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🏺 Intro to Classical Greek
A beginner course in classical (Attic) Greek as a living skill: the alphabet and handwriting, restored Attic pronunciation, grammar from the article to the optative, writing and speaking drills, and short readings from Aesop, Xenophon, Plato and Homer. 22 lessons.
- 1The Alphabet and HandwritingLearn the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet in small letters and capitals, how to write each one by hand, which letters only look like English ones, and how to spell your own name in Greek.35 min
- 2Pronunciation: Restored Attic, Erasmian and ModernLearn the three ways people pronounce ancient Greek today, why this course uses restored Attic, how every letter and diphthong sounds in each system, and why vowel length matters.38 min
- 3Breathings, Accents and PunctuationLearn the small marks on Greek words: rough and smooth breathings, the acute, grave and circumflex accents as marks of pitch, the basic rules for where accents can fall, and Greek punctuation, including the question mark that looks like a semicolon.36 min
- 4Greetings and Classroom PhrasesStart speaking: say hello and goodbye, ask and give names, answer yes and no, praise a good answer, count from one to ten, and use the short commands of a Greek classroom.32 min
- 5Nouns: Gender, Number, and the First and Second DeclensionsMeet Greek nouns: the three genders, singular and plural, stems and endings, and the five model nouns χώρα, τιμή, θάλαττα, λόγος and δῶρον, first in the nominative and then in every form.38 min
- 6The Cases and What They DoLearn what each of the five Greek cases does in a sentence, with plain English comparisons, why Greek word order can be so free, and the complete first and second declension tables with the patterns that make them easy to remember.40 min
- 7The Article and AgreementLearn every form of the Greek definite article ὁ ἡ τό, see how it agrees with its noun in gender, number and case, and use it as a pronoun in the ὁ μέν ... ὁ δέ pattern.35 min
- 8The Present Active Indicative and εἰμίConjugate λύω and other regular verbs in the present active indicative, learn the present of εἰμί (to be) with its enclitic accents, and build simple Greek sentences in any word order.38 min
- 9The Present Middle and PassiveLearn the middle voice, where the subject acts for or on itself, and the passive, where the subject is acted on; conjugate λύομαι, express the agent with ὑπό, and learn deponent verbs such as βούλομαι and ἔρχομαι.38 min
- 10Adjectives and PronounsDecline 2-1-2 adjectives such as ἀγαθός and δίκαιος, tell attributive from predicate position, and learn the personal pronouns ἐγώ and σύ, the three uses of αὐτός, and the demonstratives οὗτος and ἐκεῖνος.40 min
- 11PrepositionsLearn the common Greek prepositions and the cases each one takes, the place-to-place logic of where, where to and where from, how prepositions shorten before vowels (ἐξ, ἀφʼ, καθʼ), and read Xenophon's description of the river at Celaenae.40 min
- 12The Imperfect and the FuturePut verbs into the past with the augment, build the imperfect of λύω and εἰμί, and form the future with -σ- and the sound changes it causes.35 min
- 13The AoristLearn the first (sigmatic) aorist ἔλυσα, the second aorist ἔλαβον, εἶπον, ἦλθον, and the difference in aspect between the aorist snapshot and the ongoing imperfect.38 min
- 14The Third DeclensionMeet the third family of Greek nouns: consonant stems (φύλαξ, σῶμα, ῥήτωρ), sigma stems (γένος), i-stems (πόλις), and why the genitive singular is the form you must memorize.40 min
- 15The Perfect and PluperfectForm the perfect with reduplication (λέλυκα, λέλυμαι), learn what the perfect means (a finished act with a result that still stands), and meet the pluperfect.36 min
- 16ParticiplesDecline the present active participle λύων, λύουσα, λῦον, then use participles three ways (attributive, circumstantial, supplementary) and read your first genitive absolutes.40 min
- 17Infinitives and Indirect StatementForm the present, future, aorist and perfect infinitives of λύω, use the infinitive with verbs like βούλομαι and with the article, then report what people said with φημί plus an infinitive and with λέγω ὅτι.40 min
- 18Subjunctive, Optative and ImperativeLearn the three moods beyond the indicative in λύω and εἰμί, then use them: let us and what should we do, purpose clauses with ἵνα, wishes with εἴθε and the optative, commands, and prohibitions with μή and the aorist subjunctive.40 min
- 19Conversation and CompositionPut the grammar to work: ask questions with τίς, τί, ποῦ, πότε, πῶς and διὰ τί, describe people and places, tell a short story with the aorist and imperfect, and write a guided composition of your own.40 min
- 20Using a Lexicon and Reading AidsFind any Greek word you meet: how LSJ, the Middle Liddell and other lexicons are built, how to read an entry, how to turn an inflected form back into its dictionary form, the six principal parts, and the free online tools (Logeion, Perseus, the Scaife Viewer, Morpheus) that speed the work up.35 min
- 21Readings: Aesop, Xenophon, Plato, HomerRead four real openings in the original Greek, with vocabulary, notes and your own translation: Aesop's fox and the grapes, the first sentence of Xenophon's Anabasis, the first lines of Plato's Apology, and the first two lines of Homer's Iliad with Ionic forms and dactylic hexameter explained.40 min
- 22Review and Next StepsThe whole course on a few pages: summary tables for the article, nouns, pronouns and λύω in every mood, a pronunciation chart, principal parts of ten common verbs, a map of what to read next, and charts of the alphabet, the cases, the history of Greek and its dialects.40 min