Luschnig Frontmatter:Layout 1

luschnig.qxd 7/11/07 8:50 AM Page 1 C.A.E. Luschnig’s An Introduction to Ancient Greek: A Literary Approach prepares students to read Greek in less than a year by presenting basic traditional grammar without C.A.E. LUSCHNIG frills and by introducing real Greek written by ancient Greeks, from the first day of study. The second edition retains all the features of the first but is more streamlined, easier on the eyes, more gender-inclusive, and altogether more 21st century. It is supported by a Web site for teachers and learners at http://worldwidegreek.com/. AN INTRODUCTION TO “I have used C.A.E. Luschnig’s text for my beginning Greek sequence for over twenty years. I find that her approach brings students to competency quickly and efficiently. The new version improves what was already a good text, keeping the many exercise sentences, ANCIENT GREEK providing a realistic selection of ‘real Greek’ readings with translation aids conveniently below. The proof is in the pudding: after doing beginning Greek with Luschnig’s text, my A Literary Appro a c h Greek students have been able to move easily to the second year reading classes in either Euripides or Plato.” —Karelisa Hartigan, Professor of Classics, University of Florida “Luschnig’s excellent An Introduction to Ancient Greek offers a thorough and clear account of grammar and syntax, copious exercises for practice, and a wonderful array of brief passages from ancient authors for translation and discussion. My students and I have used the text happily for years, and this new edition is even better than its predecessor.” —Deborah H. Roberts, William R. Kennan, Jr. Professor of Comparative Literature and Classics, Haverford College “An Introduction to Ancient Greek: A Literary Approach is the most successful of the more than half-dozen beginning Greek grammars I have used in the classroom, especially in this revised edition. Students meet ‘real Greek’ early and often, and the exercises are ample and varied. What I appreciate particularly is that this grammar has personality, even a sense of humor, so that my students feel they are learning ancient Greek from Cecelia Luschnig rather than an anonymous textbook. The Web site associated with this book is an invaluable resource.” —Sherry Gray Martin, Faculty, St. John’s College, Santa Fe “This accessible and reliable presentation of the essential grammar (backed by numerous exercises and readings) is so well-paced that a class, if it wishes, can speed through in fifteen or sixteen weeks and have the rest of the year to read a Plato dialogue or a Lysias speech.” —Richard Hamilton, Paul Shorey Professor of Greek, Bryn Mawr College C.A.E. Luschnig is Professor Emerita of Classics, University of Idaho. ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-889-6 90000 Second Edition Cover photo: Stoa of Attalos Museum in the Athenian Agora. 9 780872 208896 Copyright © L. J. Luschnig. Reprinted by permission. 0 8 8 9 Revised by C.A.E. Luschnig and Deborah Mitchell AN INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENT GREEK A Literary Approach Second Edition C.A.E. Luschnig AN INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENT GREEK A Literary Approach Second Edition Revised by C.A.E. Luschnig Deborah Mitchell Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Indianapolis/Cambridge Copyright © 2007 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved 10 09 08 07 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 For further information, please address Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. P.O. Box 44937 Indianapolis, Indiana 46244-0937 www.hackettpublishing.com Cover design by L. J. Luschnig and Deborah Mitchell Interior design by Elizabeth L. Wilson and Deborah Mitchell Composition by Agnew’s, Inc. Printed at Hamilton Printing Company The Greek fonts used to create this work are available from www.linguistsoftware .com/lgku.htm, +1-425-775-1130. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Luschnig, C.A.E. Introduction to ancient Greek : a literary approach / C.A.E. Luschnig. — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-87220-889-6 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-0-87220-890-2 (cloth) 1. Greek language—Grammar. 