Ancient Greek

I have used many texts to learn Greek (the second time around): Mounce (the best for NT Greek), Wallace (the best of the advanced NT Greek Grammars), Mastronarde (the best of the traditional-style language-teaching books for classical Greek), Athenaze, JACT, and this was last. I enjoyed all of them. When I go back again I will likely revise Mastronarde, this time doing all the writing (as well as reading) excercises, and more memorization of forms. Then I will do the book under review again three times. Doing things this way, you'd be amazed at how much you learn and retain (it's like learning a piece on the piano). This book is incredible. I suspect that if I proceed as above, I will have no problem with almost anything else I wish to read (except Homer). Why would I make that statement? One, this book carries an unbelievably huge vocabulary in a vast selection of readings from many genre's of ancient Greek that are fun to read, so you'll actually enjoy going over it three times. But two, my learning from this book passed another test I had not even set for it: I was able to read and understand all(!) of the explanations and examples I looked at in Smyth (the granddaddy of Greek Grammars still in print) as I casually browsed through it. Before, they were, well, just "Greek to me." This experience was huge to me. If you are a genius with total recall, make this your first and only book. Otherwise, this probably should not be your first book unless you have tons of time and patience. As other reviewers have correctly noted, it is quite dense. Instead, do Mastronarde thoroughly first (get the answer key, as other reviewers have noted), then do this book three times. I am sure the experience will be rewarding. One caveat. It does have a section or two on Homer, but not much. Best to do Pharr's book for that. Oh, and on the sigma thing mentioned by other reviewers (which see), a number of the Oxford Classical Texts use the C or c, so there's no need to bother with the question of whether it should be used in this book or not, just get used to it (though I do prefer the other forms of sigma myself). I do agree with the reviewer who was confused by the order of the cases, but the excellence of the book makes this a minor quibble. Note to the publisher: this book is so good it deserves to be larger, with larger print, and in hardcover. (I will also mention that I happen to know Professor Mastronarde personally, but that doesn't influence my rating of his book. Indeed, I got to know him because I admired his book and wanted to meet with him on a book idea of my own; it was convenient since I lived in Berkeley at the time.)

Yes. I do agree that the 'c' makes things a bit sticky if one is already used to the traditional sigma ( I still write out my words the old fashioned way) and, yes, I persisted in looking up 'c' words in the vocabulary under, yeah, ... 'c' ... instead of 's.' Very frustrating. If you have never encountered the Greek alphabet prior to this, the big 'c' will be no problem. In any case, if you don't mind putting in the work demanded by this text (blood, sweat and tears is not an exageration), I must say that this text excels at the task of teaching this very difficult language. The language (and its beauty)is all about detail and the precision with which the Greeks went about creating their personal representation of their conceptual take on the world in general. It is not just about reading skills. The way the language is structured can tell you as much about the people as can their composition. I also used additional resources for help when clarification was indicated, but this became my main text. You might also try (perhaps simultaneously) to utilize the _Thrasymachus_ text and its outstanding associated (and perhaps simpler) website area (Google Thrasymachus ancient Greek for details). By the way, I did attempt a number of other texts, none of which compared to Betts.

I have studied Latin, Spanish, and other languages for quite a while now, and I found this book to be really quite useful, especially in conjunction with another book from Teach Yourself Books, entitled New Testament Greek. New Testament Greek is in the Koine Dialect of Greek, whereas this book seems to be comprised primarily of the Attic dialect. So, my recommendation to anyone who desires to learn Greek is this: buy New testament Greek, which is overly facile, and then buy Ancient Greek, which is a somewhat larger task. All the while, keep in mind that studying these two books together is something like going from modern English to the type of English spoken in the days of the eighteenth and ninteenth centuries. Ultimately, the student should find himself able to read Greek passages with only mild difficulty. For if one truly desires the ability to read Greek passages with great ease, he must certainly enroll in university classes. However, this book, at least in conjunction with New Testament Greek, is the next best thing to the university.

I've been studying Ancient Greek on my own. At the beginning, I bought 5 or 6 grammar books on the subject to get a good idea of what was available.The approach I ultimately adopted (and would recommend) was: 1) learning the basics using mostly the "Reading Greek" series; 2) using this book as a supplement and a grammar reference; and 3) jumping to real greek (Plato)...What I found very good about this book is that it provides a clear and systematic discussion of the grammar without assuming that you are an expert already. I don't know that I would suggest that it be used by itself or as the primary guide to learning the language. However, I found it to be the best reference grammar available.Also, this book does not make the silly mistake of introducing concepts to you before explaining them. I've seen this in so many foreign language grammar books: concepts are placed in front of you (without being explained) in some weird hope that you will begin to absorb them and be ready to accept them when they are finally explained. "Reading Greek" does this. There must be some...theory floating around about the benefits of this type of teaching because it is very common. (and very confusing). Apparently, the authors of this book have not been "educated" into these "latest advances in learning". Some reviews below complain that the book is too thick in grammar and does not provide enough easy sentences for learning. I have to say that I did not try to use the book in this way, but there is perhaps some truth in this complaint.But if I have a grammar question, I always go here first because I found it has the simplest explanations. (That is not too say that there is anything "simple" about Greek grammar).

Ancient Greek (Teach Yourself) is a very densely written, informative book. The only flaw is that it presumes some knowledge of other languages and details of grammar and linguistics that the average reader may not be familiar with. In general, though, grammatical concepts and their applications are very well explained. This is not a book for the faint of heart - entire subjects are discussed in detail in a few pages, and then the reader is left to practice individually until proficient. However, for anyone with a basic understanding of language, this book is extremely useful. Everything is well explained, and readings are included from ancient texts as practice material. You may want to have a favorite text in ancient Greek handy as you learn, for additional practice (I used Homer's Iliad and Odyssey).