Customer Reviews

Ancient Greek (Teach Yourself)

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3 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Ancient Greek (Teach Yourself) is a very densely written, informative book. The only flaw is that it presumes some knowledge of other languages and details of grammar and linguistics that the average reader may not be familiar with. In general, though, grammatical concepts and their applications are very well explained. This is not a book for the faint of heart - entire subjects are discussed in detail in a few pages, and then the reader is left to practice individually until proficient. However, for anyone with a basic understanding of language, this book is extremely useful. Everything is well explained, and readings are included from ancient texts as practice material. You may want to have a favorite text in ancient Greek handy as you learn, for additional practice (I used Homer's Iliad and Odyssey).

I've been studying Ancient Greek on my own. At the beginning, I bought 5 or 6 grammar books on the subject to get a good idea of what was available.

The approach I ultimately adopted (and would recommend) was:
1) learning the basics using mostly the "Reading Greek" series;
2) using this book as a supplement and a grammar reference; and
3) jumping to real greek (Plato)...

What I found very good about this book is that it provides a clear and systematic discussion of the grammar without assuming that you are an expert already. I don't know that I would suggest that it be used by itself or as the primary guide to learning the language. However, I found it to be the best reference grammar available.

Also, this book does not make the silly mistake of introducing concepts to you before explaining them. I've seen this in so many foreign language grammar books: concepts are placed in front of you (without being explained) in some weird hope that you will begin to absorb them and be ready to accept them when they are finally explained. "Reading Greek" does this. There must be some...theory floating around about the benefits of this type of teaching because it is very common. (and very confusing). Apparently, the authors of this book have not been "educated" into these "latest advances in learning".

Some reviews below complain that the book is too thick in grammar and does not provide enough easy sentences for learning. I have to say that I did not try to use the book in this way, but there is perhaps some truth in this complaint.

But if I have a grammar question, I always go here first because I found it has the simplest explanations. (That is not too say that there is anything "simple" about Greek grammar).

A major difficulty for a student of ancient languages is the amount of grammar he has to learn. I have some knowledge of Sanskrit and so I overestimated my ability to master the grammar of Greek. Though this is not a bad book, it is too full of grammar and thus makes for difficult reading. I couldn't get a feel for the language as I really felt lost in the grammar. I have already forgotten all the grammar! A better approach for the author would have been to introduce simpler passages from the Greek authors and then introduce the grammar related to the text. Perhaps I should have bought the "Teach Yourself Ancient Greek (Foundation Course)" first :-(

I have studied Latin, Spanish, and other languages for quite a while now, and I found this book to be really quite useful, especially in conjunction with another book from Teach Yourself Books, entitled New Testament Greek. New Testament Greek is in the Koine Dialect of Greek, whereas this book seems to be comprised primarily of the Attic dialect. So, my recommendation to anyone who desires to learn Greek is this: buy New testament Greek, which is overly facile, and then buy Ancient Greek, which is a somewhat larger task. All the while, keep in mind that studying these two books together is something like going from modern English to the type of English spoken in the days of the eighteenth and ninteenth centuries. Ultimately, the student should find himself able to read Greek passages with only mild difficulty. For if one truly desires the ability to read Greek passages with great ease, he must certainly enroll in university classes. However, this book, at least in conjunction with New Testament Greek, is the next best thing to the university.