I certainly can imagine myself liking 24 more than 22. In general I really like all the “usual” favorites: 1, 6, 9, 16, 22, etc., along with the purple passages elsewhere (e.g., the shield of Achilles in 18).
Today’s agenda:
Greek: Iliad 23.1-126.
Latin: One continuous composition from Bradley’s Arnold’s appendix; another exercise from Califf’s verse comp.
• Read “Novus Dies” in Lingua Latina
• D’Ooge Lesson 65/66
• Do chapter 2 of Stack’s Reading French for Arts and Sciences
• Read for two hours: The Rise of the Roman Empire by Polybius (in translation)
Hello, I’m not a student anymore, but I’m striving to learn Attic Greek on my own using Mastronarde. I’m still pretty much at the very beginning, and I hope that you don’t mind if I post to this thread so I can motivate myself to keep on progressing onward.
I will probably not be able to work everyday, but certainly every second day. If possible I would post the goal for the day (usually a single unit and drill), and the actual accomplishment.
Finished today:
Scribes and Scholars, chapters 2-3. I should have done more Attic Greek, but the temptation to read other material is pretty high.
Mastronarde, Unit 4 (lol, I’m such a newbie, but we all have to start somewhere).
TODO tonight:
Mastronarde, Unit 5. This is very easy, so there is no excuse for me not to do it.
a. lawn work. I am decidedly NOT a fanatical suburban “lawn dad.” But for mowing, this is the first lawn work I’ve done in 14 (count 'em) years.
b. Dewars 12 year-old scotch on the rocks (lawn work is hard)
c. two glasses of red wine (lawn work is hard)
Ah, but yesterday I translated the first 10 or so lines of the Apology so that I can tomorrow night teach it with at least un soupçon of authorit-eye.
That’s what the thread is for! I like that book by Mastronarde, from what I’ve seen of it. Please give us your impressions as you move through it if you have time. You know there’s an answer key available for it, right? I think Amazon carries it.
I like the way you think. Well, with points “b” and “c.” Not so much “a.”
Thank you for that, as it will definitely help me in maintaining a schedule. Actually, the fact that there was an available answer key for Mastronarde was an important factor in convincing me to use his book for a primary source. As for impressions, I’ll have wait until I have progressed further before considering what to report, but the chief problem is that I have no specialized basis for comparison. While I’ve been interested in classics for a few years now, I have only taken a minor in Arts as part of my degree, so I have no ancient languages under my belt. Within the allowances of my minor, I concentrated on classical Greek and Roman history courses, with one “Roman Society” course as well. While I did have friends in the Classics department who were taking Greek and Latin, I did not join them, to my everlasting regret. I am remedy that in some fashion now as best I can.
Previously, I have briefly perused Athenaze, but it seemed to have a less systematic approach than M’s book, and it seemed to give shorter consideration to some details which M covers at the very beginning (like fairly detailed accentuation rules, and so forth). Also, people in this forum mentioned that it deferred some of the tougher topics till fairly late in the course. H&Q’s Greek: An Intensive Course looks highly interesting, but there is no key, so perhaps I can use it after I have finished using M.
good for you on the composition… I have to admit that composition scares me… possibly because I know no spoken languages besides english so I have not had practice in composing in other languages…? I am forcing myself to do the english-latin translations in wheelock, whereas I skipped them the first time through the book.