I SBN 978-1-58510-034-7

9 7 8 1 5 8 5 1 0 0 3 4 7

Focus PublishingR. Pullins CompanyPO Box 369Newburyport, MA 01950www.pullins.com Focus

ISBN 10: 1-58510-034-X

This third edition of From Alpha to Omega is accompanied byAncillary Exercises by Jon Bruss

0-941051-61-7Answer Key by John Gibert

0-941051-19-6

For the complete list of titles available from Focus Publishing, additional student materials, and online ordering, visit www.pullins.com.

From Alpha to OmegaA Beginning Course in Classical Greek

Third Edition

Anne H. Groton

St. Olaf College

Focus Publishing / R. Pullins Co.Newburyport MA 01950

Third EditionCopyright © 2000 Anne H. Groton

Printed in United States of America

10 9 8 7 Corrected and reprinted March 2001

ISBN 10: 1-58510-034-XISBN 13: 978-1-58510-034-7 This book is published by Focus Publishing / R. Pullins Co., PO Box 369, NewburyportMA 01950. All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be produced on stageor otherwise performed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted by anymeans electronic, mechanical, by photocopying, recording, or by any other media ormeans without the prior written permission of the publisher. 1006TS

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface xi

Lesson 1 Introduction: The Greek Alphabet 1

Lesson 2 Introduction: The Greek Accents 9

Lesson 3 V-Verbs: Present Active Indicative, Present Active Infinitive,Present Active Imperative 13

Lesson 4 First Declension: Feminine Nouns, Part 1 21

Lesson 5 First Declension: Feminine Nouns, Part 2 29

Lesson 6 V-Verbs: Future Active Indicative, Future Active Infinitive 33

Lesson 7 Second Declension: Masculine Nouns 39

Lesson 8 Second Declension: Neuter Nouns; Adjectives: First/SecondDeclension 45

Lesson 9 First Declension: Masculine Nouns; Substantives 53

Lesson 10 V-Verbs: Imperfect Active Indicative; Correlatives 59

Lesson 11 V-Verbs: Middle/Passive Voice; Prepositions 65

Lesson 12 efim¤; Enclitics 73

Lesson 13 Demonstratives 79

Lesson 14 Personal Pronouns 83

Lesson 15 Contract Verbs (-ãv, -°v, -Òv); Contracted Futures 89

Lesson 16 Third Declension: Stop, Liquid, and Nasal Stems 97

Lesson 17 Third Declension: Sigma Stems; Adjectives: Third Declension 103

Lesson 18 V-Verbs: First Aorist Active and Middle Indicative, First Aorist Activeand Middle Infinitives, First Aorist Active and Middle Imperative 109

Lesson 19 V-Verbs: Second Aorist Active and Middle Indicative, SecondAorist Active and Middle Infinitives, Second Aorist Activeand Middle Imperative; Reflexive Pronouns 117

Lesson 20 V-Verbs: Perfect Active Indicative, Perfect Active Infinitive;Pluperfect Active Indicative 125

Lesson 21 Interrogative t¤w and Indefinite tiw 133

Lesson 22 V-Verbs: Perfect Middle/Passive Indicative, PerfectMiddle/Passive Infinitive; Pluperfect Middle/Passive Indicative 139

Lesson 23 Relative Pronouns; pçw; Expressions of Time 147

Lesson 24 V-Verbs: Present Active Participle, Future Active Participle, Firstand Second Aorist Active Participles, Perfect Active Participle 153

Lesson 25 V-Verbs: Present Middle/Passive Participle, Future MiddleParticiple, First and Second Aorist Middle Participles, PerfectMiddle/Passive Participle 161

Lesson 26 Direct and Indirect Questions; Alternative Questions 167

Lesson 27 V-Verbs: Aorist Passive Tense 175

Lesson 28 V-Verbs: Future Passive Tense; Future Perfect Active andMiddle/Passive Tenses; o‰da 183

