Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek

I learned Greek at university using the JACT "Reading Greek" text. When it came time to teach my elementary school-age son, it was clear that the JACT text was inadequate--starting with its forbidding small type and its unclear (or absent) explanations of many key concepts. Fortunately Athenaze has come along since I went to college! It is superior in every way. The English text is readable and clear (at least as clear as one can be explaining the arcana of Greek syntax). I can even say that, thanks to Athenaze, I myself finally understand, more or less, the rules for accents that somehow eluded me in four years of Greek at the university level. The Greek texts are well written, not overly pedantic, and do a good job of introducing vocabulary and forms gradually and thoroughly. The accompanying workbook is indispensable for giving beginners more chance to practice, and (another improvement over JACT as I remember it) balance Greek-to-English and English-to-Greek exercises. No language textbook is a substitute for a teacher, but Athenaze is an outstanding resource.

I have used this book for several years with great enjoyment and success in a high school independent study I teach. The book is presented in a clean, clear, student-friendly format, and may even play a role in restoring Greek to its rightful place in the modern curriculum. The book is based on the very sound notion that students can begin to approach original Greek texts more easily if they begin their study of the language with lessons that feature passages of continuous, connected Greek sentences. This concept, for Greek studies at any rate, is quite radical. Other introductory Greek textbooks (old and new) that have dominated the field for the last century -- the only exception being the Cambridge "Reading Greek" course -- have formats that are strikingly different from Athenaze. Those hornbooks are long on detailed grammatical lessons, but woefully short on the presentation of reading passages of ancient Greek.In a manner similar to the Cambridge Latin Course and The Oxford Latin Course, this text presents a series of chapters where the same characters -- Dicaiopolis (loosely based on a character in the Acharnians of Aristophanes), his wife, his father, his two children, and his slave -- do familiar Greek things like farming, eating, sleeping, complaining, telling stories, attending festivals, etc. The ongoing plot line maintains student interest. Repetition of important words helps to develop a working vocabulary. New grammatical concepts and vocabulary are woven seamlessly into each new chapter.Few textbooks meet all needs; however, this one is a gem. I could not conceive of using another at the high school level and am sure it is equally effective as a university level text.

In spite the many reviews by people who seem bitter about their failure to learn Greek, I feel that it is necessary to provide some defense of this Greek course. I have had German, Latin, Hebrew, and even Sumerian courses. By far, Athenaze was the best text I had for any of these classes. The Greek language is very archaic compared with English, not as "collapsed" in forms. It can be a painful language for someone who is used to speaking only English. Athenaze makes learning Greek as easy as possible. I completed 3 semesters with this book, and 3 additional semesters in Greek. I have translated Classical and Koine Greek literature both during and after the Athenaze course. I find that I am able to produce quite passable translations with the grammar I learned from Athenaze. Like the Greek language, Athenaze is not for every person and every learning style. But as language books go, it is a good one.

I thought that Greek would be my hardest class this year, but it turned out to be my easiest and my favorite. It seems as though many of the critics of this book expect greek to be an organized, logical language (like latin, perhaps). Unfortunately, that's simply not the case. Greek is (as a friend put it) "the warped creation of a million little devil-gnomes in togas," which doesn't make it any less beautiful or fascinating, just a little more confusing and difficult. The story is repetitive in order to teach grammer effectively. Overall, I'd say the story's not bad, and it's certainly amusing at times (esp. the frequent use of mastigia -jailbird- as an insult). Some nouns are introduced before they can be declined because the third "declension" is ridiculously irregular. And really, you don't need to be able to decline a word to read. This is basically the attitude of the book, and I think it's executed well. Even as an adult, you come accross english words you don't know, and most of the time it doesn't kill you. It's the same with greek grammar. As for the second aorist coming before the first- do you know how easy the first aorist is after you've seen the second? I was elated to learn the first! The first is only a semantic prerequisite for the second. Most importantly, this text makes reading ancient greek a surmountable task. My biggest worry about greek was that I was never going to be able to do it well, and this book has proved me wrong. Of course, a learned human resource is indispensible, as is hours and hours of serious study. Learning Greek is as much an issue of memorization as it is anything else, so a huge time and motivation commitment is required. There is no text that can teach you greek if all you do is show up for class 4 days a week. But once you've made that commitment, the rewards are tremendous. I can't wait.