Greek I

For students engaged in a thorough classical education, gaining facility with Latin is essential, but not sufficient. For the other great classical language, Greek, must also be engaged if the student is best to develop a refined sense of aesthetics in thought and speech. This year-long course uses the Athenaze I textbook to thoroughly acquaint the diligent student with the Greek of fifth-century Athens – the language of Plato, Herodotus, Sophocles, and Thucydides. Built around a continuous narrative of the life of a farmer and his family, Athenaze I culminates in being able to read portions of Aeschylus’ masterful play The Persians. If this is not wonderful enough, learning Attic Greek has the additional benefit (via frequent excerpts from the Gospels) of enabling one to read the Greek New Testament, written in the simpler Koine dialect. The course lasts for 32 weeks and includes the following elements: weekly recorded grammar lectures, assigned paradigm and translation work (sentences or story passages), occasional vocabulary and/or grammar quizzes and tests, and a weekly 1.5 hour live recitation time.

Course Objectives

1. To develop an acquaintance and facility with the basic grammar and vocabulary of ancient Greek. Specifically:
2. To learn and recall around 500 common Greek nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions.
3. To be able to recognize and parse Greek verbs in Tense, Voice, Mood, Person, and Number as they appear in Present, Imperfect, Future, 1st Aorist, and 2nd Aorist varieties.
4. To recognize and parse Greek participles in Present, Future, 1st Aorist, and 2nd Aorist varieties.
5. To practice and hone techniques of translating Greek into good, idiomatic English.

Texts

• Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek, Book I ISBN-10: 0195149564
• Any other required materials will be provided.

Note: New sections of this course will open as needed. To discuss options, contact timothy.enloe@kepler.education.