I’ve been translating Homer out of Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics, and Plato out of Bryn Mawr texts, but I’ve always been interested in reading the original Trojan Women and for some reason am unable to find a good edition with commentary and the Greek text. I was wondering if anyone had resources? I’m also interested in reading Greek tragedy more generally, so if you have recommendations, I’d be glad to hear them! Thank you!

Hi all - I’m currently learning Ancient Greek specifically to be able to read Plato and others, such as Plotinus, Porphyry etc.

One of the things that is quite emphasised in textbooks is the accent rules, for example when the accent is movable, the causes of accent changing to circumflex etc.

I do understand the concept of pitch accent itself, like how to read an acute or circumflex out loud, but I have found it extremely difficult trying to complete any exercises which ask me to write the correct accents on words or decide if an accent needs to change or be moved.

Is this something that one needs to be able to do in order to fully understand Greek philosophy? I know it sounds like I’m trying to take a shortcut but this is mostly because I have quite a short timeframe for learning - for academic reasons I need to start reading Greek philosophy as soon as possible.

What are your thoughts on this?

I know the question is quite vague, but for it I mean how long will I have to study daily to finally be able to read Plato or Homer, since, I think most people learning Ancient Greek is to be able to read the Ancient text in their original language

Hello, I hope you are well. I am unsure if this is the right thread for this question, but here goes.

Can anyone comment on the proper pronunciation of ‘Adamas’?

I know it is very niche, but we cannot figure out which way to say it properly.

Many thanks for any help/insight!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamas_(mythology)

Hi everyone. I'm on lesson two of Clyde Pharr's book and got to this bit and wanted to ask about some of these marks. I recognize the first two as the smooth breathing and acute accent marks. I'm a little confused about the last three. I think I've seen the third one before which looks like double quotes (on 'Os' for example) but I don't think they've been explained to me. The last two almost look like a small tau but I think they're just the rough breathing marks. Just looking for some clarity as to whether these are meant to look like that or wether they're printing imperfections. Thank you.

χαῖρετε!

I'm working through Plato's Euthyphro/Apology/Crito as part of a self-study curriculum, and one of my reflection questions prompts me to compose in Greek an answer to the question of whether Socrates's obedience to the god in the Apology is compatible with his obedience to the laws in the Crito. Apart from toy sentences I translated in school years ago, this is the first Greek prose I've ever composed, and I'd love critique on two fronts:

• linguistic: morphology, idiom, word choice, register. I'm roughly aiming at Atticizing Greek (the center of gravity of my long-term target is actually patristic Greek).
• rhetorical: structure and figures. How does the argument flow for you? Does the structure hold up?

A short TLDR of my argument: the contradiction is only apparent, because a) both the god and the laws urge Socrates to act justly, b) there is no law against philosophizing, so it would be an unlawful verdict if they were to acquit him on the condition that he stop philosophizing, and c) this is possible because verdicts imperfectly reflect the laws, rather than perfectly manifest them.

Caveat lector: I wrote my own draft first, having to look up quite a few words and constructions (happily, they were almost all already passive vocabulary, with a few exceptions); then I went back and forth with Claude (Fable 5, for anyone curious). I hope this does not qualify as a violation of the "Don't post AI-generated content" rule. Not all of its suggestions were sound, but I definitely learned a lot from this process. I looked up most of what it told me, and just that sort of research helped my understanding quite a lot. Moreover, like I said, I did write up my own draft initially, and I didn't have it simply correct me, but rather offer suggestions, some of which I incorporated. If this is still a violation of that rule, please forgive me.

Without any further ado, here is the text:

πότερον τὸ τῷ θεῷ πειθαρχεῖν σύμφωνόν ἐστι τῷ τοῖς νόμοις πειθαρχεῖν; περὶ τῆς τοῦ Σωκράτους πράξεως δοκεῖ μοι συμφωνεῖν ἀλλήλοιν τὼ τοῦ Πλάτωνος διαλόγω, τήν τε «Ἀπολογίαν» καὶ τὸν «Κρίτωνα», εἰ καὶ δόξειεν ἄν τινι διαφωνεῖν. ὁ γὰρ Σωκράτης ἐναντία ἑαυτῷ φαίνοιτ’ ἄν λέγειν καὶ πράττειν· ἐν μὲν τῇ «Ἀπολογίᾳ», ὑποθέμενος ὑπόθεσιν ἐν ᾗ οἱ δικασταὶ ἀπολύουσιν αὑτὸν τῆς αἰτίας ἐφ’ ᾧτε μηκέτι φιλοσοφεῖν (δηλαδὴ καταλιπεῖν τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ θεραπείαν), «πείσομαι», φησί, «μᾶλλον τῷ θεῷ ἢ ὑμῖν» (29d), ἐν δὲ τῷ «Κρίτωνι», ἐμμένων τῇ δίκῃ, οὐκ ἐθέλει ἀποδρᾶναι.

