Harry Potter Ancient Greek - which dialect?

Greek Learning Greek
1

Hi folks,
I’m interested in learning Ancient Greek but of course I’m asking myself the usual question of which dialect to devote myself to.
Does anyone know what dialect the Harry Potter Ancient Greek version is written in? I’d like to eventually be able to read that at least.

Thanks so much,
P.

2

I purchased this book quickly from an online book company after I saw the price on U.S. Amazon go up to $100.00. The bookseller I found was still selling for a reasonable price. It’s really a cute little book.

I am not ready to read it yet (I have other books I’m working on now), but I found the translator’s webpage here:

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/harry_potter.htm

The translator, Andrew Wilson, says that he wrote it in the style of Lucian, which is Attic Greek.

3

Great work Lina :smiley: I had found that webpage but for some reason I missed that section about it being in Attic Greek. Now that I look again it’s as plain as day!
$100 is way too much to charge. Hopefully the price will come down again.

4

I assume it’s expensive because it doesn’t have a US publisher and is imported from the UK - if you buy it on Amazon.co.uk, it’s $15 or so plus shipping.

5

That’s makes no sense whatsoever! I mean how much does it weigh you think? I’m only asking because, being curious, I checked a Greek publishing house.
(Here’s the page where I started “purchasing” it). Now, to reach $100, according to thispage (if it doesn’t show up right, just click the link under the heading Shipment and charges), it should weigh about 24 pounds or something like that. In the details (here, it says it weighs a bit more than 2 pounds.

I’m not saying you should order it from Greece or anything like that, but the price difference is huge and it can’t be just that Greek page that has it for such a smaller price!

Edit: Forgot to write the price for those who don’t want to click the links: It’s 11,30 euros (can’t find the sign).

6

I’m going to sound like an ad, but when I’ve ordered books from the UK, I’ve used bookdepository.co.uk because it has free shipping to almost anywhere, so even if the book is more expensive (as it seems to be for Harry Potter here), the free shipping usually makes up for it.

7

Seems like all those people buying up beanie babies so many years ago because they were an “investment” should have been buying up ancient Greek texts.

8

Hi all,

I didn’t even think to check Amazon UK. I just assumed that the price was about to go up everywhere when it suddenly went up on the Amazon US site (apparently a completely false assumption). I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find an affordable copy if I waited.

As for collecting ancient Greek texts, I seem to just keep buying books, faster than I can read them. One of the reasons that I started learning Greek is that I thought the writing looked cool–like a secret code or something. The fact that I still always have a few moments of complete disorientation and panic when I look at a new reading just enhances this feeling.

I love getting a book, looking at the font, the glossary, the layout. I like to read the introductions of Victorian Greek readers, in which the author is often addressing the schoolboys/teachers he assumes will be using the book. I wish I could find some original editions of those sorts of books at reasonable prices.