Hello everyone,
I am almost finished reading Rōma Aeterna in the LLPSI series and as I continue to read Latin I am getting ready to learn some Ancient Greek. I am completely self-taught, and while I love being an autodidact I also like having proper expectations.
Some Context: I plan to use the textbook Athenaze, 2nd edition (English), as well as the Italian edition. I plan to mainly use the English edition, reading the passages several times (employing Luke Ranieri’s recordings of the readings in Lucian pronunciation), doing the exercises in the book, memorizing the grammar and vocabulary, etc. I figured I could use the Italian edition as a supplement, going through the readings there after having mastered everything in the English edition.
I have a few questions about this textbook if you all don’t mind giving your thoughts:
How long will Athenaze (both books) take me to go through? How many hours on average did you spend on each chapter?
Are the exercises in the Athenaze textbook sufficient, or do you recommend that I get the Workbooks also?
How far will Athenaze take me in my study of Greek? How well will I be able to read the Greek New Testament and the Septuagint? Will I be able to read (with help) Homer, Plato, Xenephon, and others?
Regarding how far completing Athenaze will take you in your study of Greek, it’s worthwhile pointing out that those books cover Attic Greek. The readings are mainly based on Attic Greek. Completing the texts will leave you ready to read Plato and Xenophon, assuming you use books that are designed for new readers of Greek. Homer’s dialect is very different from Attic. It would seem odd to jump from Athenaze to Homer since Attic is so different. I would think that most people would instead focus on works in Attic Greek at first. As for the New Testament and Septuagint, the Biblical Greek dialect has evolved from Attic, and it’s simpler. You could certainly start reading the New Testament, again with student editions, but if that were your primary interest, why not learn Biblical Greek directly?
That’s what I figured. How different, I wonder, is the Homeric dialect from Attic? Is it so different that I would need to get a separate textbook just to read Homer?
Yes, my primary goal is to read the Septuagint and especially the Greek New Testament. However, I would also like to read Attic Greek, like Plato and others. I learned that it is easy to transition from Attic to Koine but not so easy the other way around. Plus, Athenaze is the closest (and most recommended) thing I’ve found to something like LLPSI, which is how I learned Latin.
Question: How easy will I be able to read the New Testament? I would think that I would be able to read it as I could read the Vulgate after finishing Familia Rōmāna, just needing vocabulary help. Is that reasonable? Would the same generally go towards Plato, Xenephon, and others (like if I got a Loeb Classical Library edition, with the English on the other side)?
I don’t think you need a whole new textbook to read Homer, but you will spend some time learning epic forms and looking up new vocabulary (and earlier definitions for familiar vocabulary!).
I find Koine to be rather easy to go to from Attic (including learning from Athenaze), except for new vocabulary, (as you surmised) some of which are calques or borrowings from Hebrew.
For what it’s worth, and I never pursued his line of reasoning directly, but Pharr (author of the Homeric Greek textbook) makes a case that it’s easier to go from Homeric Greek to Koine than learning Attic first.
Regarding reading the New Testament after learning Attic, you should have no problem at all. For vocabulary help, “A Reader’s New Testament” is exactly what you need – aside from a small core vocabulary which you are expected to memorize, the rest of the vocabulary is supplied by footnotes at the bottom of the page.
Regarding Plato and Xenophon, personally, I think most people starting out need more than a parallel translation. The syntax of Attic Greek tends to be more complex and in addition background information is quite helpful. There are great editions of both authors for new readers. Without them you would, at times, have a hard time understanding how the translation relates to the text.
Concerning New Testament Greek, a New Testament Greek lexicon is very handy. I purchased an old one from a used bookstore. The great thing about NT lexicons is that they index every different word form. So even if your knowledge of the forms is shaky, you can make progress.
Moreover, aids for the Greek NT abound on the internet.
I’ve just gone through the first book and having a tight schedule I calculated that I did 100 lines per hour, give or take. Try to take a stopwatch a see how much time you spend on a given text bit - that will give you an estimate of the time.