Heretofore Unmentioned Greek Textbook

Greek Learning Greek
1

It lately occurred to me that I should perhaps mention here the Greek textbook we use at St. John’s College.

When I was an undergraduate we were still using Chase and Phillips. But sometime in the mid-1970s we switched to a manual written by two tutors (professors) at the College. It is called “An Introduction to Ancient Greek”.

I’ve no classroom experience with the text. But based on the parts I’ve read, I would recommend it. It is, to my knowledge, one of the first Greek textbooks (in English at least) to acknowledge and explain the role of grammatical aspect in the Greek verb.

Its chief fault is a skimpy vocabulary. The three paperback manuals of the first edition were poorly bound; pages quickly tended to loosen. I can’t speak for the binding of the current edition.

Cordially,

Paul

2

Did you mean to write used
or are you enrolled/employed at St. John’s College?

3

I meant use. I guess I was writing as an alumnus who still feels very attached to the place.

Cordially,

Paul

4

Hi, Paul.

I, too, was pleasantly surprised by its discussion re. the grammatical aspect of the GV. I came across the text by chance a few years back. It was the 1st edition. The text is now in its 3rd edition. I wonder if the authors made any major changes. If I am not mistaken, one of the authors is/was a lawyer working for the US Department of Justice (State?).

Have a great weekend.

~Peter

5

Hey Peter,

Great to hear from you!

Yes, the Mollin/Williamson manual has one of the best discussions of the Greek verb that I’ve ever encountered.

I don’t know how significantly the text has changed over the last 30 years.

How did you know that Al Mollin used to work for Justice Department? He died a few years ago from, I think, a brain tumor.

He was a very interesting fellow. In his youth he was a member of a motorcycle gang. He cut quite a figure at SJC. After a Saturday night college viewing of the movie “Zulu”, he showed up at the party dressed in loincloth and headdress with his 6’5" body painted black. But he was no racist. Not only did he love that movie, likening it to the Iliad, but he had tremendous respect for the Zulus.

After SJC he went to law school in D.C. (I think). That’s how he found his way to the Justice Department.

We socialized some; the usual stuff American men do - drink whiskey, shoot guns. I miss him.

Take care,

-Paul

6

I was curious about the authors, so I read the brief passage about them in the book. It stuck with me because I was expecting the authors to be professors of AG or, at the very least, linguistic profs. Until you brought up the text, I had forgotten about it. It was always in the back of my mind, though, because I wanted to photocopy a few chapters from it, especially the section about the aspect of the GV. Anyway, seeing that I don’t have the time to visit the library, I picked up the text (via your link) from amazon.

Do you know that SJC refuses to take part in the University rankings? I think it’s very commendable of them. I never take school rankings seriously. Besides, I find it very funny, if not sad, that Harvard is consistently ranked on top. From what I’ve read and heard, Harvard has a policy of jacking up student grades, a mediocre math dept., and, if that is not enough, some freaky profs (A Dershowitz comes to mind), not to mention the bombastic Lawrence Summers. MIT it is not; Caltech it is not —no siree!

~Peter

7

Other colleges, such as Reed college, also refuse to participate in College rankings, for that very reason. And in my opinion, any place as highly rated as Harvard is most likely overrated. The only real advantage to going to Harvard, besides the prestige, is the connections. That may be worth it if you’re going into politics (and I know somebody who is), but as a place of pure learning I look elsewhere. From an individual student’s point of view, the best college is the one which serves his/her needs best.

On the other hand, both SJC and Reed appear in the “Schools Ranked by Category” in the Princeton Review. Perhaps they submit to these rankings since they don’t say one school is better overall - just whether college sports or popular, or how accesible professors are. I don’t take these too seriously either, but I find them fun to look at. For the curious, these are the lists where SJC appears :

Best Overall Experience for Undergraduates (Maryland campus : 4th, New Mexico campus : 7th)
The Students Never Stop Studying (MD : 20th)
Professors Bring Material to Life (NM : 6th)
Professors Make Themselves Accesible (NM : 1st)
Class Disscussions Encouraged (NM : 1st, MD :3rd)
Students Happy with Financial Aid (NM : 13th)
Dorms Like Palaces (NM : 6th)
Best Quality of Life (NM : 4th)
Students Most Nostalgic for Bill Clinton (NM : 6th)
Lots of Race/Class Interaction - Different types of students interact frequently and easily (MD : 4th)
Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular or Nonexistant (NM : 1st, MD : 11th)
Lots of Hard Liquor (NM : 9th)
Reefer Madness (NM : 3rd)
Dodge-Ball Targets (NM : 11th)
Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians (NM : 4th)

Hmmmm, taking a second look at the “Best Overall Academic Experience for Undergraduates”, Reed also ranks high as #3. And, on the list of 20 schools with the best academic experience, I don’t see any school called Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Columbia, or Princeton. In fact, the only schools which appear on both the “Best Academic Experience” and “The Toughest to Get Into” rankings are Swarthmore College, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, and Harvey Mudd College. Maybe there is a relationship between not giving information to “Best Colleges in USA” rankers and providing a rich academic experience, and perhaps selectivity does not make a good school. Or maybe the Princeton Review’s statistics are plain wrong, and indeed I do strongly doubt some of the things this books says …