How to Master Greek (and Latin)

From Laudator Temporis Acti:

The same arduous type of challenge, without compulsion but with all its difficulty, was given to one of the most distinguished of American educators, Mr. Abraham Flexner. His adviser, Professor Morris of Johns Hopkins, told him that if he wanted to master Greek, he should get a compact little shelf of Greek books and read nothing but Greek for five years. "Read the daily papers to keep up with the world," he said, "but don't read books in any other language. Read Greek only." The ambitious young student took this hard advice, and, like the pupils of Agassiz, he gazed at the intricate subject until he really felt at home in it. Just as they could take a new specimen and see a thousand things which would escape the untrained eye, so he could pick up a book (an immortal book, a permanently valuable book) in Greek, and read it through with ease and pleasure. Such efforts are painful; but without effort there is no reward.

I have not mastered Greek or Latin yet, but I am to the point now where I recognize the truth of the above paragraph.

My somewhat more detailed direction: First get through your ancient Greek beginner book as efficiently as you can. I don't have a favorite to suggest. Then work through a couple of composition books while you read, read, read. