This hub is intended to be a very basic introduction to Ancient Greek and the reasons for, and methods of, learning it. I will explain reasons for studying it and give an overview both of methods for learning it (i.e. various textbooks and things) and more general sources of information about the language (i.e. dictionaries, grammars, hubs, etc.).

The reason is quite simple: translation is evil. As explained in more depth here (not yet complete), something (often a great deal) is always lost in translation. In summary: not all languages bind meanings to words, or to idioms, in the same way. Thus no translation can be really true to the original. This being case, the question becomes, not why to learn Ancient Greek, but is it worth it.

The answer to that is inarguably yes. The corpus of greek writing is massive, expansive, and of huge importance to the present, past and the future. Thucydides himself wrote his History of the Pelopenesian War not for the greeks of his day, but expressly so that the people of the future could learn from the mistakes of the past.

And people have. Ever since the works of the greeks were rediscovered by Europe, having been held through the Dark Ages in the care and study of the arabs, it was the mark of an educated man to be well versed in them, both their language and their content.

The beginnings of everything are to be found in greek. Western philosophy was begun by Socrates and Plato. Poetry by Homer. Mathematics by Euclid and Pythagoras. Tragedy and comedy by the Athenian playwrights. It is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of greek influence on our current civilization. Furthermore, many of the ideas which they developed are timeless, and are of no less immediate import today.

It also must be noted that the New Testament, the foundation of Christianity, is written in Greek. For anybody who wishes to truly understand the Gospel as the its authors (or redactors, another debate) intended it, he must know Greek.

Finally, there is the simple joy and adventure of learning such a complex and beautiful language. Personally, I find the very construction, grammar and syntax of the language wonderful to examine and know. There is great enjoyment to be had in teasing the true meaning from complex and obscure sentences.

The first thing to mention before going further is that there is not one language which is "Ancient Greek." There were numerous dialects spoken among the ancient greeks and, though they all considered themselves to speak the same language, there can be difficulties in reading a dialect if you have studied another. Just as often, however, this is not a problem. For instance, many differences in dialects are simple translations of one letter/sound to another.

Having said that there is no one "Ancient Greek" there are only two that most people learn: Attic Greek and Koine Greek. Attic Greek was the language spoken in Attika (see map), whose primary political and cultural center was Athens, during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E., Athens literary and geopolitical peak. It is relatively easy to learn the greek found in Homeric poetry, choral lyrics and pastoral poetry having mastered Attic. It is even easier to learn Koine.

Koine is the other dialect which is often learned separately, simply because of its specific importance. Koine Greek is the language of the New Testament, being the common tongue spoken across the Hellenic world at the time of the gospels (Koine from κοινός, "common" or "public" in Attic). It is simpler than Attic in most respects, having been created primarly through a mixture of Attic and other dialects, with Attic at its core. This being the case, my personal recommendation, even for those primarly interested in biblical scholarship, would be to learn Attic and work from that base to any specific dialect (Homeric, Koine, etc.).

There are two textbooks which I have used in some depth (I completed Mastronarde and thoroughly investigated Athenaze) and which I feel represent two different styles of teaching and learning when it comes to Attic Greek.

Mastronarde

Mastronarde is the standard textbook used in most introductory college courses, and there is a reason for this. It is exceedingly thorough, from in depth background information on the history of Attic and related dialects, to very specific usage notes and idioms. It builds from the ground up, beginning with the alphabet and pronunciation and going from there. Thus it is that the student does not read or construct any sentences until Chapter 7, and does not learn the basics of verbs until Chapter 8.

Partly as a result of this approach, and partly as a result of its thoroughness and depth, Mastronarde can be dry and boring, and difficult for the unmotivated student. However, I believe that its completeness more than makes up for this fact. Additional difficulty is found in the exercises, of which there are admirably many. Many of the translation exercises are quite difficult, but this is for a very good reason: it's good Greek. The Greek of the exercises is complex and idiomatic, just as real Attic Greek is. Further, beginning in Chapter 26 (of 42), the translation exercises are no longer like real Greek, they are real Greek, with passages taken from numerous authors, including Herodotus, Xenophon, Plato, and Thucydides.

All told, this is an excellent book, though it is only for the motivated student. It can be difficult at times, but this is only because of the things which make it a great text: its depth, its completeness, and it truth to the language.

Athenaze

Athenaze represents a very different approach to learning Greek than Mastronarde. Instead of building from the basics, step by step, with thoroughness, it dives right in. You begin reading complete sentences, with only some small explanation of the mechanics at work. And there is always, even from the beginning, simple (often simplified) 'real Greek' to read.

Although it may be less complete and in depth, Athenaze does hold one distinct advantage over Mastronarde: it is much more user friendly. The simpler Greek of their examples and the 'dive right in' approach to learning can be much more exciting than Mastronarde's more measured and complete style. It also helps that the translation exercises throughout Athenaze tell a story. In reading the exercises you are following the story of an archetypal farmer living on the outskirts of Athens and, in so doing, learning some things about the culture and way of life of the ancient Athenians. It is a very effective way of drawing a student into the book and into the language. However, there is a warning that goes with these stories: it is not real Greek. It is greatly simplified, which is not in and of itself a bad thing, it can be very good for a beginner, but one must know that the difference between simplified Greek and Plato's Greek (for instance) is night and day.

All told, although I prefer Mastronarde, I do also recommend Athenaze. For the the student is not as certain in his motivation, or who wants a simpler, friendlier introduction to the language, Athenaze is a truly good book.

Here I have compiled both a series of links to broad, beginner level information on Ancient Greek and brief overviews/reviews of higher level reference materials.

Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon

First, some information of high level reference materials. Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon is the lexicon which the serious scholar of Ancient Greek owns. It has nearly every word ever used from a variety of dialects with all of the irregularities, both of form and of meaning, for each one. It is absurdly complete. It is also thus massive and expensive, and so not recommended for a beginning student, or even many intermediate students. I mention it here for two reasons: one, simply to make you aware of it, and two, because it is available online, for free. (Available through Perseus, which is discussed further down the page.)

There is a word of warning regarding this dictionary: because it is so absurdly complete in order to fit all of the information into one volume (a large volume at that) the entries are all written so as to take up as little space as possible. Thus, in addition to the print being small and the pages thin, the entries are full of abbreviations, shorthand, and other obscuring things. Given some time, however it is certainly possible to decipher them.

Smyth's Greek Grammar

This is the most complete and most widely used greek grammar. Almost any idiomatic usage, strange grammatical permutation, and of course the simple basics, can be found within. It is the grammar to which a student generally progresses after having completed an introductory textbook and looking to begin reading on his own, which is why it is mentioned here. Smyth is, unfortunately, not available online (to my knowledge), and is rather expensive. It is, however, worth every penny.

Finally, two web sites which I have found of incredible help in my studies of Ancient Greek:

Perseus Under Philologic:

Simply the best thing to happen to ancient greek ever. Aside from being the residence of an online Liddell and Scott, it is also the residence of nearly every piece of ancient Greek writing, all easily searchable, and most with accompanying English translations.

Ancient Greek Tutorials:

This is an incredible site for the beginner. It is the companion site to Mastronarde and has numerous drills invaluable to the student. Also, it has a pronunciation guide.

Foreign Language Basics:

This is a hub a put together which covers many of the basics grammatical features in non-English languages, including gender, verb conjugation, case systems, and concord/agreement, all of which are present in Ancient Greek. This will be replaced with a hub specific to the basics of Ancient Greek if and when I get around to writing one.