Why Greek
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There are a great many reasons to study ancient Greek, from an interest in historical linguistics to a personal fascination with ancient culture. I, for one, think that the study of Greek has great practical merit as well. To read Greek, you will need to hold a complex system of facts in your head and manipulate these facts with both precision and imagination— a capability useful, even critical, in just about any higher occupation you choose to pursue.
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But most people, rightly, study Greek in order to meet in the original language one or more of the great minds that wrote in Greek. The list is breathtaking: Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, to name just a few of the more obvious.
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This semester course will break significant ground towards the goal of reading authors in the original Greek. We will read Greek of increasing complexity as the year goes along, and by year’s end (the latter part of Greek 102) we will be reading mostly unadulterated Greek. After finishing the year’s course, you will be prepared to continue reading Greek at the intermediate level (Greek 203), and to read simple prose, from Aesop to the New Testament, more or less independently.
Textbooks
Class logistics and goals
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Class will be a mixture of exercises, Q&A, explanation of new grammatical material, practice in reading, discussion of points of culture. Assignments will typically involve a mix of memorization, reading, written practice. Assignments must be prepared thoroughly prior to each class, since class time will often depend on knowledge gained from the assignment. Our aim will be to finish Athenaze Book 1, or at least to come very close to that. In general, we will average about 1 chapter, or slightly more, per week.
