Learn Ancient Greek

Introduction

The resources below are by no means comprehensive, but are a very good start indeed for anyone wanting to learn Ancient Greek. For Ancient Greek queries, you can use the fora.

A typical inhibition is the different alphabet, but this should not be an issue as one can master it in one lesson. After all, the Greek letters are fewer than the Latin ones and most of them are the same.

Moreover, Greek is much easier to read than English, or French for that matter, since it is read as it is spelled.

It should be noted that you probably already know a hell of a lot of Greek. How is that possible?

Earlier, when the Romans had conquered the East, Greek continued to be spoken there. Indeed, from the second century BC it had a great influence on Latin and consequently, directly or through Latin, on practically every other language. This was a long process, as a result of which today many of our languages can be seen as a kind of semi-Greek or crypto-Greek.

Here is a small list of Ancient Greek words you already know.

Ancient Greek Grammars and Textkbooks

PDF books

1. The First Year of Greek, James T. Allen
2. Greek Grammar, William W. Goodwin
3. First Greek Book, John Williams White
4. From alpha to omega, A Beginning Course in Classical Greek, Anne Groton (2013)
5. A Brief Introduction to New Testament Greek, Samuel G. Green
6. Grammar of New Testament Greek, Friedrich Blass
7. Greek, an Intensive Course, Hardy Hansen and Gerald M. Quinn download from kupdf
8. Answer Keys to H. Hansen and G. Quinn, Greek: An Intensive Course, 2nd revised ed. Fordham UP, 1992.
9. Greek Prose Composition, North and Hillard
10. Greek Grammar, Herbert Weir Smyth
11. A First Greek Course, Sir William Smith
12. First Greek Grammar Syntax, W. Gunion Rutherford
13. First Greek Grammar Accidence, W. Gunion Rutherford
14. Homeric Greek – A Book For Beginners, Clyde Pharr
15. A Greek Reader: For the Use of Schools, Cornelius Conway Felton
16. A Greek grammar for schools and colleges, Herbert Weir Smyth
17. The Eton Greek grammar, G. N. Wright (5MB)
18. An Introduction to Ancient Greek: A Literary Approach, C.A.E. Luschnig
19. Syntax of Classical Greek, Basil L. Gildersleeve html on Perseus
20. Lucian’s Dialogues of the Courtesans, An Intermediate Greek Reader, Greek Text with Running Vocabulary and Commentary, Evan Hayes and Stephen Nimis (more free books from Faenum Publishing)
21. Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus Greek Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary and more resources from the Greek summer school (including video lessons)
22. Homer’s Odyssey 17-20, Greek Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary; access more learning materials from Geoffrey Steadman
23. Plato’s Philebus, Greek Text with Basic Grammar
24. Greek grammar handout, Karl Maurer

Web sites

1. Ancient Greek for Everyone, Essential Morphology and Syntax for Beginning Greek, Wilfred E. Major and Michael Laughy
2. A school grammar of Attic Greek, Thomas Dwight Goodell (pdf version)
3. Hellenistic Greek lessons, Micheal Palmer
4. Pedalion, a platform for learning and reading Ancient Greek
5. A Digital Tutorial for Ancient Greek based on John William White's First Greek Book
6. Wiktionary: About Ancient Greek, Ancient Greek dialectal declension
7. Wikipedia: Ancient Greek, Ancient Greek accentAncient Greek enclitics, Ancient Greek appendices
8. Greek Lexica for Students and Readers (a repository of dictionaries for readers of Ancient Greek Texts so that while reading a text they have the words readily available)
9. Greek resources, by Stephen M. Trzaskoma
10. Ancient Greek Tutorials, AtticGreek.org
11. Ariadne: Resources for Athenaze
12. Classics Tuition, resources for students and teachers of Classics, Vocabulary Lists, Specimen Papers
13. Particles in Ancient Greek Discourse: Five Volumes Exploring Particle Use across Genre, Anna Bonifazi, Annemieke Drummen, Mark de Kreij
14. Odyssey with comments and clickable translations
15. Iliad and other texts with translations on mouseover

