Introductory Courses

If you want to follow an introductory course in ancient Greek on the Web, there is already a plethora of possibilities. However, a number of the websites listed here do not present a complete course, but only a selection of course materials. Some of them are even meant as an on-line supplement to a handbook such as Athenaze or Mounce’s Basics of biblical Greek and may be of limited use for the internet student lacking the printed material. Other websites describe actual courses, of which only a small part has been put on-line. Therefore, after dividing the courses by language area, I have taken care to put the most complete and the most useful sites first.

English and American sites:

A Digital Tutorial For Ancient Greek.

This truly digital introductory course based on John William White's First Greek Book (originally published in 1896) is designed by Prof. Jeff Rydberg-Cox (Classical and Ancient Studies Program, University of Missouri-Kansas City).

This digital tutorial is an evolving edition that is designed to run on both traditional browsers, tablet devices, and phones. Each lesson includes drill and practice exercises in addition to the text itself. The site also includes tab-delimited files for all of the vocabulary and grammar that can be imported into flashcard programs.

The site contains both a powerpoint-presentation and a preprint of a journal article underpinning the methods used and discussing future steps.

Teach yourself Ancient Greek: Review is forthcoming.

Ancient Greek with Thrasymachus

(by Ann Thomas Wilkins from Duquesne University’s Department of Classics and Alison W. Barker, teacher of Latin and Ancient Greek at St. Paul’s School): these extensive and accurate notes are meant to be used with the textbook Thrasymachus by C. W. E. Peckett and A. R. Munday (initially published in 1965, first published by Bristol Classical Press in 1984 and reprinted in 1990). They consist of an introduction in which the authors explain their didactic approach and of 32 sections corresponding with the 32 chapters of the handbook. Their choice of Thrasymachus results from their appreciation of the method of reading Greek texts from the very beginning, thus requiring students to learn grammar and vocabulary in context. The supplement has been designed to explicate and reinforce the material presented in Thrasymachus, especially for the growing number of students who have begun their study of Greek without prior work in Latin or whose knowledge of English grammar is often less than thorough. So many comments focus on the parallels and differences between English and Greek grammar, but the online materials also include a great number of useful exercises. In these 32 sections nearly all of the basic morphology is dealt with but also some important syntactical topics, such as the various uses of the moods and the tenses, clauses of result and purpose, indirect speech etc. All this is orderly presented and the Greek is almost impeccable, except for some accentuation mistakes. To view the Greek characters, you must have installed the SPIonic font.

Greek Course Athenaze: Study Aids

These pages which can either be consulted online or downloaded as three exe-files are meant to be used with the textbook //Athenaze. They contain English translations and plot summaries of the Greek texts in //Athenaze, additional examples and explanations and many interesting tips for a gradual language acquisition. The Portuguese author of these course notes combines a good knowledge of Ancient Greek with an admirable didactic skill, connecting language learning with real life experience by vizualisation. In addition, the site offers some more systematic pages on specific grammatical topics, among others on accentuation, on the imperatives and on the declension of the nouns. All this is presented in a clear and attractive way and for the Greek characters the SPIonic font has been chosen. The only disadvantage is that for the moment this site is still heavily under construction and that the notes are still very incomplete. Let’s hope the webmaster finds the time and energy to add similar study aids to the many remaining lessons in Athenaze.

Classical Greek Online

This website, developed by Winfred P. Lehmann and Jonathan Slocum at University of Austin (Texas), offers a concise grammar as well as small text samples of the following authors and works: Thucydides (History of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, Book 1), Homer (Iliad and Odyssey), Herodotus (History, Book 1, 4); Xenophon (Anabasis), Hesiod (Works and Days), Plato (Republic, 6), Aristotle (Poetics, book 4), Pausanias (Description of Greece, Attica, 22: 4-5). Each sentence is entirely analyzed.

NTGreek.net, New Testament Greek Grammar Course

(by Jeff Smelser): these two courses are certainly among the best New Testament Greek online courses. You have to register and to pay a fee if you need feedback, assistance and evaluations by the instructor, but all the lessons and assignments can be accessed freely. The nine lessons of the first course cover the alphabet, accents, punctuation and pronunciation as well as the morphology of the article, pronouns, nouns (only the first and second declension) and verbs (only the present and future indicitave of the regular verbs). At the same time some elements of syntax are dealt with, such as the attributive and predicate positions and the use of the prepositions and of &# 8005;τι. The past tenses and the third declension are reserved for the second course. The presentation of grammar is accurate and completely devoid of the superficiality that is often characteristic of such introductory courses; by several examples and remarks Smelser shows that he is well-versed in New Testament Greek. Moreover, the site is well organized from a didactic point of view and the explanations are clear and detailed - sometimes accompanied by audio-files - and therefore very useful for the student without any face to face instruction. In order to view the Greek on these pages, you will need to obtain and install SGreek.

