Clyde Pharr (1885–1972)

In the introduction, the author argues for the merits of teaching Homeric or "epic" Greek to new students of the language. For instance, much of the most beautiful ancient Greek literature, from the odes of Pindar to the histories of Herodotus, is much more "Homeric" (in vocabulary and/or spirit) than "Attic". Also, both the literary forms and the content of Homer's verses are referred to and built upon by the later writers, so moving from Homeric to Attic is much smoother than vice versa.

As show more for the actual content of this book, it takes the student through the first book of the Iliad. There is a short but effective Homeric grammar included, and a thorough dictionary. My biggest complaint of this book concerns the comments for the Greek text. The grammatical comments were useful, but the nongrammatical background and cultural comments often sounded like soap-box lectures on subjects far afield from the text at hand. A sample sentence begins, "It is characteristic of the psychology of primitive peoples to see in the operations of nature the direct actions of their gods...", and again, "...he was a prophet inspired of his god, an idea which those of his class have never been at pains to controvert." They can be easily skipped -- the text of the Iliad speaks for itself.

One should be aware that this "book for beginners" does NOT mean it is appropriate for those with no background in Greek. Teaching oneself Greek is extremely difficult to do well. If you are dead-set on doing so, I recommend "Greek: An Intensive Course" to get plenty of practice, even though it does primarily teach Attic Greek rather than Homeric. show less

Probably my favorite book on Homeric Greek. It was of great help when I first began learning ancient Greek. Its quotes and aphorisms are brilliant.

Pharr's introduction makes a very persuasive case for starting Greek studies with Homeric Greek, but I have not followed up on it.

Very accessible. Of course I can't review its technical merit, but other reviews I've read are positive. Not meant for a first introduction to Greek (this is a different dialect to the Attic greek of Plato, Thucidides, Xenophon, Herodotus, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripedes) but I tried anyway, and bounced. I'll be trying again! This is a minor revision of the original, which can be found online.