Material in Modern Greek

1. Γραμματική της αρχαίας ελληνικής γλώσσας - Γυμνασίου/Λυκείου | html
2. Αρχαία ελληνική γλώσσα - Α' Γυμνασίου
3. Μαθήματα πολυτονικού
4. Ανθολόγιο αττικής πεζογραφίας, Χρήστος Χριστοδούλου (50 θέματα • 120 παρατηρήσεις γραμματικής & συντακτικού • ασκήσεις εμπέδωσης • θέματα πανελλαδικών εξετάσεων • κατάλογος 230 ανώμαλων ρημάτων)
5. Βικιλεξικό - Γραμματική Αρχαίας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας
6. O Σχηματισμός των λέξεων στην Αρχαία Ελληνική, Albert Debrunner
7. Σχολικά βιβλία για τα αρχαία
8. Φιλολογικόν Ιστολόγιον για τα φιλολογικά μαθήματα του Λυκείου – Παναγιώτης Γ. Αθανασόπουλος

Material in French

1. Précis de grammaire grecque, html version Anne-Marie Boxus
2. Grammaire portative du grec ancien, Fontaine Didier
3. Grammaire de grec ancien, J.L. Burnouf
4. Cours de Grec, Alessandra Lukinovich
5. Textes grecs et traductions
6. Evandre, Textes Grecs, lexique évolutif pour les 3 premières années de grec
7. Grec ancien, wikibooks

Material in German

1. Griechische Grammatik pdf book (Karl Brugmann, Leopold Cohn, Albert Thumb, 1913)
2. Hermidion, Eine kleine Begleitgrammatik für den Start ins Griechische
3. Graecum-Grammatik, Universität Wien
4. Online-Kurs Altgriechisch
5. Sprachkurs für Altgriechisch, E. Gottwein
6. Materialien für den Sprachunterricht
7. Altgriechisch für Philosophie-Studierende
8. Griechisches Lesebuch, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff

Material in Spanish

1. Método filológico-didáctico para el estudio del griego clásico, Daniel Alejandro Torres
2. Gramática griega, Jaime Berenguer Amenós
3. Gramática griega, Álvaro Fernando Ortolá Guixot
4. Gramática del griego antiguo, Wikipedia
5. Breve gramática griega para estudiantes de bachillerato
6. Diccionario didáctico interactivo griego - español (Gramática Griega, Helenismos, Familias léxicas)

Material in Italian

• Grammatica greca per le superiori 1 Wikiversita
• Grammatica greca, Antonio Klodič
• verbanoweb, Multiple Ancient Greek text with parallel Italian translations and comments
• Athenaze scribd - introduzione al greco antico: Academia.edu
  • Indice
  • Prefazione
  • Capitolo VI
  • Enchiridion (capitolo VI)
  • Esercizi (capitolo VI)
  • Civiltà (capitolo VI)
  • Capitolo XI (prima parte)
  • Capitolo XI (seconda parte)
  • Enchiridion (capitolo XI)
  • Esercizi (capitolo XI)
  • Civiltà (capitolo XI)
  • Guida per gl'insegnanti (parte prima)
  • Guida per gl'insegnanti (parte secona)
  • Guida per gl'insegnanti (parte terza)

Material in Other Languages

1. Ukrainian: Ancient Greek Lessons in Ukrainian
2. Japanese: 古典ギリシア語文法
3. Korean: Korean-Ancient Greek dictionary and Ancient Greek material in Korean

Dictionaries

Meta-Dictionaries on the Web

These are portals which provide search results from multiple sources.

