This year’s summer school will take us to the famous island of Naxos: Here, the god Dionysos once found poor Ariadne, left behind by Theseus. Here, young Zeus was raised to become king of the gods. And here, Leto came through searching for a place to give birth to her twins, Artemis and Apollo. We will explore these and other myths during our summer school, reading the ancient texts that retell them as well as visiting the ancient sites related to them on Naxos, Mykonos and Delos. You will practice your Ancient Greek in daily conversations, inside and outside of the class room, while at the same time enjoying the beauty and the hospitality of modern Greece. For the last days of our program, we will travel to Athens and visit timeless sites like the Acropolis and the ancient Agora where once Socrates cross-examined his fellow citizens about the true nature of virtue.
Hi bedwere, it looks like you’re involved in lots of these living language initiatives. I’d be interested to hear about your experiences at these generally and what you like best about them (I don’t really know anything about them). Thanks!
Cheers, Chad
Hi, Chad.
I used to go every year before COVID (actually I managed to go to Hellenikon Idyllion in 2020, exploiting all sorts of loopholes 
). Now I have a wife and a baby boy… I enjoyed both the Synodos and the Hellenikon Idyllion. Conversation helps my reading comprehension and it’s fun to meet other geeks. The Synodos is more intense, as it is only Ancient Greek for a week, it is more didactic and recommended to those who never tried to speak before. The Hellenikon Idyllion is more relaxed, as it is spread over two weeks and, officially, you speak the language only during the morning and afternoon sessions. On the other hand, it’s more advanced and you end up reading and discussing poetry (lyric poets in 2020). And it’s in Greece.
Sounds interesting thanks! I also have no chance of attending due to (life etc.) but am just curious: could you please paint a picture of a day you’ve attended? What you read, the type of conversation, the quality of the Greek/Latin, what you’ve learned there etc.
Seems to be ever popular from what I can see online, and I assume we will have more people on this forum over time who have that background, and so would I just like to have some inkling as to what happens there concretely, thanks!
Cheers, Chad
Christophe Rico would make us swear (somewhat tongue in cheek) not to speak vernacular among us for the whole week. Then we would have either split in two groups, beginners and advanced, or have sessions together. This both in the morning and afternoon, with breaks. He and Stephen Hill would teach us grammar (see the videos on YouTube for examples (https://www.youtube.com/@poliskoine https://www.youtube.com/@ThePolisInstituteJerusalem ) using their method, we would read some text (I remember Lucian), and play games. We would also visit a ,museum or a park. In the Idyllion Greek, we would only read texts and discuss about them. The reading were more advanced. The two times I went, Florian Feicht chose the hymn to Aphrodites and selection from the lyric poets. The were definitely many other excellent speakers: Roderigo Portella, Federico Aurora (who leads a fantastic Zoom reading group during the school days), Holger Essler… Here’s my interview with Πελαργός https://youtu.be/DluTEmCUnBQ
For Latin, I had very good experiences with Nancy Llewellyn. She directed the Veterum Sapientia/Vinculum program. They are more like the Synodos, including the semi-serious oath. Although they are for Catholic (alas, even among trads there are ignorance and sloppiness), the docents keep a high academic level, including reading Roman authors (Horace, Vergil).
Many thanks for this! A fascinating insight into what goes on at these living language courses.
Cheers, Chad