Lesson 29 Third Declension: Vowel Stems, Syncopated Stems 189

Lesson 30 Deponent Verbs; Genitive Absolute; eÂw; oÈde¤w /mhde¤w 195

Lesson 31 Adverbs: Positive Degree; Result Clauses 203

Lesson 32 Adjectives and Adverbs: Comparative and Superlative Degrees;Genitive of Comparison; Partitive Genitive 211

Lesson 33 Adjectives and Adverbs: Irregular Comparative and SuperlativeDegrees; -uw, -eia, -u Adjectives; Dative of Degree of Difference 219

Lesson 34 Numerals 227

Lesson 35 Subjunctive Mood: Present, Aorist, Perfect Tenses; Active, Middle,Passive Voices; Independent Uses of the Subjunctive (Hortatory,Prohibitive, Deliberative) 235

Lesson 36 Optative Mood: Present, Future, Aorist, Perfect Tenses; Active,Middle, Passive Voices; Independent Uses of the Optative(Wishes, Potentiality) 243

Lesson 37 Conditions 251

Lesson 38 Conditional Relative Clauses; Relative Adverbs 257

Lesson 39 Purpose Clauses 265

iv

Lesson 40 e‰mi; Indirect Discourse (˜ti/…w) 271

Lesson 41 fhm¤; Indirect Discourse (with infinitive) 279

Lesson 42 Indirect Discourse (with participle); Crasis 287

Lesson 43 More Uses of the Infinitive; pr¤n 295

Lesson 44 Verbal Adjectives in -t°ow and -tÒw 303

Lesson 45 Clauses of Effort and Fear 311

Lesson 46 MI-Verbs (d¤dvmi, ·sthmi) 319

Lesson 47 MI-Verbs (t¤yhmi, ·hmi) 329

Lesson 48 MI-Verbs (de¤knumi); Unattainable Wishes 339

Lesson 49 ba¤nv, gign≈skv; Directional Suffixes; Accusative of Respect 347

Lesson 50 Redundant mÆ; Uses of mØ oÈ and oÈ mÆ; Attraction ofRelative Pronoun 355

Word Lists 363Greek-to-English Glossary 381English-to-Greek Glossary 413Appendix—nouns, definite article, pronouns, adjectives,numerals, adverbs, verbs 443Index 497

v

PREFACE

When I set out to write From Alpha to Omega during my sabbaticalin 1990-91, I was motivated by the desire to produce an elementaryGreek textbook that would fit the St. Olaf College calendar, the St. OlafCollege student, and the vigorously traditional St. Olaf College Classicscurriculum. This meant that the book had to be divided into no morethan fifty chapters, half of them to be completed each semester; that ev-ery grammatical concept had to be explained clearly and carefully, inlanguage neither too simple nor too sophisticated; and that the readingsfor each lesson had to be selected with a view toward preparing studentsto read Plato in their third semester of Greek. Because we have onlythree class meetings per week, I limited the number of exercises in eachchapter to ten Greek-to-English translation sentences, five English-to-Greek translation sentences, and (beginning in Lesson 5) one short read-ing. I also restricted to ten or so the number of vocabulary words to bememorized per lesson.

In a society no longer inclined to value a Classical education, thosemotivated enough to study ancient Greek need all the encouragementthey can get. For this reason I strove to make the textbook as pleasantand accessible as possible without sacrificing its rigor. The sentences tobe translated in each chapter are designed to help students learn the vo-cabulary words and constructions introduced in that lesson, while re-viewing familiar ones. The readings give students experience in translat-ing whole paragraphs of more or less “real” Greek, in which new vo-cabulary and syntax are mixed with old. I drew the readings for Lessons5-25 from Aesop’s most amusing and curious fables. For Lessons 26-50 Ichose what I thought were interesting as well as instructive passages,usually spread over two or more lessons, from the New Testament,Demosthenes, Xenophon, Thucydides, Lysias, Arrian, Aristotle, andPlato. Although I was wary of overwhelming the students with toomany glosses and explanatory notes, I did try in each reading to retain asmuch as I could of the original Greek.

