Which Attic book?

Greek Learning Greek
1

Mind you, I still have a ways to go in Pharr, so it will be a while before I go into Attic, but I want to start the used book hunt.

The main two books I’m considering are Morwood and Mastronarde (if you have other suggestions, I’ll hear them two). Currently I’m leaning more towards Morwood, but here are the pros and cons of the two books as far as I see.

Morwood
Pros : Much cheaper (!), good reference for later, has excercises, very clear explainations (or so others say - no first hand experience), can supplement with the website for Mastronarde at UC Berkley for drills
Cons : Drills? Answer key? Does not develop huge vocabulary.

Mastronarde
Pros : Answer key availible (though separate), good drills, it’s the kind of language textbook I like based on descriptions (I find math relaxing), uses excerpts from ancient writers, thorough
Cons : With answer key, about 4x the price of Morwood (!), can use website for the vocab/drills without book, how good would this be as a reference after finishing it?

I appreciate any advice, as well as additional information on these two books, or corrections to the information above. Keep in mind that I’ll start these books with a Homeric background. Thanks in advance.

2

When you finish Pharr, and after you’ve read a bit more Homer (at least another book or two), you should have no problem picking up a standard student edition (with notes for tricky parts) of any of the usual Attic authors. The only preparation you might need is a quick look through a student grammar, like the new one from Oxford, to take in things like the contracting neuter nouns in ‐ς.

Homeric and Attic are not so different you need to start from scratch to switch.