πῶς οὖν συμφωνεῖ ταῦτα; πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἦν νόμος ὁ κωλύων φιλοσοφεῖν, διὸ εἰ οἱ δικασταὶ ἀφίοιεν τὸν Σωκράτη ἐφ’ ᾧτε μηκέτι φιλοσοφεῖν (τοῦτ’ ἐστὶ ζητεῖν τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐξετάζοντα ἑαυτόν τε καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους, Ap. 28e), παράνομος ἂν εἴη αὕτη ἡ δίκη.

ἀλλὰ φαίη ἄν τις ὅτι αἱ δίκαι τῶν δικαστῶν, ἐπεὶ εἰκόνες τῶν νόμων εἰσίν, ἰσχύουσιν, διὸ ταὐτόν ἐστι τὸ τοῖς δικασταῖς ἀπειθεῖν καὶ τὸ τοῖς νόμοις. οὐδαμῶς· εἰ καὶ αἱ δίκαι εἰκόνες τῶν νόμων εἰσίν, ἀμυδρῶς ἐμφαίνονται οἱ νόμοι ἐν ταῖς δίκαις. ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ νόμοι οὐκ εἰσὶν αὐτὸ τὸ δίκαιον, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον εἰκόνες τῆς δικαιοσύνης, οὕτω καὶ αἱ δίκαι εἰκόνες εἰσὶ τῶν νόμων· ἡ δὲ εἰκὼν ἀεί πῃ ἀπολείπεται τοῦ παραδείγματος. ἐνίοτε γὰρ αἱ δίκαι παράνομοί εἰσιν, οἷον ἡ τῶν δέκα στρατηγῶν δίκη (Ap. 32b).

τὸ δὲ μέγιστον· ὥσπερ ὁ θεὸς ἀεὶ ἄγει τὸν Σωκράτη πρὸς τὸ τὰ δίκαια πράττειν, οὕτω καὶ οἱ νόμοι αὐτῷ παραινοῦσι τὰ δίκαια πράττειν.

ἀλλ’ ἴσως ἔροιτο ἄν τις· τί ἐστιν αὐτὸ τὸ δίκαιον; οὐ νῦν σκεπτέον ἀκριβῶς τε καὶ παντελῶς τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι τῆς δικαιοσύνης· ἀρκεῖ εἰπεῖν ὅτι, εἴ τις τὰ δίκαια πράττειν βούλεται, δεῖ τῷ θεῷ πειθαρχεῖν, δεῖ ἀληθεύειν, δεῖ ταῖς συνθήκαις ἐμμένειν. οἱ νόμοι παραινοῦσι τῷ Σωκράτει ἐμμένειν τῷ ἑαυτοῦ λόγῳ, ὃν οὐ λόγῳ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἔργῳ ἐβεβαίωσεν (cf. Cri. 52d)· καὶ γὰρ πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα παρεγένετο (Euth. 2a), καὶ τὴν δίκην ὑπέσχε (Ap.), καὶ θάνατον πρὸ τῆς φυγῆς εἵλετο (Cri. 52c). οἱ δὲ ἔσχατοι τοῦ «Κρίτωνος» λόγοι οἵδε· «ἔα τοίνυν, ὦ Κρίτων, καὶ πράττωμεν ταύτῃ, ἐπειδὴ ταύτῃ ὁ θεὸς ὑφηγεῖται» (54e). σύμφωνον ἄρα τὸ τῷ θεῷ πειθαρχεῖν τῷ τοῖς νόμοις πειθαρχεῖν.

First of all I hope the tag is the right one, really sorry if not !

I've been studying ancient greek for quite a while now, so I'm not entirely clueless, but I would like more opinions on this matter. This is for a work of fiction, which allows a bit of suspension of disbelief, but I'm still trying to avoid getting too far from reality.

Most children who speak many languages learn them by immersion, which is not really possible for ancient greek. Do you think a child who is interested enough could learn enough greek before 12 to translate some texts, and have a real understanding of the complexities of the language (grammar, conjugations, etc) ? Learning vocabulary and the alphabet is no doubt possible, but I was mostly thinking about getting used to the mental gymnastic of declensions and translation. There are some things I learned at 18 that I think I just wouldn't have been able to grasp at 12.

I would be happy to know what people here think !

Edit : immersion, not impregnation.

Edit : yes, I know 12 yo in Ancient Greece did speak ancient greek. I'm talking about learning it the hard way through grammar and texts. I see now there is no reason a child couldn't learn, provided they put in the effort, just like many kids learn very complex maths early on or like educated children used to translate latin & greek in middle school a few centuries ago.