Little Greek

(by Jonathan Robie): on this page, you find a very elementary online textbook for learning the basics of New Testament Greek: Little Greek 101. "A Little Greek", the author explains, "is someone who is still learning Greek", and accordingly he has made his tutorial very ’little’ as well: it starts with the alphabet, explains the most simple grammatical categories (e.g. what is a pronoun?) and only contains 6 chapters dealing with the most elementary grammar: apart from the alphabet, this includes the present active indicative of some current verbs (models βλέπω, φιλέω, εἰμί), the article, the most frequent pronouns and only the second declension of the nouns. Although Robie admits that he has learned Greek himself as an autodidact and his Greek contains the expected orthographic and accentuation errors, it should be recognized that his pages are worth visiting from a didactic point of view. For example the lesson on the Greek alphabet does not only list all the characters but also shows how each individual letter should be formed, and explains how they should be pronounced. To illustrate this the first five verses of the gospel of John have been divided into small units: by clicking on a unit you hear the right pronunciation (but not as clearly articulated as in Mastronarde’s tutorial). The Greek is presented in GIF-format, so that that yo do not have to download any font. So Robie has done his best to make his course accessible for anybody, and for those who are not fully satisfied with the attained level he has consolatory words, with which he excuses both himself and his ignorant pupils: "Most Greek grammars say a few things that are completely wrong, and most noted authorities on the Greek language have said at least one stupid thing. … Each of us knows only in part; if we want to profit by studying Greek, we must have the humility and the patience to learn one step at a time, to be corrected by others, and be open to the Spirit who guides us in all truth": isn’t that a great emotional support for all ’little Greeks’ all over the world?

The Basics of Biblical Greek

Home site of a first year Greek textbook by 1 Bill Mounce. Various interesting materials are presented here: audio-files of some of the lectures, additional exercises, answer sheets for teachers and a pdf-file with a 35 page summary of chapters 1-25 of the textbook. By way of example I present here the sample lecture on Third Declension Nouns (chapter 10) : this is part of the complete audio course, consisting of 18 audio cassettes with 33 lectures ranging approximately between 20 and 30 minutes that can be purchased at Teknia. This sample lecture is freely accessible and contains a quite extensive treatment of the third declension: for listening you only need Quicktime 3 (or higher) and to view the corresponding Greek text you must have the Mounce font installed. The experience may be recommended to anyone who has to teach Greek himself, because Mounce combines a thorough mastery of the language with great didactic ability. In relatively simple language he manages to further insight into the paradigms by adding some notions of phonetics and historical grammar and explains how to recognize and analyze the forms easily. Only his pronunciation of the Greek is in my opinion a bit too ’American’ and is certainly of inferior quality to what can be heard on the Mastronarde tutorials.

GREK 1331/3331: Ancient and Biblical Greek, GREK 1332/3332: Ancient and Biblical Greek: second semester, Ancient and Biblical Greek: third semester and Ancient and Biblical Greek: fourth semester

(by Prof. Dora Pozzi of the University of Houston): these two sequences of online Greek courses (1331/1332 and 3331/3332) aim at the acquisition of fundamental translation skills in ancient and/or biblical Greek. The 35 lessons that are presented online for the moment cover important parts of elementary grammar and are not limited to morphology: apart from the declensions of substantives, adjectives and pronouns as well as the most common verbal forms, some elements of syntax are explained, such as the use of the cases, the tenses and the expression of indirect statements and the construction of adverbial and relative clauses. Moreover,the syllabus of the fourth semester contains some original Greek reading texts, taken from Diodorus, Plato, Theoprastus, the Septuagint and Demosthenes. The instuctor has a rather personal approach but I found no mistakes and the user has access to several interactive drills. All Greek text is displayed with the SPionic font.

