the student could “acquire the taste” of Greek poetry).
The Italian version of the Athenaze (and its corresponding exercise books) is also perfect for composition, they offer a wide variety of texts for translation into Greek and composition as well as questions in Greek to be answered in Greek, they’re designed to examine reading and comprehension. The second volume of the Athenaze is actually a story made up taking pieces of Plato, Thucydides and Herodotus with detailed and illustrative drawings and explanations that lead to tremendous improvement in the acquisition of vocabulary and reading. As a staunch supporter of the so called “active method”, “nature method” or “inductive method” (best exemplified by Ørberg’s Lingua Latīna per sē illūstrāta or Arthur M. Jensen’s Nature Methods for modern languages) I must clearly state that this is the one aspect were I find Zuntz’s Lehrgang (as well as all the other books that I’m recommending) lacking and disappointing; I firmly believe that as teachers we must try our very best to teach a language using only that language, or illustrations, drawings, synonyms, etc. But not a dictionary or a list of vocabulary, and we should not force-feed the pupils with Grammar rules and tables and complicated explanations, but rather let them discover the rules by themselves (though I must admit that Zunt’z Lehrgang can actually be very accommodating for this methodology except in the vocabulary part, were he relies on the typical vocabulary lists).
Just those materials would probably be enough to keep you occupied for a while, but since you seem to be very proactive (and you do not have the limitation of not speaking German), I recommend you also Menge’s Repetitorium der griechischen Syntax. The whole book is actually a series of German phrases to be translated into Greek, and questions regarding Grammar with an exhaustive and detailed answer’s section (the one thing that both the Lehrgang and the Italian Athenaze lack). The one defect of this book is that is very demanding and (if you do not read Greek constantly) dull and oft-times boring. From the 10th edition onwards, the Repetitorium includes a supplement by Jürgen Wiesner on particles, it is very thorough and illustrative with an impresive variety of examples, it is not theoretic like Denniston’s Greek Patricles and is far more student friendly and straightforward, I have not found a better tool for the study of particles. Denniston (and Dover for that matter) may be unsurpassed in their knowledge and expertise of the Greek language but I simply cannot conceive a pupil (much less a beginner) actually consulting the Greek Particles to his advantage if he does not have previously a very good command of the subject.
Another great tool for composition (far more beginners-friendly than the Repetitorium) are the two volumes written by Herwig Görgemanns, Manuel Baumbach & Helga Köhler:
Griechische Stilübungen I. Übungsbuch zur Formenlehre und Kasussyntax
Griechische Stilübungen II. Übungsbuch zur Verbalsyntax und Satzlehre
Like Menge’s book, these two have answers sections, reasonably short but explicative (they also register other possible correct solutions or variations of the correct answer) and actually explain why something is right or wrong. They refer always to two Greek Grammars in their explanations:
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Hans Zinsmeister’s Griechische Grammatik I: Griechische Laut- und Formenlehre and Hans Lindemann & Hans Färber’s Griechische Grammatik II: Satzlehre, Dialektgrammatik und Metrik. It is a very good and practical grammar, made with the University student in mind, pays special attention to linguistic phenomena.
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Eduard Bornemann & Ernst Risch’s Griechische Grammatik. Is the official grammar used everywhere in Germany to teach Greek. Very reliable and direct, is not exhaustive but still is detailed enough to make it the basic reference grammar for beginners.
For the reading there is an infinite number of good and interesting anthologies everywhere. But the Spanish professors Francisco Rodríguez Adrados & Manuel Fernández Galiano published several that are specially useful because they are both interesting and well organized by grammar subject and very concise and clear in their explanations.
So far I know the existence of (and have used) the following:
Primera antología griega. Madrid: Gredos, 1955. (2nd edition 1963; 3rd edition 1966)
Segunda antología griega. Madrid: Gredos, 1962. (2nd edition 1965; 3rd edition 1969)
Nueva antología griega. Madrid: Gredos, 1975. (ISBN 9788424934415)
Antología de historia griega. Heródoto. Madrid: Gredos, 1960.
(The Spanish publishing house Gredos has sadly decayed in the quality of their books and they no longer reprint many of the excellent books written by the previous generation of Spanish scholars, so that much of their materials are lost even to them, you will not find these books in their catalogues, but they are relatively easy to find in places like AbeBooks, Amazon and ZVAB.)
Lastly I can only recommend that you consult frequently the “didactic resources” page from the Vivarium Novum Academy. My friends and former teachers make lists of new or rediscovered/unnoticed materials that they consider useful for the teaching and learning of Greek and Latin. There’s sadly not much the composition’s section and they focus more on Latin, but I still don’t know a better source for information on didactic materials.
Anyway, I hope this helps and wish you the best of luck with your Greek.