2. Greek language—Readers. I. Title. PA258.L87 2007 485—dc22 2007014145 eISBN 978-1-60384-024-8 (e-book) CONTENTS Preface ix Abbreviations and Reference Works xiii Introduction 1 Alphabet and Sounds of Greek 1 Grammatical Outline 13 Lesson I 21 Present Indicative Active and Middle-Passive of ‑ω Verbs: The First Principal Part 21 Nouns of the First (‑η) and Second (‑ο) Declensions; Article 28 Lesson II 43 Imperfect Active and Middle- Passive; εἰμί 43 Adjectives: ‑ος, ‑η, ‑ον and ‑ος, ‑ον Types 48 Lesson III 63 Future Active and Middle: The Second Principal Part 63 First Declension Nouns 68 Lesson IV 83 Aorist Active and Middle: The Third Principal Part 83 Indirect Statement 93 v vi Contents Lesson V 105 Third Declension Nouns 105 Lesson VI 121 Third Declension Adjectives 121 Third/First Declension Adjectives 122 Irregular Adjectives 124 Syntax 126 Lesson VII 135 Participles: Present, Future, Aorist Active and Middle/Middle-Passive 135 Lesson VIII 157 Pronouns: Interrogative, Indefinite, Relative Indefinite, Reciprocal 157 Perfect Active: The Fourth Principal Part 162 Lesson IX 175 Pronouns: Personal and Reflexive; Possessive Adjectives 175 Perfect Middle-Passive: The Fifth Principal Part 184 Lesson X 193 Comparison of Adjectives, Adverbs 193 Aorist and Future Passive: The Sixth Principal Part 205 Lesson XI 213 Contract Verbs 213 Lesson XII 231 -ΜΙ Verbs 231 Lesson XIII 249 Subjunctive 249 Optative 258 Contents vii Sequence of Moods and Dependent Clauses 266 Lesson XIV 271 Imperative 271 Vocative 274 Verbals in -τέος and -τέον 275 Appendix I: Paradigms 281 Appendix II: Syntax 315 Greek–English Vocabulary 329 English–Greek Vocabulary 355 Authors of the Readings 361 List of Sources for the Readings 363 Index 369 PREFACE Learning Greek is lifelong education. When the opportunity to work on a second edition of Introduction to Ancient Greek was presented to me by friends and strangers from California to Pennsylvania, I had already retired from classroom teaching after thirty-eight years at the blackboard (which morphed into the overhead projector and finally the Elmo). I had no idea how much I would learn from this undertaking, about Greek, about myself and my writing, about approaches to teaching, and about changes in the world since I worked on the first edition, beginning in 1971. My colleagues and I have made hundreds of changes for the new edition: corrections of errors or infelicities; improvements in clarity, consistency, and pedagogy; additions of gender- inclusive material and helpful hints to learners and teachers. The changes are based on decades of teaching beginning Greek and learning from students what works for them. The Book’s Approach I have assumed that students who study Greek at the university level really want to learn Greek, and learn Greek so that they will be able to read Greek or some particular thing(s) in Greek, not in order to recite paradigm after paradigm in endless and meaningless succession. Yet the paradigms must still be learned. When I began writing this book, the beginning Greek text- books then in use tended to give students little more than the bare bones of Greek, and not in a very interesting way. The choice of Xeno phon’s Anabasis (and that Xenophon adapted so that it was barely recognizable) struck me as an unfortunate pick for the main or only reading. Readings from Greek authors chosen to introduce students to Greek literature should be intellec- tually stimulating: they should make the students want to read Greek. The readings in this book were chosen because they illustrate grammatical points; but many were selected in the hope that they would be interesting to the students, encouraging them to learn the new paradigms, and expand- ing their consciousness of Greek, so that they would read more. The readings are taken from a variety of sources representing different eras and different philosophies, some of which most students will not have heard of before reading them. Languages, Living and Dead To call Greek a dead language is to take a narrow-minded, exclusively prag- matic view of time and of life and death (at least of the life and death of languages). A language is only dead when it has passed from human memory, ix x Preface leaving no literature and no living descendants. Perhaps we could say that Hittite and Tocharian are dead languages, because their literatures are scanty and they are known by few, though even they live for ardent Indo-European philologists, after their fashion. The life of a language is a relative thing. To call Greek a dead language is to admit that one knows no Greek and to imag- ine that it cannot be known and, indeed, is not worth knowing. Greek is a living language not only because it never died but continues to develop and change and can still be heard in its heir, Modern Greek, but also because it has left us a literature that is part of our common heritage and that continues to influence the way we think, speak, and write. A Traditional Approach On the other hand the Attic Greek spoken in fifth-century Athens is no longer spoken in the same way. There is nowhere we can hear it and no one with whom we can speak it. For this reason I have taken the traditional, rational approach to teaching Greek, rather than a “natural method.” The study of Greek has long been a bookish pursuit, and rightly so. For this language we have only the books (and other writings) of the ancient Greeks to study.

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