[B-Greek] Is Greek practical?

cwconrad2 cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Nov 26 09:42:23 EST 2010


The Old Curmudgeon today has a nice quote from W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge --
on whether Greek is practical
(http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2010/11/it-doesnt-sound-very-practical.html)

"Greek's morе difficult. But I have a very good teacher. Until you came here I used to go to him three evenings a week.'
'And what is that going to lead to?'
'The acquisition of knowledge,' he smiled.
'It doesn't sound very practical.'
'Perhaps it isn't and on the other hand perhaps it is. But it's enormous fun. You can't imagine what a thrill it is to read the Odyssey in the original. It makes you feel as if you had only to get on tiptoe and stretch out your hands to touch the stars.'

This is really true -- or so I and some others think -- it's worth testing! I think that friend Phosphor would agree.

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



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