New Testament Greek

(by Michael Haggett): from a didactic point of view this is again a very attractive introductory course, but it’s a pity that the full course is only available as an interactive CD-ROM, which you have to order directly from the author. However, Haggett is generous enough to offer at least the most elementary materials in his online-version. The sections on the alphabet, punctuation and diacritical signs are freely accessible, as well as the most common paradigms of nouns, pronouns and verbs. There is also a ’Grammar supplement’, where the basic grammatical categories and parts of speech are explained and illustrated with examples in English. This way, even the most ignorant students and those who abhor grammar can be initiated in the original language of the New Testament. But what the author tells us on his page on breathings, accents and subscripts is extremely naive and his interpretation of the double dot on the iota in ancient manuscripts as a sign for a rough breathing is simply wrong. Perhaps, then, his decision to show all Greek words without accents or iota subscripts is to be applauded rather than deplored! All texts are displayed with Unicode and the visual presentation of the whole course is excellent.

Greek Lessons

(by Clyde Wilton): here Pastor Wilton presents the text of his introductory New Testament Greek course, divided in 30 chapters. The course encompasses the alphabet, all the most essential morphology and some elementary notions of syntax such as the aspect of the aorist tense. Wilton promises that the student who finishes this course will be able to read the first chapter of the Gospel of John in Greek. To view the Greek you need the "Bwgrkl" True Type Font, which can be downloaded from Bibleworks Fonts. The whole is well done but focuses exclusively on the New Testament.

Matt’s Classical Resources: Greek Grammar Review

(by Matthew C. Steenberg): this Russian-American student of St Olaf College (Minnesota), who wants to become an orthodox priest and is now a doctoral researcher at Oxford, has designed these pages as a complement to Anne Groton’s handbook: From Alpha to Omega: A Beginning Course in Classical Greek (Focus Publishing, 1995). They primarily consist of "review summaries" and conjugation/declension charts for the materials covered in each chapter. These materials encompass the alphabet (with nice separate charts of the vowels and the stops), the accents, interrogative and indefinite &# 964;ις the article, the contraction rules, the present participle of εἰμί and the endings of the first declension nouns and of some verbal forms (indicative present, active perfect/pluperfect, imperative present, participle). All this is presented in an intelligent way and the Greek, which is represented here by means of the Symbol font and of JPEG-files, is almost flawless.

Elementary Greek

(by Jim West): this website offers on-line 31 lessons, aiming at giving students the ability to read simple sentences. West warns his students that completion of this course will not make them experts in Greek, and he is right to do so: not only does the course focus exclusively on New Testament Greek, but, compared with the 31 lessons of Mehr’s course, the lessons are very short and, although they go through most of the basic morphology, are limited to the most elementary notions. West uses the SPIonic font but does not write accents and very often omits iota subscriptum too. Although real mistakes are quite rare (the letters χ and ξ are often interchanged), the whole presentation suffers from oversimplification. The most original contribution of this site, then, is certainly the wise advice West has in store for his students: "Take one step at a time, do not move to the next lesson until you are certain that you have mastered all of the previous ones, and remember that learning Greek is like washing an Elephant: it can only be done one spot at a time, but eventually you will finish the whole thing!". However, to finish the whole ’elephant’, much more is needed than these 31 lessons!

Enchiridion: a User-Friendly Guide for Reading Ancient Greek

(by Elaine Woodward and Marianne Pagos). This is a www-version of a manual in elementary Greek used by teachers from the Boston Latin School. The whole handbook is simply reproduced here by means of graphics (JPEG-files), which does not make it particularly attractive or user-friendly - in spite of the title! - but has the advantage of making a Greek font superfluous. It consists of 13 chapters, followed by reading exercises, a glossary and some charts (with the prepositions and the principal parts of the irregular verbs). Each chapter deals with one or more grammatical topics (starting with the alphabet), but also contains an etymology section (deriving English words from a specific Greek root) and a mythology section, in which an English text is followed by a similar narrative in simple Greek prose. The grammatical sections try to present the morphology in the most simple way and to give the pupils the essential means to recognize the forms or to search for them in a dictionary. But the 13 reading exercises are mere extracts from the Iliad, without any explanatory notes or translation: one wonders how these pupils cope with such texts after this very elementary course in which the grammar is mainly that of classical Attic Greek. In the preface the authors write that those who intend to become classical scholars would better put their book down immediately; instead they want to help their students to learn how to read Greek texts. However, I doubt whether they will ever reach this second goal. This is an honest attempt to make Ancient Greek attractive for present day American pupils but one that should not become exemplary: in fact the authors cheat their audience by suggesting that memorization is superfluous since they only aim at a passive knowledge of the language, the truth being that even the reading of Greek texts requires much training and memorization. Moreover, they give themselves a bad example by writing the most horrific Greek prose in their mythological narratives(e.g. &# 959;ἱ θεοὶ ἐν τῇ Ἰλιάδι καί εἰσιν. Ζεὺς μὲν τοὺς οὐρανὸυς κρατεῖ, ἀλλὰ δὲ τὰς θαλάσσας οὐ κρατεῖ).

