Ancient Greek Resources
For those who want to indulge in the older forms of Greek. The post will be updated continually. If you know good resources comment below :)
GENERAL
HOMERIC GREEK
CLASSICAL GREEK
KOINE GREEK
MEDIEVAL (BYZANTINE) GREEK
34 Comments
Thank you so much!! Even do I don't speak greek I still love the history of greece
Ευχαριστώ! Some people say they don't like how the language has evolved.
To each his own. If it's purely a matter of taste, how could I ever argue? I do feel, though, that some comments come from people who have very minimal knowledge and understanding of either Ancient or Modern Greek. Maybe I'm wrong.
What if I left a comment about Shakespeare's English and then complained about today? How would the English take it? Would they raise an eyebrow? (Just an example. In reality I love English, including Estuary English and the glottal stop.)
To me, Greek is luckily my fascinating language in all its different forms and I enjoy every bit of it. Even more so, I am happy for our friends worldwide who strive to learn it. Including modern poetry for example. With all its nuances, colour, and complexity of sounds. Not to mention how enjoyable certain actors can be, with their perfect articulation, in some of the 300 theatres in Athens.
Do you think you can finish the tree soon enough, till the next theatrical season?
Hi,
I've just started learning Ancient Greek at school and will be doing the GCSE in two years' time. I've also learnt Latin for three years and will continue to do so up until GCSE at least along with Greek.
Would you say that doing this Modern Greek course will be helpful to me or will I confuse the two forms of the language?
Hi! I think doing the Modern Greek course will help you improve your vocabulary as many words are the same or almost the same, but you will be confused with the conjugations. If you don't get easily confused learning both forms, I would highly rcommend it. If you get confused it is better to avoid it ;)
Plus, it depends on the form of Ancient Greek you want to learn. Will you learn Classical/Attic Greek or the Hellenistic Koine? Koine is very close to Modern Greek. I would say it is an intermediate level between Ancient and Modern Greek!
An example: The verb αγαπώ (love) is αγαπώ, αγαπάς, αγαπά, αγαπάμε, αγαπάτε, αγαπούν in Modern Greek and ἀγαπῶ, ἀγαπᾷς, ἀγαπᾷ, ἀγαπῶμεν, ἀγαπᾶτε, ἀγαπῶσι in Ancient Greek. As you notice the 1st,2nd 3rd singular person and the 2nd plural person are the same (except the different stresses).
That's good to know! I don't think conjugation will be a problem, as they have been drilled into us for a while at school - E.g. Chanting 'παυω, παυεις, παύει, παυομεν, παυετε, παυουσι' (we don't learn the accents for GCSE - just the aspirations).
I'm using this text, and I'm absolutely loving it. Teach Yourself also has courses in Biblical Greek and Modern Greek for English speakers.
Good to know that this is here. I have launched into the Modern Greek program because of my long ago study of Ancient Greek, and am exhilarated to be reviewing a form of the language again, but don't know yet if it's getting back to the classics or becoming more fluent in the modern form that I'm most interested in. Thanks!
I do! And greek literature :) I started this greek course to help me with Attic Greek.
For any native speaker of English, "Greek for Beginners" by L.A. Wilding, "A Primer of Greek Grammar" by Evelyn Abbott E.D. Mansfield, and "Greek Prose Composition" by North Hillard. Although not all friendly to the learner when studying, nor they were written for contemporary times, they are excellent for physiological effectiveness and were compiled by leading classical academics (in Great Britain, whom have been holding Greek knowledge for over 500 years). Recommended.
For those who want to start reading Homer, these sites are exceptional: http://www.ancientgreekonline.com/ http://homer.library.northwestern.edu/
They are especially useful when used together with the books "A Reading Course in Homeric Greek" (my preferred choice), Pharr's "Homeric Greek" and Autenrieth's "A Homeric Dictionary".
Bible Hub's Interlinear feature is also a great resource for starting to acquaint oneself with the Greek Bible:
Memrise has a lot of resources
ευχαριστώ πάρα πολύ
Since Ancient Greek was not added to the incubator yet, currently not. However, like was mentioned above, of all ancient dialects, Koine may be the closest to Modern Greek. Additionally, a large number of ancient roots have been maintained, and noun morphology is much better preserved than in any Romance language. In this sense, if you don't now much Greek yet, learning Modern Greek through Duo would be a great help towards mastering Koine, and you would also acquire the ability to communicate with Greek speakers as well. If your main interest really is Koine (I'm guessing you want to learn it to read the Greek Bible), then I would certainly recommend it! I would recommend it to others too, but they would have more to relearn in order to master Attic and Homeric. If you decide to follow the tree, just be sure to consult a grammar on Koine later on, as you would have to practice Ancient pronunciation and learn some additional grammatical features that have been lost in modern varieties.
