From Alpha to Omega: A Beginning Course in Classical Greek

I agree completely with James W. Picht's review from January 12, 2007, and I recommend that you read it. Your opinion of this book is going to depend largely on what you want to get out of it; the distribution of one-star and five-star ratings on this page attests to that. If you want a modern language textbook with pictures and lessons on how to tell how old your brothers and sisters are, then you will give this book only one star. But the thorough grounding in Greek linguistics that this book offers really is a tremendous help for serious study, and if you've looked at other textbooks you'll know that you can't get this detailed a treatment anywhere else, and you'll give it five stars. Sure, it is very difficult to learn Greek, but did you really think that learning to read literature written 2800 to 2300 years ago would be easy?

I just finished two semesters of this book and it was by far the best language textbook I have ever had the pleasure of learning from! Ancient Greek is a very difficult language to learn, even more so than Latin in my opinion, but having plowed through all 50 of these chapters, I feel very confident about confronting the grammar of any unfamiliar Greek text and I can't wait to continue my studies. While I can't compare this to any other Greek textbook, I can say from my experiences wrestling with Latin that this book does a far better job of adequately breaking down the language. There is a lot to learn in each chapter, but all the grammatical nuances are certainly covered if you are willing to spend the time learning them. The whole book is very fast-paced, but thorough, and for me that made it all the more exciting when I could look back at earlier chapters and be able to sight-read all the examples! The only difficulties I had with this book were the sometimes superfluous grammatical depth to certain concepts and the lack of context for the practice sentences. Groton makes frequent notes of obscure grammar usages in other Greek dialects (this book is based on Attic, or "Classical" Greek) or rarely-used Attic wording, which pop up on occasion in the practice sentences. This can get really annoying when you've done all you can to translate a particular phrase and you find out the answer was in a footnote back in the third chapter! Oh well. But this is where the professor helps a lot! Also, the sentences can get really bizzare ("They asked the wisest of the heralds whether the rather old roads were longer than the new roads."). Odd, and while I know the vocabulary was limited (avg. of 15 new words per chapter), you'll probably never come across another sentence like that in real text. On the whole: excellent layout and a solid introduction to Classical Greek!

For better knowledge and teaching of our English language, I strongly recommend this text. Yes, it is comprehensive for the serious student who loves the classics and wants to examine the original texts of Aesop's Fables, Homeric epics, et cetera (dare I use that term?). The grammar lessons are well presented with numerous examples and variations. Professor Groton also adds notes about the persona of the average Greek citizen to give the student a sense of the concerns of the ancients. Of special importance is the vocabulary section in each chapter which shows the English derivatives from the Greek. That alone is worth having this book. This is the "hooked on phonics (Greek derivative "phonema")" instruction that is sorely absent in curbing our illiteracy problem. Several years ago, I took courses to become an inner city high school English teacher and was required to observe "expert", tenured teachers in several schools as role models. It sickened me to watch them merely hand out vocabulary lists to the children to memorize and deliberately halt me from even mentioning the origins of the words. Small wonder that many children found their coursework stressful and/or boring. I left those failure factories and now have an ESL position where my foreign and American adult students sit on the edge of their seats to learn Greek and Latin origins of English. They are less intimitated by new vocabulary in their readings as a result of acquiring skills to decifer words. Their compositions contain less errors and they learn about our Greek/Roman based culture. In addition to the required English literature, I guide them through selections of the Iliad (Lattimore translation) and some of the spontaneous reactions from my "alpha" students are hilarious: "Get outta here! Did Achilles do all THAT? [Book XXI] This is more than the "Troy" movie". Precisely my mission - the original is more informative and exciting. Do not rely on Hollywood or cartoons (or your neighborhood failure factory) for your education. This book remains my right hand support in my English instruction.

"From Alpha to Omega" is an introduction to the classical Greek of Athens (Attic). I'm using it in conjunction with Pharr as I attempt to study Homeric Greek. There are some differences in the dialects, but I like Groton's text because it provides explanations that are relevant to Homer's Greek, and I find the layout much easier to navigate than Pharr's. The book is very good either as a primary text in classical Greek or as a companion to a text in Homeric Greek. This text was recommended to me by a colleague in Classics who loaned me hers. I liked it enough to buy my own. It isn't a perfect text by any means. It is far more detailed than is needed or wanted by most students of Greek, and I'd hate to have to cover the entire thing in two semesters. I have a fairly good language background, but unless I were a Classics major or were taking no other courses, I'd be overwhelmed by it. A teacher who wants to attract students from other majors into a few semesters of Classics should definitely use a different text. I think Groton's text is very good for the student who has considerable language experience, or the person like me who can't remember the whats of a language without a thorough grasp of the hows and whys. It's also good for the student who wants to continue studying Greek beyond the first year. If your interest doesn't extend beyond a basic course, this text will likely be a frustrating overload. This text isn't perfect, but it's perfect for me. Whether it's perfect for you depends on your learning style, your language experience, and your expectations for continuing with Greek. Whether it's perfect for you or not, I strongly recommend buying "From Alpha to Omega: Ancillary Exercises" (Jon Bruss) to go with it. Because Groton's text is detailed, so are the ancillary exercises. You don't have to do all of them, but they really will help you understand and remember the material in the text.

This book was my first introduction to the language. It is a good mix of reading selections (which grow in size and complexity as you progress), vocabulary, and blurbs in English about the function of the language. The exercises given in each chapter exhasperate and delight as you realize that you are translating a sentence which reads, "Hurry, O Goddess! They hasten out of their tents and into the ocean." Or, "Pay heed, O Lady of the house! The letters are on the couch!" Ever wonder how to decline "Socrates"? This book is best if you have a good sense of humor. The one thing it is not very helpful with is accentuation. It does explain the topic, but it's explanation is quite poor.