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An Introduction to Greek
By Henry Lamar Crosby, John Nevin Schaeffer Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 2009 Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-12346-2
INTRODUCTION
We are all Greeks. Our lairs, our literature, our religion, our artt have their root in Greece.
If some magic carpet could whisk us back two thousand years or more to ancient Athens, how surprised we should be to see those early Greeks finding their chief delight, just as we do, in sports, fraternities, the theater, music, art, and literature!
In any of the city's playgrounds we should find keen-eyed young men running, jumping, boxing, wrestling, throwing the discus and the javelin with as much zest as ourselves, and perhaps with more skill. Here they sought diversion after the business of the day. Here they trained for the great Olympic Games. An Olympic victor was welcomed home with all the enthusiasm and festivity that attends the winning of a World Series, and his fame was even more enduring.
The Discobolus
The Athenian did not feel it necessary to label his fraternity with Greek letters, as we do, but its interests and activities seemed to him quite as important. He was notably a social animal and held to the motto, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "one man no man."
If our visit to Athens coincided with either of the two great dramatic festivals, we should find the whole city holding holiday. The great Dionysiac Theater seated about 17,000 spectators, and it was thronged all day long for the duration of the theater season. Here were performed some of the finest tragedies and comedies the world has ever known. But plays were not confined to Athens. Wherever Greeks were wont to congregate, they built theaters, even at Epidaurus, which was no town at all, but only a sanatorium.
Music was not only inseparably bound up with drama, it accompanied everything a Greek might do. As a schoolboy, he studied singing and the lyre. As a man, he honored his gods with song and dance. He sang at the banquet board, about the camp fire, or when about to charge the foe.
The arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting were no less honored. Even in their ruins, his public buildings and statues are the inspiration and the despair of modern artists. If his home was humble in comparison and but meagerly equipped when measured by present standards, it was because he found his keenest pleasure in public life. What furnishings he had were beautifully made and tastefully adorned.
Indeed, good taste was the mint mark of both work and play. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "nothing too much," was the rule of life, which kept him from the vulgarity of the "barbarians" all about him, as well as from their extravagances in art.
If he did not devote much time to reading, it was because of his love of the open air. He took the keenest delight in literature, but it was a literature intended to be heard rather than to be read in private. The Greek seems to have invented nearly every form of composition and in none has he been surpassed. The roll of the immortals in the field of literature includes Homer in epic; Sappho and Alcæus in lyric; in drama the great triad, Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; Herodotus, "the Father of History"; Demosthenes, whose name is synonymous with eloquence; Plato and Aristotle in philosophy and science.
The Theater at Epidaurus
This is generally regarded as the most beautiful Greek theater now extant.
The Study of Greek. Not everybody finds it convenient to visit Greece and to admire with his own eyes the visible remnants of Greek art. Too often we must get what we can from photographs or from the imitations all about us. But those of us who wish a first-hand acquaintance with what the Greeks thought and said may find our magic carpet in the study of the language. Translations are but a poor substitute at best and nowhere more disappointing than in the case of poetry, in which the Greek most excelled.
Greek and English. The best Greek is marked by a sense of proportion, by a striving for just the right word to convey the thought, and by a simplicity and directness of expression. With these qualities of good style we shall become familiar. More than that, we shall learn the fundamental meaning of a host of words that otherwise would seem strange and forbidding in the technical terminology of many fields of interest — in art, in science, in politics, and in the church. A distinguished scientist states that "In an experience of more than forty years as a teacher of medical students I easily distinguish among my auditors those who know Greek and those who do not, especially when I use scientific terms, such as 'toxicogenic bacillus' or a 'pathognomonic symptom' I see the eyes of the former fill with the light of comprehension, while those of the latter are closed in ignorance and mystification."
I. The Greek Alphabet, that is, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], English "a-b-c's," is not the smallest item in our indebtedness to Greece. It was adopted by the Romans from their Greek neighbors at Cumæ, west of Naples, and handed on, with but slight modifications, to general European use.
Note that (a) [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] are sometimes long and sometimes short. When long, they will be marked [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], unless they bear the circumflex accent () which in itself indicates a long vowel: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
(b) Gamma is always hard. Before κ, γ or χ it is pronounced ng: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
(c) Sigma is written ζ at the end of words; elsewhere σ: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
(d) Consonants are commonly classified as follows:
Mutes: 1. labial —π, β, φ; 2. guttural or palatal — κ, γ, χ; 3. dental or lingual — τ, δ, θ.
Liquids: λ, μ, v, ρ.
Sibilant: or, s. Double Consonants: ζ, [xi], ψ.
(e) The following table will be found useful for reference.
In this table the mutes are grouped horizontally into classes (cognates) according to the organ of speech most prominent in their production, and vertically into orders (coordinates) according to the amount of force involved in their utterance. The significance of this grouping will become manifest in the study of inflection, each group having distinctive habits.
