Greek sits at the perfect intersection of difficult and rewarding. It makes available to us an inexhaustible body of literature and philosophy—much larger than that of classical Latin—and it trains us to be attentive and thorough. For centuries, knowledge of Ancient Greek, along with Latin, German, and French, was considered a fundamental prerequisite for entering college, regardless of desired academic field, and reading classical texts formed a common culture of learning across centuries and borders. To give three examples: While Werner Heisenberg was puzzling out quantum mechanics, he read Plato’s Timaeus; Raymond Queneau called Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey “the two poles of Western novelistic activity since its creation”; and more than two millennia after Plato’s death, A.N. Whitehead wrote, “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” Today, most college students graduate without real literacy in any second language. Greek is valuable for its own sake, but the confidence and discipline a student develops while learning it also translate well to learning other languages and subjects.
We use Clyde Pharr’s Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners, which introduces students to the language through Homer’s Iliad. Pharr’s introductory essay spells out the benefits of studying Homeric Greek: “The reasons which make Homer so desirable are apparent when the question is seriously considered. His work is homogeneous in vocabulary, in literary style and idioms employed, and in metrical form, so that when students once get a fair start in him, further progress becomes easier and more accelerated.”
Second year students read, recite, and memorize selections from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and experiment with Greek prose composition.