1. LSJ.gr (containing English, French, Spanish, Russian, Modern Greek translations as well as Woodhouse's English to Ancient Greek dictionary in a wiki format with full, diacritics-insensitive text search)
2. Logeion University of Chicago multiple dictionary (and corpus) lookup tool
3. Eulexis Includes the big Bailly and an ancient Greek lemmatiser/inflection tool.
4. Lexilogos Dictionaries Search forms for various dictionaries from a single page and other resources.
5. Index of Ancient Greek Lexica Search for headwords in Hesychius, Photios, Phrynichus, Harpokration, Stephanus of Byzantium, Moeris, Aelius Dionysius, Apollonius' Lexicon Homericum, Orion's Etymologicum, Diogenianus' Paroemiae, Zenobius, Pseudo-Zonaras, LSJ, Logeion, Wiktionary, Words in Progress, the Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, the Suda, the Lexicon αἱμωδεῖν, the Etymologicum Genuinum, the Etymologicum Magnum, the Etymologicum Gudianum, the Δικῶν Ὀνόματα, the Λέξεις Ῥητορικαί, and the Synagoge.

Free PDF Dictionaries

Greek > English

1. An English-Greek Lexicon, C. D. Yonge
2. A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, R.J. Cunliffe
3. A Patristic Greek Lexicon, G. W. H. Lampe
4. A Lexicon to Aeschylus, William Linwood
5. Illustrated Dictionary to Xenophon’s Anabasis, John Williams White
6. A Greek-English School Lexicon, Thomas Dix Hincks
7. Schrevelius' Greek Lexicon, (Ancient Greek <> English)
8. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, William Smith
9. A new Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman partly based upon the Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology by William Smith, Charles Anthon (110 MB)
10. A Lexicon of the Greek Language: For the Use of Colleges and Schools, Rev. John Allen Giles, 1839
11. Greek prose phrase-book based on Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato by H. W. Auden
12. A Glossary of Later and Byzantine Greek, by E. A. Sophocles, 1860

Greek > French

1. Grand Bailly, Dictionnaire Grec Français, 1935, (Ancient Greek > French, revised modern edition published in 2020, free pdf download, 2609 pages, 32 MB)
2. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, Émile Boisacq (1916), 1123 pages
3. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, Pierre Chantraine (1968), 1387 pages
4. Lexique grec français, M. de Mourcin (1834), 697 pages

Greek > Modern Greek

1. Λεξικόν Αρχαίας Ελληνικής Γλώσσης, Ιωάννης Σταματάκος, 1264 σελίδες (σε καθαρεύουσα)
2. Λεξικό αρχαίας ελληνικής γλώσσας α, β, γ, Γυμνασίου, 307 σελίδες, 4 ΜΒ
3. Ετυμολογικό λεξικό αρχαίας ελληνικής γλώσσας, Ευάγγελος Μαντουλίδης, 255 σελίδες, 2 ΜΒ
4. Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της αρχαίας ελληνικής, σε καθαρεύουσα, Johann Baptist Hofmann, Αντώνιος Παπανικολάου (1950), 543 σελίδες, 50 ΜΒ
5. Βασικό λεξιλόγιο αρχαίας ελληνικής (17 σελίδες αρχείο Word)

Greek > German

1. Handwörterbuch der griechischen Sprache, Franz Passow, 1847, 1173 Seiten
2. Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch für den Schulgebrauch: A, B, Valentin Christian Friedrich Rost, 1829, 769 + 704 Seiten
3. Deutsch-griechisches Wörterbuch, Valentin Christian Friedrich Rost, 1829, 908 Seiten

Greek > Swedish

1. Hand-lexikon öfwer grekiska språket

Greek > Romanian

1. Golescu A, B, E,
2. Daniel Bărnuţ, Emeric Hubert, Jozsef Kovâcs New Testament Dictionary
3. Carrez, Morel, Badea New Testament Dictionary, 1991, same from kupdf

Print Dictionaries (not free)