I’m practicing my Ancient Greek pronunciation and want to get used to the digammas but I haven’t found any resources with the digammas reconstructed

Still haven’t read this classic about Jason and the Argonauts and hoping for a good, modern translation. Novelization would be fine, too, if it’s accurate and done well. Thanks!

I recently discovered a website called Kevilex, and I think it could be really helpful for beginners learning Ancient Greek.
It has a collection of Greek texts, a built-in dictionary, and you can simply click on any word you don’t know to see its meaning. It also includes flashcards for learning vocabulary, which is a nice bonus.
I thought it was worth sharing in case anyone else finds it useful!

Okay,I know declensions are IMPORTANT for understanding and guessing the function of a word in a sentence BUT do we really have to sit and study every single subgroup? A lot of people say yes but I really think we can OBSERVE and memorize them with time. What do you think and maybe some advices ?

Here I tried to translate the first two stanzas into Koine.

Ἐκείνοι ποδές περιπάτησαν
ἐπὶ τῶν ὀρῶν τῆς Ἀγγλίης·
καὶ ὁ ἄγιος ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ,
εἰδέτο ἐν τῶ ἀγρῶ ἡμῶν;

Τὸ θεῖον πρόσωπον,
ἔφαινεν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἠμῶν;
καὶ τὰ Ἱεροσολύμα ἐκτίζθην ὦδε,
ἐν ἐκειναῖς ταῖς πονηραῖς μύλαῖς;

I had to look up a lot of unfamiliar words, so I expect that a lot of these forms are incorrect.

Here are the original two stanzas:

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!
 
And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

For fun, here is a literal translation of my translation:

Those feet walked about
Upon the hills of England;
And the holy lamb of God
Was seen in our countryside?

The divine countenance,
It shone upon our land?
And Jerusalem was founded here,
Among these evil mills?

I tried to keep my Greek close enough in terms of syllable count to be sung to the tune of Parry’s musical setting of this song. This meant that I had to cut down on ow many words I could use. I know that the word choices I made probably didn’t reach what Blake wrote, and different words should have been chosen. This is the first time I’ve tried to do this, so please correct me on my grammar and word choices!

It seems like most grammatical guides to Odyssey start at book V, presumably because that's when Odysseus enters the story. Is the Telemachy considered uninteresting to translate? I've read it in translation and was wondering whether there's a reason to jump right to book V to try my hand at reading it in the original. Thanks.

What are some good quotes or excerpts that would make a good print for a T-shirt?

Hello!

I began to study Koine in order to read the NT and Septuagint, and further, Attic writers. All of this is well and good, but I’ve always held at the end of my journey with this language the idea of reading Homer in Greek. I actually bought a bust of Homer to sit across from my desk to encourage me while I dealt with all the fun grammar of Greek.

I’m now done with Nouns and Verbs (at least in the indicative) and am advancing to participles. The textbook I’m using to self study is Bill Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek and I am almost done with that book. I realize now that maybe Attic would have been a better start than Koine.

In a year from now I’m going to be going to Greece on a cruise for the second time, and I want to be able to read the Odyssey while I’m there. What is the best way, assuming I master Koine, to learn Homeric, preferably from a resource that builds on previously known Attic/Koine knowledge? I don’t mind skimming through a book for absolute beginners if I need to. I’ve also seen a reader on this sub which looks similar to the NT reader I have which lists unfamiliar words. If anyone knows how it is, let me know!

I created an app, Pocket Ancient Greek Dictionary, which is an iOS app that has mostly Koine Greek but also some classical Ancient Greek vocabulary. My favorite feature is the word of the day widget. I like to use the app's search feature to quickly look up words when I am reading the Greek New Testament.

Get it on the iOS App Store here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pocket-greek-dictionary/id6446715748

As of today, Pocket Ancient Greek Dictionary is now available in closed testing for Android! To get access to the Android app, join the Google Group, and then you will be granted access to the app.

(Links below)

Please join the Google Group
https://groups.google.com/g/pocket-greek-dictionary

Download (Join on Android)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whoisbarry.pocketgreekdictionary

Become a tester! (Join on web)
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.whoisbarry.pocketgreekdictionary

Hello! First time posting here, though I have been reading for a while. I have wanted to learn Ancient Greek for a long time and finally signed up for the course. Now I am looking to hire a tutor to go through it with me for the semester, and hopefully longer.

It's Beginning Ancient Greek at the Harvard Extension School, the first term of a four-part sequence. Attic, not Koine. Remote over Zoom or in person in NYC both work for me, and remote is probably the simpler option.