The Greek Resources Page

(by Fritz Hinrichs): on this page, Fritz Hinrichs, who teaches classical literature and mathematics on the internet for homeschoolers, presents the Greek alphabet and some basic paradigms, viz. the article, the verb &# 949;ἰμί, the personal pronouns and the most current verbal endings (only active indicative present, imperfect and future). I doubt whether the added chants, which can be easily downloaded, are of any didactic use, the more so as some of them are almost inaudible by a terrible cracking noise. Most Greek characters can be viewed as GIF-files, but some of them require the installation of Greek.ttf from Biblescript fonts.

Elpenor-Learning Greek

This site offers a wide selection of course materials. It deals with the alphabet (including its history, accentuation, writing and pronunciation), the declension of words, the formation of the Greek verb, voices and tenses, prepositions, etc. All this however is presented quite disorderly: in one single running text each lesson deals with the most various subjects (e.g. background on Homer, commentary on Iliad and Odyssey, grammar, etc.). Furthermore you’ll find on this website a Greek-English interlinear Iliad (PDF), an outline of Greek grammar by James Strong (designed for beginners in the New Testament) and an elaborate library of bilingual texts (Greek-English). This website promotes the idea of beginning Greek with the reading of Homer.

Learning New Testament Greek

(by Corey Keating): the ambition of these pages, as Keating makes clear in his introduction, is to use the Greek grammar to illuminate passages of the New Testament. Therefore the author bypasses the memorization of the paradigms and long vocabulary lists, which he calls ’perfunctory basics’, and which too often discourage the students. So this website (to view the Greek download the Mounce font) does not offer any morphology but only deals with a selection of syntactical topics - in fact only the chapters on the use of the cases (except for the accusative which is still ’under construction’!) and of the subjunctive mood are worth reading. Keating wants to show directly "how many hard-to-understand passages are cleared up by understanding Greek syntax (even if you don’t yet know what syntax is)". The consequences of this peculiar didactic method are apparent from a question of one of his students about John 1:1: since he does not understand the difference between θεός and the inflected form θεόν he thinks that two different words have been used, suspecting far-reaching theological implications! But perhaps there is no problem here, as long as these students have the discipline to accept their teacher’s guidance, who of course gives them the right answer and reveals the truth about God’s word. As Bill Freeman puts it in "The Value of Learning Greek", a short essay included in this website: "I would like to present a few points regarding the value of learning Greek. First, the learning process itself requires DISCIPLINE. This is an important factor in serving the Lord. The Lord uses disciplined people whose diligence has been proved in accomplishing tasks. To learn Greek well requires a disciplined and diligent life, and in the long run this kind of life will mold a character that can be used by God." In such a lofty perspective why would we keep quibbling about grammatical minutiae such as the most elementary paradigms?

Resources for Studying Greek (or here) †

(click on ’Supplementary Materials’) (by Lorin Cranford): this is an interesting set of resources for studying koinè Greek, in a very attractive Adobe Acrobat format: it includes conjugation tables of verbs and verbals, a chart with the contract verbs and the rules of contraction, declining tables of nouns, adjectives and pronouns, the general rules of accenting Greek verbs along with illustrations, a classification of sentences and subordinate clauses. Most of these resources can be used for the study of classical Greek as well. But the student should be warned: unfortunately there are many spelling and accentuation mistakes, even in the examples illustrating the accentuation rules (e.g. &# 947;λῶσσης, ἀπόστολλοι).

Very Short Greek Grammar

(by John White): this five page document in Adobe Acrobat format is certainly ’very short’ but does not deserve the title ’Greek grammar’. It only offers the most basic information on the tenses and the moods of the verbs and on the cases of the nouns, but the author has added some useful tips and examples to help you avoid trouble with the interpretation of the different tenses and of various kinds of conditional sentences. The information is obtained from W.H. Davis, Beginner’s Grammar of the Greek New Testament and H.E. Dana and J.R. Mantey,// A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament//. The rare Greek words quoted teem with mistakes.

