Homeric Greek: A Book For Beginners by Clyde Pharr is a comprehensive guide to learning the ancient Greek language as it was written during the time of Homer. The book is designed for beginners who have no prior knowledge of the language and provides a step-by-step approach to learning the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of Homeric Greek.The book is divided into 40 lessons, each of which introduces new concepts and vocabulary. The lessons are structured around reading and translating passages from the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems written by Homer. The passages are carefully selected to illustrate the grammar and vocabulary being taught in each lesson.The book also includes exercises and review sections to reinforce what has been learned in each lesson. There are also appendices that provide additional information on Homeric Greek grammar and syntax, as well as a glossary of Homeric Greek vocabulary.Overall, Homeric Greek: A Book For Beginners is an excellent resource for anyone interested in learning the ancient Greek language. The book is well-organized, easy to follow, and provides a solid foundation for further study of the language.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
there are answer keys on the internet for the autodidact
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
such as the one at greekgeek dot org. Also from time to time a new study group for this book will start, on the forum/message board of textkit dot com.
Straight to the top
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 23 years ago
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.
All-round excellent!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
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.
Tried and True Method of Learning
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
Some may not like Pharr's approach to teaching a heavily-declined language like Greek. In each chapter he presents a set of common Homeric vocabulary words. Afterwards as an exercise the student must translate various sentence permutations containing the vocabulary from Greek-English and vice-versa. It may seem at times boring. However, it is effective. After the fourth chapter I began to easily recognize case endings with minimal difficulty. Very effective. I wish I had learned Latin in such a way.
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