At the back of the textbook are chapter-by-chapter word lists, fol-lowed by Greek-to-English and English-to-Greek glossaries containing

xi

all vocabulary words and all other words found in the readings, alongwith the number(s) of the lesson(s) in which they appear. The book con-cludes with an appendix of paradigms (including the dual forms not ex-plicitly taught in the textbook) and an index. It has been a happy sur-prise to me to discover that the book’s format suits other academicschedules as well as St. Olaf’s. For example, all fifty lessons have beencovered successfully in one and a half semesters by a class that meetsfour times per week, in two ten-week trimesters by a class that meetsfive times per week, and in a nine-week summer intensive course. Whenpressed for time, some teachers have preferred to assign only the sen-tences, not the reading, in each lesson; others have continued to assignall the readings but only half or so of the sentences. Students are free touse the skipped exercises for additional practice or for review before aquiz or examination.

From Alpha to Omega would never have seen the light of day with-out the wise counsel and support of my St. Olaf colleagues, particularlyProfessor James May, and without the talents of the obliging staff at Fo-cus Publishing. I am also grateful to my colleagues at other schools whowere daring enough to test a brand-new textbook and with their eagleeyes spotted scores of typos and other errors that I had missed. Let mesingle out for special thanks Professors John Gibert (University of Colo-rado), Clara Shaw Hardy (Carleton College), John Lenz (Drew Univer-sity), Leslie Mechem (Skidmore College), and Richard Wevers (CalvinCollege). Finally, I wish to thank all the dedicated students whostruggled cheerfully and patiently through one of the earlier versions ofthe book and succeeded in learning Greek even from its flawed pages. Ihope that they will be pleased with this final version of a textbook cre-ated not only for them but, to a large extent, by them.

§k pa¤dvn smikr«n érjãmenoi, m°xri oper ín z«si,ka‹ didãskousi ka‹ nouyetoËsin.

From early childhood, their whole lives through,people teach and admonish them. — Plato’s Protagoras 325c

Preface to the Third Edition

For the corrections and improvements in this third edition, I am in-debted to a whole host of enthusiastic students and colleagues. My sin-cere thanks to all of you.

xii

Lesson 1 • 1

ALESSON 1

INTRODUCTIONThe Greek Alphabet

érxØ d° toi ¥misu pantÒw (Well begun is half done.)—one of Pythagoras’ sayings, quoted by Iamblichus in Pythagoras 162

1. Greek belongs to a large and colorful family of “Indo-European”languages, all thought to be descended from a very old (and now lost)language spoken by people who roamed over the Eurasian continentduring prehistoric times. Other prominent members of the family are theItalic (including Latin and the Romance languages), Germanic (includingEnglish), Celtic, Baltic, Slavic (including Russian), Armenian, Iranian,and Indic languages.

2. The Greek language has been in continuous use for more than threethousand years; its vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation have beenevolving gradually over the centuries. There is a great deal of differencebetween, say, Greek of the seventh century B.C. and Greek of the firstcentury A.D., even though they are both “ancient” from our point ofview. Moreover, each geographical region of Greece had its own dialect.Some authors wrote in their native dialect; others, working within an es-tablished literary genre, wrote in the dialect(s) that tradition demanded.

The ancient Greek taught in this book is Classical in date and Atticin dialect. It is the sort of Greek that would have been used by educatedpeople during Greece’s Classical age (roughly the fifth and fourth cen-turies B.C.). These were glory days for Athens—artistically and intellec-tually as well as militarily. Much of the literature surviving from theClassical period is written in Attic, the dialect of the Athenians (Atticais the name of the district that includes Athens). The philosopher Plato,the orators Lysias and Demosthenes, the historians Thucydides and

1

2 • Lesson 1

Xenophon, the comic playwright Aristophanes—to name just a few ofAthens’ most famous authors—all wrote in Attic.

