[B-Greek] Off Topic- Homeric Vocabulary

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Jul 31 22:20:51 EDT 2009


On Jul 31, 2009, at 8:41 PM, Mark Lightman wrote:

>
> --- On Fri, 7/31/09, Will Dilbeck wrote:
>
>
> <Hello,
>
> I recently picked up the Illiad (Loeb edition) from
> a used book store and I
> would like to begin trying to read a little bit
> of it. I was wondering if
> anyone knew of a list (preferably online) of
> Homeric vocabulary.>
>
>
> Hi Will,
>
> Your question is not Off Topic because ...

Questions about Homeric Greek texts and language, although rather  
infrequent, have not been unwelcome on B-Greek. To be sure, it's hard  
to make a compelling case for the relevance of Homeric Greek to the  
study of NT Greek and the Greek NT. The study of Homeric Greek is  
essential to a grasp of the linguistic history of literary Greek but  
that's not everybody's cup of tea.. Some will study Homeric Greek as  
an exercise in linguistic archaeology. Few will study Homeric Greek  
with a view to enhancing their grasp of Biblical Greek, and arguments  
for such a proposition have always seemed rather strained. The primary  
reason for reading Homer in Greek are that this is a rich and  
rewarding experience in its own right. It requires a significant  
investment of effort and industry, but most who have undertaken it  
have found it well worth the effort.

Mark has pointed you to the "Vocabulary Tool" at the Perseus site. An  
alternative is http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/pollux/ where a popup  
menu allows you to access directly the lexical entries from  
Autenrieth's Homeric dictionary rather than the more generalized LSJ's  
entries.



Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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