By Henry Quillen (This article was first published on graecitas.com. Note that, throughout the article, quotes from papyri are given in the original spelling.) Modern speakers of Koine Greek have little sense for how to formulate polite requests. This is…
By Jenny Teichmann My students sometimes ask me whether they should learn Modern Greek in order to get better at Ancient Greek. After all, Modern Greek seems to have a lot going for it: There are many more resources for…
Written by Jenny Teichmann Last summer (July 2025) I travelled to Crete. Here are my travel notes in easy Ancient Greek. Enjoy! 😊 Vocabulary Verbsἐπορεύθην: “I travelled”, aorist passive (with active meaning) < πορεύομαικεῖται: “lies” (of places)χαίρειν κελεύω (+ dative):…
By Jenny Teichmann I have been teaching Ancient Greek for a couple of years now and have often heard students complain that Ancient Greek is a difficult language, more difficult than modern languages and even more difficult than the other…
By Jenny Teichmann I have a friend who is a polyglot. He has learned seven languages to incredible fluency: And Ancient Greek, he says, was by far the most difficult one (followed by Czech—no offense to our Czech friends 😉).…
ΓΑΛΗ ΕΡΑΣΘΕΙΣΑ γαλῆ ἐρασθεῖσα νεανίσκου εὐπρεποῦς ηὔξατο τῇ Αφροδίτῃ, ὅπως αὐτὴν μεταμορφώσῃ εἰς γυναῖκα. καὶ ἡ θεὸς ἐλεήσασα αὐτῆς τὸ πάθος μετετύπωσεν αὐτὴν εἰς κόρην εὐειδῆ. καὶ οὕτως ὁ νεανίσκος θεασάμενος αὐτὴν καὶ ἐρασθεὶς οἴκαδε ὡς ἑαυτὸν ἀπήγαγε.καθημένων δ’ αὐτῶν…
This fable is actually not by Aesop but appears first in the Middle Ages. I rendered it into simple Ancient Greek and added the images from Arthur Rackham. More about this fable here: ,_his_son_and_the_donkey ΠΑΤΗΡ, ΥΙΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΟΝΟΣ πατὴρ καὶ…
“Athematic verbs” (aka “μι verbs”) send chills down the spine of most students of Ancient Greek: ἵημι, τίθημι, δίδωμι,… Among these, ἵστημι is arguably one of the nastiest: Even my best students tend to get confused with it. ἀλλὰ μὴ…
ΒΑΤΡΑΧΟΙ ΑΙΤΟΥΝΤΕΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΑ βάτραχοι λυπούμενοι ἐπὶ τῇ ἑαυτῶν ἀναρχίᾳ πρέσβεις ἔπεμψαν πρὸς τὸν Δία δεόμενοι βασιλέα αὐτοῖς παρασχεῖν. ὁ δὲ συνιδὼν αὐτῶν τὴν εὐήθειαν ξύλον εἰς τὴν λίμνην καθῆκε. καὶ οἱ βάτραχοι τὸ μὲν πρῶτον καταπλαγέντες τὸν ψόφον εἰς τὰ…
ΑΝΗΡ ΚΑΙ ΨΥΛΛΑ Ψύλλα δέ ποτέ τινι πολλὰ ἠνώχλει. καὶ δὴ συλλαβών·«τίς εἶ σύ,» ἀνεβόα, «ὅτι πάντα μου μέλη κατεβοσκήσω εἰκῆ καὶ μάτην ἐμὲ καταναλίσκων;»ἡ δὲ ἐβόα·«οὕτως ζῶμεν, μὴ κτείνῃς· μέγα γὰρ κακὸν οὐ δύναμαι ποιῆσαι.»ὁ δὲ γελάσας πρὸς αὐτὴν…