Once you are familiar with Attic, you will find it relatively easy tolearn Greek’s other literary dialects: Epic (e.g., Homer’s Iliad and Odys-sey), Ionic (e.g., Herodotus’ Histories), Doric (e.g., the choral songs in At-tic tragedies), Aeolic (e.g., Sappho’s poetry). Knowledge of ClassicalGreek also equips you to read Greek of the Hellenistic age, the periodfollowing the Classical age. The local dialects gradually died out andwere replaced by Koine (the name means “common”), a dialect derivedin large part from Attic and used from the third century B.C. to the sixthcentury A.D. throughout the Greek-speaking world. The New Testamentis written in a literary form of Koine.

3. In 403 B.C., after years of using their own alphabet, the Atheniansofficially adopted the more precise alphabet used by speakers of theIonic dialect (a close relative of the Attic dialect). This Ionic alphabet be-came standard for Greek; in later centuries the Coptic, Gothic, Armenian,and Cyrillic alphabets were derived from it. (Our Roman alphabet goesback to the Greek inhabitants of Chalcis in Euboea, who spoke an Attic-Ionic dialect; when they colonized parts of Italy, they passed on their al-phabet to the Etruscans, from whom the Romans acquired it.)

Of the Greek alphabet’s twenty-four letters, the first nineteen wereadapted from letters in the Phoenician alphabet and thus have Semiticnames; the last five were invented by the Greeks. Only the large, capitalforms of the letters existed in antiquity. It was not until the ninth centuryA.D. that scribes devised cursive forms that could be written quickly;these evolved into the small letters now in use.

The pronunciations suggested below are those thought by scholarsto have been used during the Classical age. Pronunciations enclosed insquare brackets are less authentic but more commonly used today.

Lesson 1 • 3

THE ALPHABET OF CLASSICAL GREEK

Greek Equiva- Name of Pronounced like the italicizedLetter lent to Letter letter(s) in the English word:A a a êlfa alpha ahB b b b∞ta beta betterG g g gãmma gamma gamble; before g, k, m, j, x = nasal-

ized n [or before m = gamble]D d d d°lta delta deleteE e e ® cilÒn epsilon1 etchZ z z z∞ta zeta wisdom [or gadzooks]H h e ∑ta eta error [or ace]Y y th y∞ta theta sweetheart [or author]I i i fi«ta iota pizza [or i = pit; i = pizza]K k k, c kãppa kappa candyL l l lãmbda lambda lanternM m m mË mu musicN n n nË nu nuclearJ j x j› xi taxiO o o ¯ mikrÒn omicron offP p p p› pi pillowR r r =« rho rocky—rolled or trilled -rS s, w s s¤gma sigma2 signal; before b, g, d, m = zT t t taË tau tardyU u y, u Ô ci?lÒn upsilon French u [or u = foot; u = boot]F f ph f› phi uphill [or telephone]X x kh, ch x› chi backhand [or candy or German -ch]C c ps c› psi tipsyV v o Œ m°ga omega aw [or oh]

4. Of Greek’s seven vowels (a, e, h, i, o, u, v), e and o are always short;h and v are the long versions of e and o; a, i, and u are sometimes short,sometimes long. “Short” and “long” refer to the vowel’s quantity (i.e.,the duration of its sound); in the Classical age long vowels were held outabout twice as long as short ones. Apparently the quality (i.e., the sound)of a, i, and u did not change much when those vowels were held out; hand v, on the other hand, were not only longer but also more open inpronunciation than their short counterparts, e and o.

1 After epsilon used to come digamma, W (sounding like w), until it fell out of use.2 Sigma has the form w only when it is the last letter in a word; otherwise it appears as s. Some scholars

prefer to use !, a “lunate” sigma; it has the same shape regardless of where it comes in the word.