Bible Food for Hungry Christians: Basic interpretation of New Testament Greek and "Insights" from the New Testament Greek

(by Bob Jones): the former section presents some diverse materials, mostly taken from A Collection of Koine Greek Study Notes by R.T. Jones III and consisting of a list of grammatical terms, a chart illustrating the use of the Greek Prepositions, and some notes on the use of the Greek article and on the constructions and meanings of conditional sentences. The ’Insights’-section partly resumes the same materials and illustrates their importance for the interpretation of the New Testament: topics that are dealt with here include the use of the Greek tenses, the absence and presence of the article and its semantic implications in several typical contexts, the different kinds of conditional sentences, the exact meanings of the prepositions and of other Greek words, especially the nuances of near synonyms. All these notes are rather unsystematic and sometimes lacking in scholarly accuracy, but they are certainly useful for anyone who wants to read and interpret the text of the New Testament by himself. All through the site Greek words are transliterated.

German sites:

Sprachkurs für Altgriechisch

(by E. Gottwein, based on the Griechisches Übungsbuch by Dr. Gerhard Salomon): the aim of this website is a gradual yet quite comprehensive introduction into the morphology and elementary syntax (including subordinate clauses) of ancient Greek by means of 100 lessons, each set up in the same way: first some Greek sentences with German translation as entry, then grammatical tables and rules, next exercises on this grammar, and finally a list of vocabulary used in that lesson.

Altgriechisch fuer Liebhaber, Ein Einfuehrungskurs

(by Franz Josef Mehr from Sao Paulo): this is a course I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn Greek (and understands some German). It consists of 31 lessons, each of which deals with a grammatical item coupled with exercises on this item, a short extract from the Anabasis of Xenophon with a literal and a free translation and with explanatory notes on vocabulary and grammar. Except for the alphabet no knowledge of Greek is presupposed, and although Mehr focuses on classical Greek he quotes many examples from the New Testament too because of its relatively simple language. To view the Greek characters on your screen, you must have installed the SPIonic font. The presentation is attractive, spelling and accentuation mistakes are quite rare (e.g. in lesson 31: τέθνεκεν instead of τέθνηκεν) and the whole is accompanied by a useful alphabetical index ("Stichwortverzeichnis") on a separate webpage. During this course most elements of Greek morphology and even some elementary syntax are being conveyed in a sensitive and relaxed way. Mehr’s didactic ability includes a humoristic and ironical touch: this may be illustrated by the way he recommends his own course in the first lesson: "Wenn Sie aber zu den Personen gehören, die im Internet herumschlürfen, so haben Sie bestimmt viel Zeit. Nutzen Sie diese Zeit, und lernen Sie ein paar Vokabeln zusammen mit ein wenig Grammatik. Es lohnt sich bestimmt für Sie. Wenn Sie dann einmal pensioniert sind, können Sie alle griechischen Klassiker lesen, die Sie im Internet finden!"

Christian Kreienbühls Latein und Altgriechisch Page

This excellent website made by a Swiss 19-year-old student (from Rüti) contains some interesting material for the study of ancient Greek: a brief presentation of the alphabet, a chapter on the history of the Greek language, a downloadable Word-document of about 20 pages with some paradigms of Greek morphology and a page on historical phonetics ("Lautgesetze"). This last page contains some rules and illustrations on dissimilation of aspiration, contraction, elision, qualitative and quantitative Ablaut, compensatory lengthening of vowels, etc.: this is unique in www and very valuable as it makes descriptive grammatical rules more intelligible. Therefore it is to be applauded that Kreienbühl is referring again to some of these historical aspects in his document on Greek grammar: here are presented the declensions of the three classes of substantives, of the article and of some adjectives and pronouns, as well as the conjugations (only the Active Indicative Present, Imperfect and Aorist forms) of the thematic (or w-) and athematic (or mi-) verbs. All this, however, is rather unsystematic and seems to be meant as a supplement to a handbook which is unknown to me, and the practical use of this document is also hindered by its mingling of Attic and Ionic (Homeric) Greek. To view the Greek characters both in this document and in the website as a whole the font Greek.ttf is needed.

Ordner für den Sprachunterricht

(by Theo Wirth): on this site of Swisseduc, a Swiss platform for the exchange of didactic resources in secondary schools, Dr. Wirth, who teaches didactics in ancient languages at the University of Zürich, presents this supplement to Kantharos //(by Ellinger Winfried, Stuttgart 1982), a handbook for teaching Greek in high schools. The //Ordner, which can be downloaded as a whole as a set of PDF- or RTF-documents, deals with the essentials of Greek morphology and syntax in a somewhat more systematic way than in this handbook. However, since all this is divided in 45 lessons and follows the structure of Kantharos, most of the material is unsuited for use without the handbook, except for a limited number of exercises and some very interesting and apparently faultless charts ("Übersichtsblättern") on specific topics: the correlative pronouns and adverbs, the prepositions and the use of the moods in independent and dependent phrases. Apart from this, some "Arbeitsblätter", dealing with specific grammatical topics, contain sections to be filled out by the teacher or by the students (some of them with hidden text). For viewing and printing the Greek, a font called Xanthippe is needed, which can be downloaded from the same site.

