Materials for reading Herodotus

Greek Learning Greek
1

Hopefully I’m soon through Demosthenes’ On the Crown and I’d like to start a new major reading project. I want something easy for a change. Before Demosthenes, which is crazy hard, I’d thought I’d read Thucydides, which is even more difficult and which I soon abandoned, to start again once I’m fluent in Greek. I’m thinking about reading Herodotus, if it really is easy enough. Some easier Plato is another possibility, and I’m open to other ideas. Maybe not Xenophon though for the present.

But back to the point, can you recommend good materials for reading Herodotus?

2

Annotated editions of Books 5, 8 and 9 are available in the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series.

A large commentary on Books 1-4, based on the on-going multi-volume Italian commentary, is available from Oxford:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-commentary-on-herodotus-books-i-iv-9780199639366?q=commentary%20on%20herodotus&lang=en&cc=us

This English translation has notes and lots of maps–it might be useful in reading the Greek text:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Landmark-Herodotus-Histories/dp/1400031141

The older two-volume commentary by How and Wells (I think) is not considered particularly good, but I haven’t used it.

There’s a two-volume Teubner critical edition by Rosen. The Oxford Classical Test edition (also two volumes) is around 100 years old, but a revised edition by Nigel Wilson is promised for later this year.

http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199560714.do

Hope this helps!

3

I’m looking at Herodotus as well as my next prose project, of course after having finished the Iliad (in a few weeks) and combined with more Homer. The resources I’ve collected so far

-The Landmark Herodotus (see the link Qimmick provided): not only a very literal translation, but copious notes, maps and 20 short articles on various topics concerning Herodotus.

-The Cambride Companion to Herodotus: 20 longer essays on the Histories
http://www.amazon.de/Cambridge-Companion-Herodotus-Companions-Literature/dp/0521536839/ref=sr_1_1?s=books-intl-de&ie=UTF8&qid=1429564401&sr=1-1&keywords=Cambridge+companion+to+herodotus

-specifically for book I: Discourses on the First Book of Herodotus by James Arietti: http://www.amazon.de/Discourses-First-Herodotus-James-Arieti/dp/0822630389/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books-intl-de&ie=UTF8&qid=1429564630&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=Discrourses+on+the+first+book+of+herodotus

4

Hi! I’ve found the commentary of Geoffrey Steadman for Herodotus, Book 1 very useful:
http://geoffreysteadman.com/files-herodotus/
The notes are focused on providing help with the grammar, which is exactly what I need, but I don’t know if this is your case.

5

Thanks. I think I have now all I the information I need to get going!

Nice to see you around, Huilen! We haven’t heard of you in a while…

6

Paul, how about the Greek NT? It’s really easy and with the synoptic gospels you get lots of repetition. You can get some cool Reader’s editions and diglots in various languages.

Spoiler alert: the hero of the book dies early on, but there is still a happy ending. :stuck_out_tongue:

7

I do read the NT at occasions. You’re right I’m need to read it through one day in Greek. I probably haven’t read it all in any language… A couple of times I’ve wanted to read the whole Bible in Finnish from cover to cover but I never got beyond about halfway in the Old Testament…

Basically I can read the NT with relative ease, at least those parts I’ve actually read, but the thing is I’d like to read some older Greek for the present and leave Koine for later. That goes for the Greek novels as well, though I’m really looking forward to reading those some day…

8

Markos, could you recommend a particular reader’s edition of the Greek NT?
Since I’m doing Latin as well, it would also be nice to have the Latin Vulgate next to the Greek. I’m pretty sure such an edition exists, just have to find and chose one.
(Sorry for hijacking this Herodotus thread)

9

Hi, Bart,

No less than three publishers produce Reader’s GNT’s. Zondervan has two editions:

http://www.amazon.com/Readers-Greek-New-Testament-2nd/dp/0310273781/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429710101&sr=1-1&keywords=Reader's+editions+greek+new+testament

http://www.amazon.com/Readers-Greek-New-Testament/dp/0310248884/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429710101&sr=1-3&keywords=Reader's+editions+greek+new+testament

The plus with these is the binding of the books, lightweight paper and a nice fake leather cover. These books feel great in your hand and you can roll them up like newspapers and put them in your coat or your back pocket. The draw back is the font. The font on the first edition is slanted, the one on the second edition has thin and faded letters. The first edition font, though, is fairly large.

