[B-Greek] Classical Greek Suggestions
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Dec 30 16:13:41 EST 2003
At 11:37 AM -0800 12/30/03, Matthew T. Williams wrote:
>Hello All,
>
>I have mainly studied Koine Greek, but I have had one semester of Classical
>(my last semester, 4th year of formal Greek studies). I found I enjoyed it
>very much. It took a bit of adjustment, but after a while I found I could
>read/translate fairly efficiently. I read excerpts from a variety of
>authors such as; Herodotus (Ramses and the Thief), Thucydides (selections
>from Historiae), Homer (Cyclops Narrative), Plato (Selections from Phaido),
>and Sophocles (whom I found very challenging...makes Luke/Hebrews look like
>See Spot Run!!) My question is this....
>
>Do any of you have suggestions or favorite Classical authors you would
>recommend for continued reading? Also, can anyone (Carl perhaps) give me a
>range of difficulty for various Classical authors? For me, one of the
>biggest perqs of learning Koine Greek was that ultimately I would be able to
>read some of my favorite childhood stories (Hercules, and other Greek
>Mythology) in the original language.
>
>An off-list reply might be more appropriate, as this isn't directly related
>to Biblical Greek, but I'm guessing that I'm not the only person on the list
>that might have interest in this.
Well, you've done some good reading in a single semester of Classical
Greek! My own answers to your questions--and I hope there may be some
others, although most list-members really do concern themselves pretty
exclusively with Biblical Koine-- are:
(1) For continued reading in Classical Greek, I think I would suggest (a)
Plato (yes, beyond what you've read: especially the Apology, Euthyphro,
Crito, Republic 1, 5-7, 10), Xenophon (Memorabilia), Euripides (Bacchae,
Medea, Hippolytus), Aeschylus (Agamemnon, Prometheus), Sophocles (OT, OC,
Antigone), Aristotle (Nic. Ethics); and you can't go wrong reading more
Homer and more Herodotus or Lycian (esp. Vera Historia). I have a page on
my web-site entitled "Reading to Keep Alive Greek Skills" that I originally
prepared for my First-year students who didn't want to lose their Greek
over the summer before Second year:
http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/moregrk.html
(2) With respect to relative difficulty: I think that the easiest prose is
probably Xenophon and Lucian; Apollodorus (the Library--myths retold) too
is pretty easy; the most difficult prose by far is Thucydides, but Philo,
who is of course Hellenistic but who writes a very sophisticated style,
will tax you and keep you busy with a lexicon; Aristotle is relatively
easy,provided only that you can guess at the antecedents of his pronouns.
The easiest poetry is probably Euripides; Homer is easy reading once one
acquires a suitably expansive epic vocabulary; the most difficult poetry is
unquestionably Pindar and Aeschylus (but the Prometheus is as easy as
Euripides, which is one of the surest indications that the Prometheus is
not authentically Aeschylean).
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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