4 • Lesson 1

5. A diphthong is two vowels combined in pronunciation; the soundof the first either merges with or glides into the sound of the second. Thetwo vowels together form one long syllable. Classical Greek has elevendiphthongs. The first eight listed below are called “proper diphthongs”because, in each of them, both vowels continued to be pronounced. Thelast three in the list are called “improper diphthongs” because the iota ineach of them eventually became a silent letter (in the Classical age, how-ever, it was still pronounced).

Pronounced like the italicized letter(s)PROPER DIPHTHONGS in the English word:

AI Ai ai aisleAU Au au ouchEI Ei ei eightEU Eu eu etch gliding into -ooHU Hu hu error gliding into -oo [or ace gliding

into -oo]OI Oi oi oilyOU Ou ou oozeUI Ui ui French u gliding into -ee [or ui = wee]

IMPROPER DIPHTHONGS

AI Ai & ah gliding into -ee [or exactly as a]HI Hi ˙ error gliding into -ee [or exactly as h]VI Vi ƒ aw gliding into -ee [or exactly as v]

When written on the same line as the other vowel, the iota is calledan iota adscript; when written below the line, it is called an iota subscript.The ancient Greeks always wrote the iota as an adscript, but since theeleventh or twelfth century, it has been more customary to use subscriptsin improper diphthongs, except when the a ?, h, or v (and/or the i itself) iscapitalized.

NOTE During the Classical period the letters epsilon, omicron, upsilon,and omega had the names e‰, oÔ, Ô, and Œ. The longer names they nowhave (meaning “plain e,” “small o,” “plain u,” “big o”) were created forclarity’s sake by grammarians in the Byzantine age; by then o had cometo sound like v, and the diphthongs ai and oi had come to be pro-nounced like the “plain” vowels e and u, causing confusion.

6. Many Greek words begin with an h-sound followed by a vowel or adiphthong; this h-sound (called “aspiration”) is indicated not by a letterbut by a mark (Ñ) called a rough breathing, which is placed above thevowel or above the second letter of a proper diphthong (e.g., •-, afl-). Ifthe word does not begin with an h-sound, a smooth breathing (É) is usedinstead (e.g., §-, afi-). Every vowel or diphthong that comes at the begin-

Lesson 1 • 5

ning of a word must have a breathing to show whether it is aspirated(rough) or unaspirated (smooth).

A breathing is placed to the left of a capital letter (e.g., ÑH-, ÉE-) unlessthe capital letter is part of a proper diphthong (e.g., EÈ- ). In an improperdiphthong the breathing goes above the first vowel, never above the iota(e.g., ö-, èi-, ÑAi-). A word beginning with upsilon or rho always hasrough breathing (Í-, ufl-, =-). Rho is the only consonant ever written witha breathing.

7. Of Greek’s seventeen consonants, nine are stops (also calledmutes); these are further classified as labials (p, b, f), dentals (t, d, y), orpalatals (k, g, x). Two are liquids (l, r); two are nasals (m, n); one is a sibi-lant (s); three are double consonants: z (= sd, later ds), j (= ks, gs, or xs),c (= ps, bs, or fs). A Greek word is not permitted to end in any conso-nant except n, r, w, j, and c. (The words §k and oÈk, which both end inkappa, are the only exceptions to this rule.)

8. If one stop (p, b, f, t, d, y, k, g, x) is followed by a different stop or bya liquid (l, r) or a nasal (m, n), they are usually pronounced together (e.g.,fy, bd, kt, yl, xr, gm, pn). If one liquid or nasal is followed by a differentliquid or nasal or by a stop, they are pronounced separately (e.g., r|n, l|y,m|p; mn is an exception). Repeated consonants are always separately pro-nounced (e.g., l|l, p|p, r|r, s|s, t|t), as are the two sounds in a double con-sonant (z, j, c). When a sigma is followed by another consonant (not s),they may be pronounced either separately or together.

