Instructor: Prof. Ray Lahiri
Student Hours: Wednesday, 3-5pm in Denny M262A
Course Description:
This accelerated introduction to Ancient Greek exposes you to the social, cultural, and intellectual worlds of the ancient Greeks through one of the closest lenses: their own language. In this course, you will master the Greek alphabet and build confidence and facility with the elements of Greek grammar: forming and identifying nouns, adjectives and verbs, and learning to translate and analyze short passages in Greek.
Learning ancient Greek, you will explore a long and fascinating period of history, delving into works that—across the world and for thousands of years—readers have studied, debated, and reimagined.
In this course, we will cover Chapters 1-34 of Anne Groton’s Alpha to Omega. After this course, you will be amply prepared to enter Greek 103 and thereby complete the elementary Greek sequence.
If you need an add code, please write to Prof. Lahiri at ralahiri@uw.edu. I am happy to provide you with one.
Required textbooks:
Anne Groton, From Alpha to Omega (4th ed.; ISBN-13: 978-1585103911)
Anne Groton and James May, 46 Stories in Classical Greek (ISBN-13: 978-1585106318)
Recommended:
Robert Mondi and Peter L. Corrigan, A Student Handbook of Greek and English Grammar (978-1-62466-036-8) -- if you have not studied grammar before, this will provide an overview of English grammar geared towards learners of ancient Greek.
Note that you can apply to the Classics Undergraduate Textbook Fund to defray the costs of required textbooks in elementary Greek (such as this course). You need not be a Classics major or minor. For more information, see here: (https://classics.washington.edu/undergraduate-textbook-fund)
Course Schedule:
Week 1: First Elements (Lessons 1-3)
Goals: By the end of this week, you will be able to:
- Write and read the Greek alphabet
- Briefly describe the relationship between Ancient Greek and modern English
- Explain the different “parts of speech” in ancient Greek and modern English
- Conjugate the “Present Active Indicative” of -Ω verbs (and know what that means)
Wednesday, 1/8: By Wednesday, you must complete the Syllabus Quiz (on Canvas)
Friday, 1/10: At home: Vocab Quiz 1 covering Lesson 3
Week 2: Introduction to all “things,” and the future (Lessons 4-7)
Goals: By the end of this week, you will be able to:
- Write and read the Greek alphabet with relative ease
- Apply the basic principles of accentuation
- Explain the basic significance of the different cases of the Greek noun
- Conjugate the “Future Active Indicative” (and know what that means)
- Decline feminine nouns of the 1st declension and masculine nouns of the 2nd declension (and know what that means)
Friday, 1/17: Quiz 1 (in class, through Lesson 7)
Week 3: From “she was teaching” to “she was educating” (Lessons 8-11)
Goals: By the end of this week, you will be able to:
- Write and read the Greek alphabet with familiarity
- Explain what an adjective is and its relationship with nouns
- Decline 2nd declension neuter nouns and 1st declension masculine nouns
- Conjugate the imperfect active indicative (and know what that means)
- Distinguish between “primary” and “secondary” verbal endings of the active
- Distinguish between active, middle, and passive voice (and know what that means)
Monday, 1/20: No class (MLK Jr. Day)
Friday, 1/24: At home: Vocab Quiz 2 (through lesson 10)
Week 4: Now you know who you are (Lessons 12-14)
Goals: By the end of this week, you will be able to:
- Write and read the Greek alphabet with total confidence
- Conjugate -Ω verbs in the active, middle, and passive indicative in all tenses of the present system (wow!)
- Explain what an athematic verb is
- Add the rules of enclitics to your accentuation toolkit
- Decline, deploy, and distinguish the different forms of demonstrative and personal pronouns
Friday, 1/31: Quiz 2 (in class)
Week 5: Euphonic combinations and doing things simply (Lessons 15-18)
Goals: By the end of this week, you will be able to:
- Understand what we mean when we say “euphonic combination”
- Apply the rules of “euphonic combination” as they apply to contract verbs and consonant stem 3rd declension nouns
- Identify and form the active indicative of verbs with a sigmatic aorist.
- Explain the difference between the aorist and the imperfect
Friday, 2/7: At home: Vocab Quiz 3
Week 6: Whodunnit? The past unfolds (Lessons 19-21)
Goals: By the end of this week, you will be able to:
- Conjugate the second aorist
- Conjugate the perfect and pluperfect active indicatives and explain their significance
- Distinguish between and use τίς and τις in all their forms
- Appreciate how much Greek you have learned since week 1
Friday, 2/14: Quiz 3 (through Lesson 21)
Week 7: The gateway to all “being” (Lessons 22-25)
Goals: By the end of this week, you will be able to:
- Conjugative the middle/passive of the perfect and pluperfect
- Explain what a relative clause is
- Form the participles of the present, future, aorist, and perfect
- Analyze how participles are like and unlike English participles and gerunds
Monday, 2/17: No class (Presidents' Day)
Friday, 2/21: At home Vocab Quiz 4:
Week 8: Now I know what the 6th principal part does (Lessons 26-7)
Goals: By the end of this week, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate how direct and indirect questions differ
- Transform direct questions to indirect questions and vice versa
- Form and use the aorist passive
Friday, 2/28: At home: Vocab Quiz 5
Week 9: Nobody knows the unifying theme (Lessons 28-31)
Goals: By the end of this week, you will be able to:
- Form and use the future passive and future perfect tenses
- Decline 3rd declension vowel-stem nouns
- Finally discuss mothers, fathers, and sisters in Greek
- Explain the formation of adverbs in Greek
- Use the genitive absolute
Friday, 3/7: Quiz 4 (through lesson 31)
Week 10: Distinction, quantification, and counting (Lessons 32-34)
Goals: By the end of this week, you will be able to:
- Form and use the comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives
- Identify Greek numerals
- Review the general outline of Greek grammar and what you have learned
- Propose a final project
Friday, 3/14: At home, Vocab Quiz 6