[B-Greek] studying Homeric Greek

Steven Lo Vullo slovullo at mac.com
Sat Aug 14 21:34:55 EDT 2004


On Aug 14, 2004, at 6:26 PM, Carl W. Conrad wrote:

> 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!

Thanks, Carl. Interestingly enough, while looking for other materials 
on Homer in a closet full of books I had set aside because I didn't 
have room for them, I came across the book by Benner. I say 
"interestingly enough" because I didn't know I had it! Makes me want to 
do a more thorough inventory to see what other gems I don't know I 
have! Someone else also recommended this book off-list, so I think I 
will forgo the full beginning grammar by Pharr for now and use Benner's 
book. The section on grammar looks adequate for getting the basics and 
the notes and vocabulary look very helpful. It looks like it will get 
me into the actual reading of Homer pretty quickly, which is what I 
want. I notice that even the vocabulary entries have references to the 
notes on the text, something I haven't seen before.

I have a hard copy of Autenrieth's dictionary. It, along with Pharr's 
grammar and the vocabularies by Owen and Goodspeed, is published by the 
University of Oklahoma Press. Looks like they are making a good effort 
at keeping the reading of Homer alive. I can't help thinking that it 
seems a little odd that the Okies are helping to sustain high culture. 
:-)

What do you think about Pharr's contention that everyone should start 
with Homer? He devotes almost 16 pages of his grammar to arguments for 
doing so. Though it is too late for me, I wonder if others could 
benefit from this approach.
============

Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI




More information about the B-Greek mailing list