II. Diphthongs ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) represent the union of two vowels in one syllable. The second vowel is always either ι or υ.
When a long vowel combines with iota, it forms an improper diphthong, the iota no longer affecting the sound. If the vowel to which it is attached is a capital, the iota is placed on the same line; otherwise it is placed beneath the letter to which it belongs and is called iota subscript: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
III. Breathings, (a) The Athenians originally employed H as in English. When they adopted the Ionic alphabet, in which H was ITLηITL, it became necessary to invent a new symbol to take its place. That symbol (') is called the rough breathing. Words beginning with a vowel or diphthong without the h-sound receive the smooth breathing (').
(b) The sign of breathing precedes a capital but is placed above a small letter. In the case of a diphthong, the breathing is placed above the second member, unless the diphthong is improper: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] but [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
(c) Words beginning with ITLρITL (ρ) have the rough breathing.
(d) The rough breathing originally accompanied φ, χ and θ, which are therefore called the "rough" forms of π, β; κ, γ: and τ, δ, respectively. See above I, e.
(e) When in inflection a voiced or voiceless labial or palatal immediately precedes the aspirate θ of the ending, it is "roughened" to its corresponding aspirate.
IV. Syllables, (a) Every Greek word has as many syllables as it has vowels or diphthongs. There are no silent letters other than iota subscript.
(b) The final syllable is called ultima; the syllable preceding the ultima is called penult; the syllable preceding the penult is called antepenult.
(c) In dividing words into syllables, place with the following vowel or diphthong a single consonant or such combinations of consonants as can be pronounced together at the beginning of a word: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. But compound words, the first element of which is a preposition or [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], are divided at the point of union: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
V. Accent, (a) A knowledge of quantity is essential in determining accent. A syllable is long by nature when it has a long vowel or a diphthong. The vowels η and ω are always long; ε and o are always short; the others are some times short and sometimes long (§1, a). The diphthongs αι and oι, when final, except in the optative and in the one word [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], are regarded as short in determining accent.
(b) There are three accents — acute ('), grave (µ), and circumflex ([??]). They do not affect the pronunciation, but they obey very strict laws and are at times the sole means of distinguishing between words otherwise identical in appearance: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
The acute may stand only on one of the last three syllables of a word, the circumflex only on one of the last two, and the grave only on the last.
(d) The circumflex may stand only on a long vowel or a diphthong. Therefore, if a vowel has the circumflex accent, no other mark is needed to show that the vowel is long: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Cyrus, but [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] of Cyrus.
(e) An accented antepenult takes the acute; but it must not have an accent if the last syllable is long by nature or ends in [xi] or ψ: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] man, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] of a man.
(f) An accented penult takes the circumflex if it is long by nature and the last syllable is short; otherwise, the acute: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], but [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] of a gift, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] word.
(g) An accented ultima, if short, takes the acute; if long, the acute or the circumflex: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] river, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] of rivers, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] rivers.
(h) An ultima that normally has an acute changes the acute to the grave when another word immediately follows without intervening punctuation: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] river, but [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], beautiful river.
(i) A proclitic is a monosyllable that has no accent and is pronounced with the word that follows: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] the man.
(j) An enclitic is a word that is pronounced with the preceding word and usually lacks an accent of its own: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Latin hominesque). Enclitics are treated more fully in § 95.
VI. Inflection: Greek is a highly inflected language. It has three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), three numbers (singular, dual, and plural), and three declensions (called from their steins the α-declension, the o-declension, and the consonant declension).
The Greek verb has three voices (active, middle, and passive), four moods (indicative, subjunctive, optative, and imperative) and seven tenses (present, imperfect, future, aorist, perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect). The present, future, perfect, and future perfect are called the primary tenses; the imperfect, aorist, and pluperfect are called the secondary tenses. The tenses are also divided into classes or systems according to their stems. Each system is composed of the tenses which have a common stem.
The Plunge Pool at Delphi
This bath is a part of the equipment of the ancient gymnasium. (For a picture of the gymnasium, see Page 295.)
EXERCISES
(a) Pronounce the Greek words of §§ I -II, stressing each syllable that bears an accent; then write in English letters.
(b) Write in Greek letters: nemesis, asbestos, chaos, rhododendron, hydrophobia, diploma, zone, Demosthenes, Orion, Xerxes, Ionia.
(c) Accent the penult: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (optative mood), [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (noun). Accent the antepenult, in the quantity of the ultima permits: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (noun), [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (optative mood), [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
(d) Mark the length of the ultima: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life; and ...
The picture at the top of the page shows the opening lines of the gospel according to St. John, from a manuscript written 800 years ago. There are some variations from the letter forms you will study, for handwriting changes very rapidly. The same lines are given in modern Greek type directly below. These are followed by the King James Translation.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from An Introduction to Greek by Henry Lamar Crosby, John Nevin Schaeffer. Copyright © 2009 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
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