Introducing Ancient Greek

Have you ever wanted to read the works of the Ancient Greek writers, historians and thinkers in their original language?

This course will allow you to take the first steps on the journey to reading and translating Ancient Greek. Intended for complete beginners, the course will introduce you to the alphabet, vocabulary and grammar of the Attic dialect of Ancient Greek, providing the groundings for the study of the language as it was used by writers such as Thucydides and Plato.

You will learn to read and translate simple Ancient Greek sentences, building skills to enable further study of Ancient Greek in its various dialects and from different periods, and providing the grounding towards the ultimate aim of reading the ancient texts in their original language, and the future study of writers such as Herodotus or Homer.

Learning and teaching

The module will be delivered through eight 2-hour sessions online, and 4 hours of asynchronous recorded content. Online sessions will consist of a mixture of tutor presentations, class discussion and group work on specific elements the module. These sessions and the aysnchronous lectures will be supplemented by resources available to the students via Learning Central.

Syllabus content:

• Studying Ancient Greek:
  • techniques and approaches
  • alphabet
  • pronunciation
• An introduction to Ancient Greek language and grammar
  • Words and how they change (inflection, cases)
  • Building sentences: from nouns to adjectives and verbs (and their voices, tenses, and moods)
  • Adding to sentences: prepositions and particles
• Reading and translation of basic Ancient Greek texts

Coursework and assessment

The module will be assessed through a participation mark reflecting engagement with class tasks across the module, and through a portfolio of homework tasks completed across the module.

There will be lots of help and support available for both elements of assessment.

Reading suggestions

• An Independent Study Guide to Reading Greek, 2^nd edition, Joint Association of Classical Greek Teachers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)
• H. Hansen and G.M. Quinn, Greek: An Intensive Course, 2^nd revised edn (New York: Fordham University Press, 1992)

Library and computing facilities

As a student on this course you are entitled to join and use the University’s library and computing facilities. Find out more about using these facilities.

Accessibility

Our aim is access for all. We aim to provide a confidential advice and support service for any student with a long term medical condition, disability or specific learning difficulty. We are able to offer one-to-one advice about disability, pre-enrolment visits, liaison with tutors and co-ordinating lecturers, material in alternative formats, arrangements for accessible courses, assessment arrangements, loan equipment and dyslexia screening.