English

1. The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, Franco Montanari, £61.21 or $110 from the US. The English translation of Montanari's Italian dictionary Vocabolario della lingua greca. This is by far the most authoritative and contemporary dictionary of Ancient Greek (the only one which is more recent is the Cambridge Greek Lexicon, see below) with example phrases translated. It brings together 140,000 headwords taken from the literature, papyri, inscriptions and other sources of the archaic period up to the 6th Century CE, and occasionally beyond. Read more about it, access reviews and download a 28 page pdf preview. A Modern Greek version of this title is also available (see below) and a German version is under preparation.
2. Cambridge Greek Lexicon, issued in 2021 in two volumes, hardcover, £59.78 or $84.99 from the US. This is the dictionary that would be recommended for students for its modern lexicographical approach. The editors have re-examined the source material and provided translations in contemporary English. Read more about it.
3. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Bauer, Danker (BDAG). £122 pounds hardback. If you are focused on New Testament Greek, then this would be an available source of reference. Read some reviews.
4. A Greek-English Lexicon, Henry G. Liddell, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones, Roderick McKenzie, P. G. W. Glare; £136 hardcover/£24 paperback or $187 from the US. This is the 1996 edition of the LSJ. The new Revised Supplement is a complete replacement for the 1968 Supplement containing nearly twice the size of the 1968 edition; with over 20,000 entries, it adds to the dictionary words and forms from papyri and inscriptions discovered between 1940 and the 1990s as well as a host of other revisions, updatings, and corrections to the main dictionary.
5. Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Robert Beekes, £88 (paperback version) or $125 from the US. Beekes takes full account of Mycenaean Greek, the best and most updated etymological dictionary of Ancient Greek.

Italian

1. GI - Vocabolario della lingua greca, Franco Montanari, 2013, 140 000 lemmi, 2720 pagine.
2. Vocabolario greco-italiano, Lorenzo Rocci, 2011, 150 000 lemmi (pp. XXVII, 2064).
3. Greco antico. Vocabolario greco-italiano etimologico e ragionato, Renato Romizi, 2007, 38.000 voci, 98.000 traducenti, Zanichelli, 1520 pagine.

German

1. Wörterbuch Griechisch-Deutsch, Franco Montanari, Edited by: Michael Meier-Brügger and Paul Dräger. Franco Montanari's original Italian dictionary adapted for the German language (Planned Publication: October 24, 2022, 2274 pages)

Modern Greek

1. Σύγχρονο λεξικό της αρχαίας ελληνικής γλώσσας, Franco Montanari, Αντώνης Ρεγκάκος. Η εκδοχή του σύγχρονου λεξικού του Montanari στα νέα ελληνικά.

Free Software

1. Diogenes is an environment for reading and searching through texts in Latin and Ancient Greek. It consists of two connected projects, the Diogenes desktop application, which has been in existence for nearly 20 years, and the new DiogenesWeb webapp.
2. Eulexis is a lemmatiser and multi-dictionary reference for Ancient Greek texts

Fora

1. Translatum English to Ancient Greek forum
2. Translatum Ancient Greek to English forum
3. Textkit
4. Biblical Greek forum
5. Ancient Greek forum in Latindiscussion

Other

1. The polytonic project, Polytonic Greek spell checker for Windows, Mac, Linux, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Firefox, automatic accentuator, dictionary (Επίτομο Δημητράκου)
2. Digital Classicist Directory of Classics tools and resources in wiki format
3. Polytonic keyboard driver for Windows, iPad, iPhone
4. Ancient Greek Language support and converters from multiple converters (Beta Code, SPIonic, Sgreek, LaserGreek, GreekKeys to/from Unicode conversion) for LibreOffice / OpenOffice
5. Lexicon of Greek Personal Names Name Search over 35,000 published names (multiple issues with this database: a) non-combined diacritics, ie ῞Αβρων instead of Ἅβρων; b) instead of search results getting something like "59 results would be returned"; c) many "page not found" errors when clicking links of names)