Ancient Greek for Everyone: A New Digital Resource for Beginning Greek as taught at Louisiana State University Fall 2012 Wilfred E. Major

Ancient Greek for Everyone Χαίρετε, πάντες! (Welcome, y’all!) This is a version of a digital textbook resource we have been developing at LSU for several years, which also incorporates, as noted, the developments made by other teachers at other universities. This version is posted on the World Wide Web for students and teachers of Greek everywhere to use and adapt. I ask only that you give fair credit for the use of these materials and that you send corrections to me I would also ask that you be willing to share additions or variations that you create. My sharing these materials does not license anyone to use them for commercial or profit-making

Ancient Greek for Everyone Χαίρετε, πάντες! (Welcome, y’all!) While these are fundamentally the same materials I distribute to my students at LSU, I have omitted some information specific to the course here (some policies on the syllabus, for example), and some copyrighted materials which I can show my class but do not have the right to distribute. I have, however, retained the schedule, quiz and exam assignments, so that you can see the pacing that we use. You should, of course, modify these to suit your classes and needs. Thank you for looking (and using) our project! And please be in touch about what you think

Ancient Greek for Everyone Χαίρετε, πάντες! (Welcome, y’all!) Unit 1 of Ancient Greek for Everyone focuses on the Greek alphabet, sounds, and the writing system in general. You will notice that the first Exam tests this material entirely. After Unit 1 comes an overview of the method and structure of Ancient Greek for Everyone. This presentation matches the way we present this information to our classes here, but if you are teaching (or considering teaching) with AGE, you may well wish to consult that overview in conjunction with this introduction.

Ancient Greek for Everyone Χαίρετε, πάντες! (Welcome, y’all!) This class introduces you to Ancient Greek, primarily as the language of Classical and Biblical texts. By the end of the semester, you will understand simple sentences in Greek and be reading simple texts from antiquity. This ability provides the springboard for you to explore one of the most powerful, captivating, and enduring languages in the world. It is a most excellent journey, not easy, but one which is often quite fun and exciting.

Ancient Greek for Everyone Grading: Three components will determine your final grade: 60%: best three of four exams, 20% each 20%: final exam 20%: quizzes: expect that we will begin most classes with a brief quiz. I will always tell you exactly about the next day’s quiz.

Ancient Greek for Everyone ἡ παιδεία (education) LSU is pioneering an entirely digital resource for teaching ancient Greek. Consequently, there is no specifically printed textbook for this class. For your optional convenience, the following pocket-sized reference guide has been ordered: Erikk Geannikis, Andrew Romiti and P.T. Wilford. Greek Paradigm Handbook. Newburyport: Focus, ISBN Class materials will cross-reference this resource as GPH. Again, this is for your convenience, not a requirement.

Ancient Greek for Everyone ἡ παιδεία (education) The resource that this class will be using goes under the title Ancient Greek for Everyone (AGE) by a group of scholars dubbed “The Hellenizers.” It consists primarily of the following: Power Point slide shows posted in *** (and mirrored at the website but with LSU-specific content stripped out). Reference sheets posted as pdf’s, posted in *** (and again mirrored at Byron Stayskal’s Elements of Ancient Greek (EAG), a prototype of a textbook, mostly to be used for its readings. (These will NOT be mirrored at You need to be able to consult and use these resources in class, as well as to use them in preparing for class. You are welcome to print them out, use them on your computer, tablet, phone, etc., however you wish.

Ancient Greek for Everyone Since this will be the first time LSU has used all the components of this system, we do not yet have a standardized schedule for each semester. In the first semester, our goal is to complete the following units in AGE: 1.The Greek Alphabet and Writing System 2.Introduction to Greek VERBS: - μι conjugation active (primary) 3.Introduction to Greek NOUNS: Masculine 4.Conjunctions and Prepositions 5.VERBS: - ω conjugation active (primary) 6.NOUNS and ADJECTIVES: Neuter 7.VERBS: middle voice (primary) 8.NOUNS and ADJECTIVES: Feminine 9.VERBS: - ω conjugation active (secondary) 10.NOUNS and ADJECTIVES: 1 st and 2 nd declension 11.VERBS: - μι conjugation active (secondary) 12.NOUNS and ADJECTIVES: variations

Ancient Greek for Everyone Each unit includes: Practice readings from Elements of Ancient Greek Readings from Classical Greek and corresponding core vocabulary Readings in Greek from Biblical writings and corresponding core vocabulary

Ancient Greek for Everyone Each unit includes readings from Classical Greek and corresponding core vocabulary Classical Greek strictly speaking refers to writings from the city of Athens during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. For this reason, the terms Classical Attic (Athenian) and Classical Greek are often used interchangeably.

Ancient Greek for Everyone Athens, capital of Greece, on a modern map

Ancient Greek for Everyone Athens, Greece in ancient Greece

Ancient Greek for Everyone Athens Classical Greece Modern Greece

Ancient Greek for Everyone Classical Greek strictly speaking refers to writings from the city of Athens during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. These writings include: Scripts of the world’s first plays, both comedies and tragedies (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes). Some of the earliest writings about history (Thucydides, Xenophon).* The earliest complete writings of philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle). Important legal and political writings, as well as the earliest biographies, essays, literary letters, and historical fiction (Xenophon, the canonical orators). The readings in this course in Classical Greek draw primarily from the above writings.

Ancient Greek for Everyone Classical Greek strictly speaking refers to writings from the city of Athens during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., but it was little read or spoken outside of Athens. Starting in the third century B.C., Greek become a widespread language all around the Mediterranean area for the next five hundred years. Attic Greek became the basis for this type of Greek, called κοινή “common” (koine, pronounced “koin=AY”).

Ancient Greek for Everyone Attic Greek became the basis for this type of Greek, called koine (pronounced “koin=AY”). The most famous writing in koine Greek is the New Testament. The Hebrew Bible was translated into koine Greek in the second century B.C., and this version of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint (abbreviated LXX), was the one known to early Christians. Other writings from this period related to the Bible were also written in koine Greek.

Ancient Greek for Everyone The terms Koine and Biblical Greek are often used interchangeably. Each unit in this course includes readings in Greek from Biblical writings and corresponding core vocabulary The Biblical readings in this course draw from New Testament, the Septuagint, and related ancient writings.

Ancient Greek for Everyone Quiz #1 (Tuesday, August 21, 2012) – Given the words Attic, Biblical, Classical, and koine, group them together as: – Attic and Classical – koine and Biblical

Ancient Greek for Everyone Next class (Tuesday, August 21, 2012) – Review some history about the Greek alphabet. – Learn some Greek letters!