UBS through several publishers has their own edition, available in many formats, from paperback to deluxe leather, with or without the textual apparatus.

http://www.amazon.com/UBS-5th-Revised-Greek-Testament/dp/3438051168/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429710489&sr=1-5&keywords=UBS+reader's+edition

http://www.amazon.com/UBS-Greek-American-Bible-Society/dp/3438051494/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429710489&sr=1-6&keywords=UBS+reader's+edition

http://www.amazon.com/UBS-Greek-New-Testament-Burgundy/dp/1433530295/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429710489&sr=1-1&keywords=UBS+reader's+edition

The main plus with these is the font, large and clear and straight and dark. The drawback is that the bindings on these books are notoriously known to fall apart. Also, the UBS usually just gives you a one word gloss targeted to the reading at hand, whereas Zondervan at each point gives you the full range of meanings found in the Greek NT. This is better for vocab retention.

Then, VTR offers a Reader’s edition based on the Majority Text:

http://www.amazon.com/Greek-New-Testament-Beginning-Readers/dp/3941750240/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429711012&sr=1-1&keywords=Greek+new+testament+for+beginning+readers

The glosses on this one are the most complete, and the font is clear and dark, but a little small. This book is bound well but is a bit big and clunky.

I think I have reviewed most of these books on Amazon. My bottom line recommendation is, see if you can a used copy of Zondervan’s first edition. One gets used to the slanted font. But I’d recommend any of these editions.

You can indeed get a Greek-Latin NT diglot:

http://www.amazon.com/Novum-Testamentum-Graece-Latine-Testament/dp/3438054019/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429711217&sr=1-1&keywords=Greek+new+testament+greek%2Flatin

but I would recommend this Hexapla, which has the Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French and German and English:

http://www.amazon.com/Parallel-Interlinear-New-Testament-Polyglot/dp/069230214X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429711217&sr=1-2&keywords=Greek+new+testament+greek%2Flatin

The Greek font on this is large and clear. I’m using it to learn Hebrew and it’s great.

The best Greek-English diglots are

http://www.amazon.com/New-Testament-Greek-English-Diglot-Translation/dp/3438054205/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429711437&sr=1-2&keywords=NET+diglot

This has an extra large font and it includes excellent notes on the Greek text underneath, with an English translation on facing pages.

and this one

http://www.amazon.com/Precise-Parallel-New-Testament-International/dp/0195284127/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429711563&sr=1-1&keywords=precise+parallel+Greek+new+testament

has a tiny font but with six facing English translations.

Reading a Ancient/Modern GNT diglot gives you a sense of what Modern Greek looks like:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/9607847172/ref=pdp_new_dp_review

You are forgiven. Now go and sin and no more. :smiley:

10

Haha, I’ll try.
But thanks, that’s a very thorough overview indeed.

That’s a nice way of getting acquainted with modern Greek (a Greek-Greek NT). I ordered a bilingual edition of poetry by Kavafis (with English translation). I’m curious to see how that works out.

Anyway, back to Herodotus. I love him in translation. Should be even better in Greek.
Paul, I hope you keep us informed about your progress.

11

Has anyone used the Loeb or Budé editions? Are they any good?

12

I don’t know about the Budé, but the Loeb was originally published in 1920. If you want a translation, I think you’d probably be better served by getting the old OCT version second-hand–it’s not expensive–and a good translation, such as the Landmark volume.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=herodotus&kn=oxford&sts=t&tn=historiae

13

Paul,
If you have access to a university you might benefit from reading:

Helma Dik, Word Order in Ancient Greek: A Pragmatic Account of Word Order Variation in Herodotus. Amsterdam Studies in Classical Philology 5. Amsterdam: J. C. Gieben, 1995.

