Greetings, now that I’ve spent some time with lingua latina after mostly finishing Collins, I am amazed at how well those readers reinforce my basic Latin and instill confidence in actually reading rather than “decoding.”
So, I’m wondering now: is there some resource similar to lingua latina in ancient or homeric Greek?
Thanks!
Pharr himself suggested several options to follow up his text. Those that stand out in my mind are:
Of particular interest (to me) is “Selections from Herodotus” by Barbour, which was explicitly intended to be used after Pharr.
A friend loaned me this the other day, and we read through one of the stories together. I enjoyed it. It has notes at the back, and a vocabulary. The vocabulary was well done, providing definitions instead of glosses, which can be the danger with these things. I thought that the notes were helpful, but I don’t recall how much basic grammar info there was.
Helms’ Apology is probably the most detailed commentary + help that I’ve ever seen for a text. I’d look into that if you have any interest in Plato.
If you just finished Pharr’s Homeric Greek, by far (Pharr!) the best thing you can do is read Steadman’s Homer selections. In three inexpensive volumes you can get two more books from the Iliad and seven from the Odyssey, a very respectable chunk that will give plenty of good practice. This is the level you’ll be at for quite a while. After that probably the standard thing to do would be to move on to Benner’s selections from the Iliad. I wouldn’t tackle the Barbour Herodotus until after doing this, if you want a smooth gradual progression.
Plato is a pretty big jump after Homer, even in Helms’ little book. I’d recommend Lucian. Nimis and Hayes have a series of Lucian readers which are cheap and pleasant and much easier than Plato, in a similar format to the Steadman books.
Also, Steadman’s are available in PDF for free on his site. I actually prefer reading them on my iPad than I do the physical prints that he sells.