Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Excellent Introduction to Classical Greek November 22, 2008
This is an excellent, clear introduction to Greek. I have found it much more enjoyable than other books (notably Reading Greek) where the texts for translation are very heavily glossed. It is wonderful to be able to read the passages without having to look up too many words. Also, despite what other reviews say, Part 1 does have an answer key which you can get free by approaching the publisher (instructions are in the introduction). This is the best Ancient Greek book for beginners that I have seen. If you really want to learn, this book won't let you down!
 Excellent - will reward your efforts magnificently June 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am choosing to examine both Pt 1 and Pt 2 in this review.
The Greek to GCSE books are both accessible and user-friendly. They contain the main parts necessary for an appreciation of Classical Athenian or Attic Greek, the language of Plato, Aristotle and Euripides, amongst a gorgeous treasury of others. Given the wealth of Attic literature (history, philosophy, religion, poetry and drama) a reasonable linguistic investment and decent dictionary will open up the doorway into the most fascinating world. Even the best annotated translation cannot do justice to the original version.
Classical Greek is one of the most elegant languages it has been my pleasure to study. At the time of writing, I am left only with the final practice passages and sentences in Part 2, and am eagerly awaiting the availability of Part 3.
Parts 1 & 2 survey the Attic tongue to the extent of the majority of the inflections, regular and irregular. They do not emphasise the vocative case conspicuously, and I imagine that the dual is left until Part 3. However, the optative and subjunctive are given good coverage, as well as the middle voice. I confess I was a little perplexed by the middle - the passive and active are pretty straightforward, but the middle seemed vague and nonsensical before reading these books.
It must be stressed that the student should practice and practice any language as regularly and frequently as possible. I've made a point of doing some Greek every day without fail, and this has been most worthwhile.
I have given 4 stars only because, as mentioned elsewhere by other reviewers, there is no answer key for the exercises. Occasionally I was left in limbo, having an understanding, but unable to explain exactly why my translations were as I had rendered them. However, upon revisiting the offending sentence later on, things usually clicked.
For those wishing to take things further, I would recommend the following:
Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon - the abridged version will suffice for undergraduate level.
Smyth's Greek Grammar - not for reading cover to cover, and slightly stilted English language, but really in depth explanations. Beware, the cases are not in the same order as most grammars.
Marinone's All The Greek Verbs. This is an alphabetical (Greek) listing of conjugated verbs. If you get stuck on an aorist or imperfect verb, this book has many of the more common verbs. With a bit of logic, you can work out the dictionary form and then look this up to find the meaning.
As many of the green Loeb books as possible. These are very portable, and contain the original Greek text on one page, with an English translation opposite. They are excellent starting places to practice your reading skills once you've got the basics under your belt.
A thoroughly good book March 9, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have find this book very useful for learning Greek. I would highly recommend it to anybody think of teaching themselves Greek in their spare time.
Lets you reap rewards October 5, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I want to start this off by addressing an issue I've seen mentioned below: people feel that reading this book will bore them. Well... Greek isn't much of a rollercoaster ride in the first place. Don't buy this book if you're looking for thrills and spills. However, I imagine that anybody seeking thrills and spills is far from likely to be reading an article on a page for a book entitled 'Greek For Beginners: Part 2'. Perhaps if the author had gone for something like 'Slamming hotties want ancient-greek-speaking lovin.. The Sequel', then this would be more of an issue.
I'm currently studying Greek as part of a classics course at university and I have found this book to be something of a saviour. We do refer to it in lectures, but there are loads of texts and exercises, from which anyone who'll care to put in a bit of effort (and accept that extra-curricular Greek learning is not going to be a barrel o' laughs) can definitely benefit. I took Greek GCSE, then dropped it, and I've found that this series has brought me right back up to standard.
So; this book picks up nicely from the end of part one, and it puts its readers in great stead for passing GCSE level Greek, whilst not being over-prescriptive. That's quite some feat.
This book teaches Ancient Greek. I mean... There are very few human-beings who can honestly say that, and you'd fork out far more than this for one of those!
My opinion? DO IT!
illustration... September 27, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
i am a 15 year old pupil of Dr Taylor's. he teaches me clasic civilisation for gcse, i read some of the reviews and was wondering... would you think more highly of the book if it was illustrated?
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