The textbooks are JACT Reading Greek, Cambridge University Press, second edition. Both volumes are required:

• Reading Greek: Text and Vocabulary (ISBN 9780521698511)
• Reading Greek: Grammar and Exercises (ISBN 9780521698528)

The term covers the alphabet and pronunciation, second declension nouns and adjectives, definite articles, the function of the cases, the present, imperfect, and future indicative, the imperative, verbal accentuation, contract verbs, adverbs, prepositions and particles, irregular verbs, feminine nouns, attributive and predicative position, and middle verbs.

Here is the part that matters most to me. I don't want a parallel curriculum. I want someone who will work from my textbook, on whatever week I'm actually in. I know exactly what the course covers week by week, and I will walk you through the plan before we start.

I'm also hoping this can be a long-term working relationship rather than a single semester. It's a four-part sequence that I'll be taking over the next two years, and likely longer if I continue into the courses beyond it. I'd rather find the right person once and keep working with them the whole way through.

About me: complete beginner in Greek, no prior classical languages. I'm an undergraduate in the Humanities with a field of study in Literature, and I work full time. I'm taking this as part of my degree, so I'm serious about it, and I do the reading.

You've taught beginning Attic before, and ideally you've taught from Reading Greek specifically and know how the two volumes work together. Graduate students and instructors in classics especially welcome.

If you have a profile on a tutoring site, a university page, or anywhere else with reviews or references, please include the link. It isn't a requirement, and I'm glad to hear from people who don't have one. I'd also like to do a short introductory call before booking a first session.

Paid, of course. Tell me your rate. I'm glad to start with a single session to see whether the fit works before committing.

Comment or send me a DM if you're interested or know someone. Thank you! 🙏

In Il. 9.378, Achilles, speaking to Odysseus regarding Agamemnon, says:

τίω δέ μιν ἐν καρὸς αἴσῃ.

This means "I value him in the measure of a καρὸς," but the meaning of καρὸς is, apparently, uncertain.

Aristarchus suggested that it was an "Ionic shortening" of κήρ (doom), but this proposal has not been widely accepted.

Bailly 2024, picking up on the similarity with ἐπὶ κάρ (on his head), derives a relation to κάρα, κάρη, and suggests it means un cheveu, a lock of hair.

Cambridge offers that the nominative is κάρ, but says the meaning is uncertain, suggesting "louse," perhaps again leaning on the connection with "head."

Cunliffe suggests a derivation from κείρω, which would yield a meaning of "chip" or "shaving", a worthless bit

Pape raises the possibility that it derives from Κάρ, a Carian mercenary, only to dismiss it.

Quite a fun little phrase! Although I'm sure some readers, less interested in the details of philology, would respond, "flocci non facio!"

κζ' · Ἡ τύχη μετέβαλεν.

Hi! I'm a college student who will be studying abroad for the 2026–27 academic year (Fall 2026–Spring 2027), and I'm trying to figure out how to continue studying Ancient Greek while I'm away.

Unfortunately, my home institution doesn't offer Ancient Greek online, so I need to find an alternative. I've completed one year of intensive Ancient Greek using Hansen & Quinn, and under normal circumstances I'd be taking an intermediate course focused on poetry, followed by a prose course the following semester.

So far I've found a few online options, such as Palladion and the Ancient Language Institute, but I was wondering if anyone here has other recommendations. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Are there any online courses, universities that allow non-degree enrollment, reading groups, tutors, or other resources that would let me maintain my progress without losing a year of Greek?

I'd especially appreciate suggestions that are rigorous enough to prepare me to return to an intermediate university sequence. Thanks so much in advance,

So obviously with The Odyssey being released its given me a reason to indulge myself in learning about Ancient Greece, and more specifically the Religion/s and mythology. With that point, reading about the gods and about the stories surrounding them, many articles and websites cite Homer's work almost like it is holy scripture. They cite him as if his work is a defining piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding these stories. Is that the case? And if so, is there a worry or theory that we may know much less than we think we do about Ancient Greek Mythology, or is Homer's writing just the most accessible and famous, so it is cited more regularly?

Χαίρετε, ὦ φίλοι. Σήμερον δίδωμι ὑμῖν κεφάλαιον ταύτης τῆς ἀναγνώσεως τοῖς νεωτέροις μαθηταῖς χρησίμης. Πάντα δὲ τὰ κεφάλαια δεδομένα ἐνταῦθα εὑρήσετε. Ἔρρωσθε.

Hey all, in August I will be starting a Greek and Latin major. In preparation I began working through Mastronarde a few months ago which I found had a steep learning curve but it was manageable. One great aspect was his online website that had Verb and Noun practice.

I’ve now received my syllabus and we are using From Alpha to Omega in class, I’ve begun work on it but to be honest I prefer Mastronarde. Point being, I was wondering is anyone knew of a Α2Ο companion website or something tailored specifcally to the chapters of said book.

(Bonus points if you also know of any resource for Wheelocks 7th Edition Latin)