Hi, I’m sorry if this has been asked a lot but I did some searching on prior posts and couldn’t find the particular answer I’m seeking.
I’ve done both Athenaze textbooks and sections of others and am at a place where I can read authors like Xenophon and Herodotus fairly comfortably, albeit I’m still at quite a slow pace.
I’d like to eventually move to Homeric. For those who’ve done this, do you recommend a particular textbook for the transition (i.e., a textbook for Homeric which assumes the student has an intermediate level of Attic)? I don’t want to have to start from the basics all over again if I don’t have to.
Or do most people just dive right in and learn along the way?
Homer is much easier than Xenophon or Herodotus, so it shouldn’t be too difficult, the main difficulty being the vocabulary. I’m not aware of the sort of textbook you’re asking about (Pharr starts from the basics), but many editions of individual books of Homer have a short introduction to the peculiarities of the Homeric dialect. Simon Pulleyn for example has made a commented edition of Iliad book I and another of Odyssey book I, either of which should be a nice place to just dive in. Just bear in my that the introduction to the language of Homer is very short, just a few pages, but if you’re already able to read Attic it should be enough. Probably at least some of the Cambridge Greek and Latin editions have something as well.
Post your queries here and someone should be happy to answer!
This should be even easier than your title lets on. Herodotus isn’t Attic, but Ionic, and Homeric is essentially Ionic+. Learning about some archaic forms and getting used to the vocabulary is all you really need.