Schnupperkurs griechisch

(by Peter Hemetsberger): this attractive introductory online course has been realized by a teacher at a Gymnasium in Ried (Austria). As the title suggests it only aims at a first acquaintance with the language and is limited to the most elementary notions of vocabulary, phonology and morphology. Hemetsberger successively deals with the alphabet (including its origins, problems of pronunciation, breathings, accentuation and punctuation marks), the conjugation of the regular verbs (only Indicative Active Present) and of &# 949;ἰμί, the declension of the article and of the substantives (only the first and second declension). All this is presented in a faultless way and with complete paradigms. Besides, the theory is illustrated with some very simple reading texts (two fables on the ass and the horse) and with interactive exercises. The Greek characters have been created partly with the help of GIF-files and partly with the SPIonic and SGreek fonts.

Some other important German websites are discussed under the heading 'Systematic grammar: Morphology and Syntax'

French sites

Grec: Présentation du cours

(by Alessandra Lukinovich): three lessons from an online course in New Testament Greek based on a Greek grammar by A. Lukinovich and M. Rousset, Grammaire de grec ancien, Genève, 1989. The first lesson mainly deals with the alphabet, the pronunciation of each letter, accents and punctuation marks. The two other lessons contain a part on systematic grammar, with supplements to the grammar book, and another part with simple authentic phrases from the New Testament, provided with extensive comments on grammar and vocabulary and with links to audio-files with the correct translation and pronunciation. To view the Greek characters you need the SPIonic font and with //Real Audio //you can listen to the pronunciation of letters and phrases.

OIDIPUS (or here)

(by J.-L. Hazaël-Massieux): this French website contains a very elementary course on Ancient Greek. The lessons only include the alphabet (with accents and spirits) and the right pronunciation, some basic explanations on the cases, the article and the models of the first and second declensions of the substantives. For each letter you can listen to the pronunciation of a model word (done with WAV-files, but not particularly clear). Apart from this there are some short vocabulary lists and some interactive exercises. The whole course focuses on classical Greek - the only reading text is a hypothesis of Demosthenes’ Against Aphobus - and is professionally done: I have not found any errors and it has a nice design, using a Greek font which you can view directly on your screen without having to install it! However, it only works with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x (or higher), not with Netscape.

Hellénis’TIC

On this website Mireille de Biasi and Véronique Drujon (Académie de Clermont-Ferrand) offer some useful course materials for beginners. The course itself consists of six parts: lire et écrire l’alphabet grec, école et écoliers, religion et mythologie (Zeus), les jeux olympiques dans l’antiquité, l’Odyssée et le genre de l’épopée and finally société athénienne et démocratie. Each topic thus deals with one specific theme, including texts, grammatical exercises, lists of vocabulary, etc. Furthermore you’ll find on this site some handy schemes to memorize the most important principles of the Greek language, geographic maps of the Greek world, interesting links , etc. To view the Greek characters you must have installed the SPIonic font.

Italian sites

Latin American sites (Portuguese, Spanish)

Japanese and Korean sites:

First step to the ancient Greek

(by Makoto Sasaki): on his homepage this radiologist from the Iwate Medical University (Morioka, located in the northeast of Japan) presents a neat introduction in English to the basics of ancient Greek as a help for his colleagues to understand scientific medical terminology. In several pages he treats the alphabet (including breathings and accents), the declension of the main categories of substantives, the declension of the article and the conjugation (only the Active Indicative Present) of the thematic and athematic verbs. The vocabulary and the examples are adapted to the intended audience: as declension models are chosen κεφαλή, νεφρός and ὀστέον, φλέψ and στόμα! The Greek is presented in very attractive GIF-files, which can be seen on any computer screen, and is almost flawless apart from some accentuation errors and one big mistake: the 3rd person singular of ἵστημι is not ἵστητε but ἵστησι! It’s only a pity that Makoto Sasaki has not been able so far to complete his course by adding the chapters announced already in the table of contents.

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