A Greek word has as many syllables as it has vowels and diph-thongs (e.g., ye-a¤ = 2 syllables). If a vowel or diphthong is separatedfrom the next vowel or diphthong by one consonant or by two or moreconsonants pronounced together, the break between the syllables comesright after that vowel or diphthong (e.g., fË-la, ê-kron, o‰-strow [s re-garded as part of the consonant cluster]). If there are two or more inter-vening consonants, of which the first two are separately pronounced,the syllabic break comes between those two consonants (e.g., fÊl-la, êr-xvn, ên-yraj, o‰s-trow [s regarded as a separate sound]). Since it is impos-sible to show the break in a double consonant, just put a hyphen beforethe double consonant (e.g., tã-jiw).

9. Greeks in the Classical age used little, if any, spacing or punctua-tion. Later, four punctuation marks were devised: the comma (,) and theperiod (.), exactly like their English counterparts; the colon or high dot(:), corresponding to a semi-colon or colon in English; and the questionmark (;), equivalent to an English question mark. There are no specialmarks to indicate exclamations or quotations; some publishers of ancientGreek texts now use modern quotation and exclamation marks for theirreaders’ convenience.

363

WORD LISTS

LESSON 3

grãfv§y°lvyÊvka¤ (ka‹...ka¤)kl°ptvmÆoÈpaideÊvspeÊdvfulãttv

LESSON 4

égorãefiw§k§n§pistolÆ≤≤sux¤ayeãp°mpvskhnÆx≈raŒ

LESSON 5

ékoÊvblãptvd°spoina§pe¤§peidÆyãlatta

yerãpainakeleÊvkl¤nhmo›ra (Mo›ra)Àra

LESSON 5 READING

égno°vélektru≈nboÊleuma¶nnuxow‡diowpon°v

LESSON 6

éllã (éll')éllãttvdi≈kv¶ti¶xvkÒrh (KÒrh)m°llvmhk°tiofik¤aoÈk°tipãlin

LESSON 6 READING

ÉAfrod¤thgal∞gam°ve‰mËw

364 • Word Lists

nean¤awpeirãvtrÒpow

LESSON 7

édelfÆédelfÒwênyrvpowépÒ (ép', éf')yeÒw·ppowl¤yowlÊphııdÒwpotamÒwxa¤rvxarã

LESSON 7 READING

èlieÊwbl°pvßlkv§mpeir¤a§st¤(n)fixyÊwÙrx°omaipolÊwsagÆnh

LESSON 8

égayÒwêjiowépole¤pvb¤owd«ron¶rgoneÍr¤skvyhsaurÒwkalÒwle¤pvt°knontÒfutÒn

LESSON 8 READING

êmpelowgevrgÒwd∞lowpeirãvpoi°vskãptv

LESSON 9

éyãnatowénãjiowdespÒthwdouleÊvdoÊlhdoËlow§leÊyerowkakÒwmayhtÆwnean¤awofik°thwprÒterow

LESSON 9 READING

bursod°chweÎxomaikerameÊwkhpourÒwˆnowpoy°vpolÊw

LESSON 10

élÆyeiad° (d')yãnatow (Yãnatow)k¤ndunowl°gvm°nm¢n...d°ı m¢n...ı d°prãttvfeÊgvf¤lhf¤low

I SBN 978-1-58510-034-7

9 7 8 1 5 8 5 1 0 0 3 4 7

Focus PublishingR. Pullins CompanyPO Box 369Newburyport, MA 01950www.pullins.com Focus

ISBN 10: 1-58510-034-X

This third edition of From Alpha to Omega is accompanied byAncillary Exercises by Jon Bruss

0-941051-61-7Answer Key by John Gibert

0-941051-19-6

For the complete list of titles available from Focus Publishing, additional student materials, and online ordering, visit www.pullins.com.