[B-Greek] studying Homeric Greek

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Aug 14 19:26:54 EDT 2004


At 5:06 PM -0500 8/14/04, Steven Lo Vullo wrote:
>On Aug 14, 2004, at 2:02 PM, George F. Somsel wrote:
>
>> I haven't checked to see whether it is or is not in print, but there is
>> an online commentary to the Iliad (which is linked to the Perseus
>> text).
>
>Thanks, George. I will be sure to refer to it.
>============
>
>Steven Lo Vullo
>Madison, WI

I come late to a thread on which several have made useful comments already.
For my part, I don't think that you really need to start from scratch,
Steven, with Homeric Greek. You need to become familiar with distinctive
case-endings e.g., (genitives in -OIO, -AO, -EW, dative plurals in -AISI,
-OISI, -ESSI, etc., distintive dual forms, and verbal inflections such as
the varied infinitives in -EN, EMEN, EMENAI, etc.  Then there are
distinctive Homeric usages such as subjunctive as simple future tense, etc.
I did Homer as a sophomore at Tulane in 1953 after a year of NT Koine; we
used a book first published in 1903 and still in print, Allen Rogers
Benner's _Selections from Homer's Iliad_, which includes a 50-page "short
Homeric grammar" and a very good vocabulary and fine notes--there's every
good reason why it's still in print. I think now that I would rather have
begun with the Odyssey, but that may ultimately be a matter of taste (John
Finley at Harvard used to cite with approval the old notion that the Iliad
is a young man's poem and the Odyssey an old man's poem; in my older years
I prefer the Odyssey but I love Homer and applaud anyone's effort to read
those great epics. I don't know if anyone's mentioned that Autenrieth's
Homeric Dictionary is on-line at Perseus now too--it's also still in print
after more than a century both as a German work and in English
translation.--a very helpful resource. All I can say, then Steven, is GO TO
IT! Enjoy!
-- 

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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