14

Since there’s a new OCT forthcoming, maybe I’ll try to get the old one from the library for now.

Dik’s book sounds interesting, I’ll surely take look if I can get my hands on it. Perhaps not so much use for reading Herodotus per se, but I might learn about Greek syntax in general. I did benefit a lot from a modern theoretical book on verbal aspect at least (Maria Napoli’s Aspect and actionality in Homeric Greek). Certainly that sounds more accessible than Dik’s book on word order in tragedy - what a difficult subject!

15

I found the OCTs of Herodotus used at a local bookstore. I recently read through the first couple of pages and understood only every second phrase, which doesn’t count as “easy Greek” for me. But I’d be willing to do some sort of reading project.

Ideally, I’d like to find a Skype partner who’s willing to take turns with me on something like this:

Person A studies the next section in preparation for the upcoming Skype session. Then they read together on Skype and he answer’s Person B’s questions using simple Greek (as far as possible). For the next section/conversation, A and B flip roles.

I would also be willing to do the same on a Textkit thread instead of Skype.

16

Bryn Mawr do two commentaries on Herodotus, George Sheets did the Book 1 one, while Book 3 was done by Stephen Newmyer. They are focused on helping intermediates to get to grips with the language rather than digressions on the historical background.

17

I can also vouch for Steadman’s edition of Book I. It’s very cheap and, though it has a few typos, makes for very easy and pleasurable reading.

18

Paul, could you tell us what materials you’ve actually ended up with and if they are helpful or not?
I’m a few pages into the first book of the Histories myself, hence my question.

19

I’ve finished now book II and recently started book III.

My reading text is the Budé edition. Not for any good reason though. I suppose the Greek text is ok, I’m really no judge. I haven’t seen the brand new OCT. I chose the Budé mostly because it has a translation. The notes are pedestrian, you definitely want a better commentary than this. The translation is ok I guess. It’s 9 volumes in all I think, which is a lot. So not so great all in all, I only read it because it has both the Greek text and a translation in the same volume. (I haven’t compared with the Loeb edition, which is even older - the Budé is from about 1930.)

The Landmark Herodotus: A nice translation with short but good notes, and maps.

The Oxford commentary on books I-IV by Asheri et al. is great. The amount of grammatical help varies from book to book (because the authors change): close to nothing for book I, some for book II, I don’t know about the rest yet. But most of the time it doesn’t provide much help with the Greek.

So the problem is where to find grammatical help. Luckily Herodotus is not very difficult. I’ve very occasionally checked Steadman (available online), but that’s only for book I. I’ve also very occasionally checked a very old 19th century commented edition by Heinrich Stein, which seems pretty good actually; it has pretty extensive grammatical notes. I found it in the library, but probably it’s to be found online as well like most of these out-of-copyright books.

I haven’t seen the Bryn Mawr commentaries.

There are Green & Yellow Cambridge editions on the later books, but I haven’t reached there yet. These are probably good, like everything in the series.

So, all in all: Out of these books, I can really recommend from my experience the Landmark Herodotus and the Oxford commentary on books I-IV. I don’t know which Greek text to recommend (but probably the new OCT), and I haven’t found a grammatical commentary I’m fully satisfied with (Stein is old and in German; I haven’t tried the Bryn Mawrs).

20

Thanks.

Here is Heinrich Stein’s commented edition: https://archive.org/details/herodotos00steigoog
It’s from 1889. At first glance it looks okay.

Steadman: I’m a bit ambivalent toward his editions. I like the fact that he gives all the vocabulary ready at hand, I’m less enthousiastic about his explanations of grammar. Having used both Steadman and Ameis for reading Homer, I’m convinced that the latter is superior by far in this respect. But then, I’m an Ameis cheerleader :smiley: