/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.4253370]

Best books for learning Ancient Greek?

[Anonymous No.4253381]

If you know Latin already, JACT (the NEW edition, which can't be found online last time I checked, though the first and inferior edition is online) is a really good choice bcause it presumes familiaryt with grammatical conecpts. You can laern really fast with JACT if you know Latin even wdecently. You might be able ot work through it without Latin but you'd better know what the fuck a subjunctive and pluperfect and participle is, man.

If not, there are other pgorams , but I would be really suspicious of anything purporting to teach aANcient Greek because its really fucking hard man. like reakky lard. It's a tough language. Anything that isn't well respected (like JACT is) should be highly suspect - it takes very little energy to sell, even successfully sell, a language learning kit thing, but a LOT of effort to be well respected and widely used by universities. I know a lot of my coursees used Athenaze, but that is not necessarily an endorsement, and it might simply be an adequate skeleton for a course more based around lectures+supplements.

Once you learn a decent Greek ttlevel Once you learn Greek toa decent level you can check out Clyde Pharr who has really well constructed books for learner translation etc.

I would really recoomendn you leearn Latin first because i Know Classics majors who basically say, look, if you dont *love* Greek stuff, Greek is useless. Latin can be applied to 415 things but Greek is a limited corpus on a limited array of subjects and it relates to basically no other languages, while latin has toooons of application in learning romanc languages and stuff. And Latin is sufficient (and also great) for learning grammar in general, Greek is too but it's 5000% more work for the same payoff really.

[Anonymous No.4253435]

bump

[Anonymous No.4253472]

Unless you are attempting a degree in Greecian studies, I cant think of a more useless language ro learn than acient greek. Not even the OP can be this pretentious.

[Anonymous No.4253842]

>>4253472
So... Homer, Plato, and Aristotle are all useless?

[Anonymous No.4253852]

>>4253842

These guys have all been translated into English, by skilled translators. Unless you're willing to devote yourself to years of hard study, you will probably never reach the same level of familiarity with ancient greek as these translators.

[Anonymous No.4253855]

>>4253842

Beggin dat question

[Anonymous No.4253887]

>>4253852
>>4253472

I think the idea would be to learn greek for a lifetime of appreciation of greek work. I myself am approaching a level of admiration for the greeks that compels me to learn their language. If I had a chance I would take a classics course.

[Anonymous No.4253903]

I am learning ancient Greek. I speak English, French, and Spanish, and I'm also studying Mandarin and Latin.

Btw this is all in my free time. I'm a mathematics student.

To me there are two reasons to learn Greek: 1) Homer, and 2) the history of ideas. If you care about literature and are not trying to read Homer in the original, then you are just a massive beta pussy. And you will never understand the history of sexuality, tragedy, cosmology, or lots of other things that are relevant in the world today unless you are ready to acquire a nuanced understanding of Greek authors that requires knowing the meaning of the words they used.

[Anonymous No.4253911]

>>4253903
How do you personally learn languages? Just lots of reading? Extracurricular classes? Programs?

[Anonymous No.4253916]

>>4253911

There's no substitute for taking classes if you want to learn how to speak. Listening to tapes or whatever doesn't work very well.

For reading and writing, just work through a grammar textbook and then practice reading and writing. It's not that complicated, just takes a lot of practice.

[Anonymous No.4253919]

>>4253472

Hey, dumbass. What are you doing on a literature forum?

>>4253852

Here's Thomas Jefferson on the matter.

To read the Latin and Greek authors in their original, is a sublime luxury; and I deem luxury in science to be at least as justifiable as in architecture, painting, gardening, or the other arts. I enjoy Homer in his own language infinitely beyond Pope's translation of him, and both beyond the dull narrative of the same events by Dares Phrygius; and it is an innocent enjoyment. I thank on my knees, him who directed my early education, for having put into my possession this rich source of delight; and I would not exchange it for anything which I could then have acquired, and have not since acquired. (Letter to Priestley, Jan. 27, 1800)

[Anonymous No.4253931]

>>4253370
I'm not learning the language myself (I'd like to at some point though) but there's Beginning Greek with Homer (for Homeric Greek) and Beginning Greek with Plato (For Attic Greek, I think, which comes later than Homeric). These basically take you through the works in question and have you translate/read them while learning the language. Seems pretty nifty to me, and you can get right into what you wanted to learn Ancient Greek for right off the bat.

Though, I'd imagine a familiarity of the works in question through translations would be useful.

[Anonymous No.4253932]

>>4253916
>There's no substitute for taking classes if you want to learn how to speak.
Yes there is. There are 1 billion people who speak Mandarin fluently, and none of them took Mandarin classes. Also, for a large portion of this 1 billion Mandarin isn't the native language either.

P.S. The 'critical period' theory is utter bollocks.

[Anonymous No.4253941]

>>4253932

Well, I'm assuming that the person who was asking that question doesn't have a means of traveling to each and every country whose language he wants to learn. Obviously if you can talk to native speakers on a regular basis, you don't need classes.

>There are 1 billion people who speak Mandarin fluently, and none of them took Mandarin classes.

No one who has ever taken Chinese classes can speak Chinese fluently? Cool story, bro.

>P.S. The 'critical period' theory is utter bollocks.

I hope you're not under the impression that you're disagreeing with me by saying that. I'm advocating learning languages later in life. I myself am 24 and learn languages just as easily as I did when I was 16.

[Anonymous No.4254046]

>>4253941

I'm not fond of the critical period stuff but technically it ends at about 12, so according to the theory learning languages at 16 vs 24 would have equal difficulty.

[Anonymous No.4254252]

use the books they use in high school, those are explained pretty good and are full of exercises

[Anonymous No.4254561]

bump

[Anonymous No.4254661]

>>4253381
Wrong. Learn German than learn ancient Greek.

Skip Latin.

[Anonymous No.4254767]

>>4254764
>A classical education really is superior, I only got a taste of it, but damn, how low has the humanities come after abandoning the classical languages as a foundation for study
>nostalgia

/pol/ pls go

[Anonymous No.4254770]

>not athenaze

nigga what are you doing? you start reading it from chapter 1, best method ever.

Damn I loved my ancient greek class, even if it was only one semester because there weren't enough students for a second one. The teacher was the best.

>those discussions about the etymology and use of a greek word turning into historical or philosophical digressions

A classical education really is superior, I only got a taste of it, but damn, how low has the humanities come after abandoning the classical languages as a foundation for study

[Anonymous No.4254774]

>>4254767
>oh you're a classicist? you must be racist

gtfo

[demiurge No.4254775]

the JACT books are great, you don't need to know any latin like anon said, just be familiar with grammatical concepts. you can do most of it yourself, but just have some submissive classics student handy for questions and the like.

[Anonymous No.4254783]

>>4253370

If you're looking for books on Attic Greek - which would make sense, the only reason I make this distinction is because there are people on this forum that actually care to learn Homeric Greek (fair enough) -

Mastronarde's Introduction to Attic Greek is probably the absolute best resource.

Much luck

[Anonymous No.4254797]

>>4254767
You've confused classical education with classism, you tool.

[Anonymous No.4255136]

bump

[Anonymous No.4255609]

so what the fuck did it sound like?

i was told that the pronounciation was kind of invented in medieval times....but surely some modern greeks must know how it should be pronounced, right?

[Anonymous No.4256103]

greek an intensive course, is one of the best for me. It centers on grammar an syntax without pretty pictures, but you start from the beggining with pretty much all inflections and declinations, and you get to understand, for example, some sentences from Plato very quick and before finishing the course. Write "greek an intensive course scribd" on google and you have it digitalized.

[Anonymous No.4256200]

>>4255609

http://www.princeton.edu/~clip/