Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners (Paperback)

~ (Author), John Wright (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 361 pages
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press; Rev Sub edition (January 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806119373
• ISBN-13: 978-0806119373
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #525,408 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not good enough, December 22, 2004

By	C. C Chrappa (us) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I don't find anything wrong with this text, and it's better than others I've worked with. But I want to chime in and add my echo to a reviewer below on a point which applies to this book and to all Greek textbooks in general. It really is difficult to understand why these texts do not have answer keys. I do understand that they are well-nigh useless for truly learning the language, since the teacher is going to give you the sinew and the essentials of the sentences. But, nevertheless, a lot of these books begin like this: "Given the mortal danger that classical Greek is in these days..." Well...ENCOURAGE THE AUTODIDACTS! Every textbook I'd ever worked with before taking a class left me flabbergasted by the third or fourth chapter because of some really easy to clear up confusion about how to translate the exercises. Often it involves minor points like how to understand "ti" in a particular instance.
If classicists want the classics to live, then get them out of classics departments and give them to the hoi polloi. Otherwise, they're just helping to murder it. The lack of aid to potential learners is reprehensible.
But as it goes, this is a good text.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Straight to the top, May 29, 2002

By	B. Rogers (Jakarta, Indonesia) - See all my reviews

This is an excellent way to learn classical Greek. It takes you straight to unsimplified Homer within a few lessons and if you tough it out you can end up able to read Homeric Greek quite well. It works fine as a teach-yourself book. I had had a semester of Greek many years ago, but I was essentially starting from scratch.
Each lesson provides the vocabulary for a few lines of Book I of the Iliad and sends you to the reference grammar at the back of the book to learn the grammar incrementally. Early on there are some prose sentences in Homeric Greek to translate, but these go away in later lessons. Once you have finished the book you will have read all of Book I and will be ready to continue through all of Homer (with a lexicon). My only gripe is that a few more prose sentences to illustrate the grammar points by repetition would have helped a bit. Overall a great teach yourself book.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All-round excellent!, February 29, 2000

By	kevin christopher - See all my reviews

I learned ancient greek before I bought this book, so I can't speak to how well it serves someone just learning the language. Basically, I was a few years out of school and wanted to refresh my Greek. It really served me well, and actually gave me a better mastery of Homer's language than I ever had in college. I highly recommend it to anyone. I would say to beginners that Homeric Greek is the correct approach to learning ancient Greek: first, starting with Homer is a better foundation for learning later dialects than vice versa; second the Iliad (and Odyssey) introduces a beginner to characters, themes, phrases, and other allusions that fill nearly all later Greek literature to some extent; third, the Iliad is simply a damn good story that reads even better in the original. Expand your experience.