Ancient Greek (Teach Yourself) [Paperback]

Teach Yourself Publishing (Author), Gavin G. Betts (Author), Alan Henry (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Greek

Product Details

• Paperback: 342 pages
• Publisher: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company (March 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844237868
• ISBN-13: 978-0844237862
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,707,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #79 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Ancient Greek

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The wrong choice for teaching yourself, December 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ancient Greek (Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

Despite being a 'Teach Yourself' book, I have found it quite frustrating to use on my own. Little attempt is made to repeat vocabulary, so I find myself needing to look up almost every word in every sentence. The appendix with grammatical forms is very thin, lacking such basic entries as personal pronouns, definite articles, and adjectives. This leads to constant thumbing back through chapters to find where something was first introduced. But perhaps the worst flaw is that the reading consists mainly of single, isolated sentences. I often find that I can't understand a sentence even when I've gotten all of the vocabulary and grammar correct, because there's no context for the meaning.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't use this to teach yourself!, May 31, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Ancient Greek (Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

As others who've tried it have said before, this book is far too dense in grammar, has far too little reading practise in context, and makes it frustrating to search for the words each time in the back after the first couple of chapters. It's useful after acquiring some Greek to revise some elements of grammar. It's also one of the few with a fairly good selection of epigrams from different classical authors, and so many extracts with the most famous allusions (Croesus on the pyre calling on Solon; the first couple of verses from the Odysssey and the verse on the Lotos Eaters; Hector speaking with Andromache, looking into the future, before he goes into battle).

There's really no comparison with some of the alternatives. Paula Saffire's book is much more helpful for beginners although it's mildly irritating to be back in grade school saying hello to each other in drills led by the teacher. Her frequent use of stories clustered around the Sufi sage, Sheikh Nasiruddin, is rather bizarre in a text of ancient Greek. Still, her collection of quotations from the ancients (Heraclitus, Diogenes) is quite good.

Athenaze is good for reading practice and builds up the grammar more gently, but sprawls as a course. "Starting Greek with Homer" sounds exciting, and actually does build up in 20 odd chapters some Homeric vocabulary and familiarity with structures. But it collapses in the grammar piled on fast andin indigestible quantities, and with a real scholar's delight which shows in the footnotes.

I haven't, of course, tried all the alternatives. But I'd recommend, in comparison with any of the above, the JACT (Cambridge) "Reading Greek" series. The grammar's built up more gradually, the reading extracts are fascinating and all from original sources (Herodotus, a lot of Aristophanes, some Demosthenes, Euripides, Homer) right from the first book, and the vocabulary is easier to consult.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good reference, but not good for novices., July 2, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ancient Greek (Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

While I'm sure this book would be good for those with some experience reading Greek, I'd advise against using it to teach oneself Ancient Greek. The problem is that the chapters are too dense for beginners, and the material is not organized in a fashion that presents itself clearly to novices. Although this book has robust vocab lists in the first few chapters, the authors quickly abandon the student to construct such lists on his own from the words given in the grammar. Exercises focus too quickly on reading without drilling the fundamental concepts presented in the grammar. I'm learning Greek on my own, and while I haven't gotten much out of this book now, I'm sure it will make a useful reference book eventually. But "Teach Yourself" definitely does not belong on this book's cover.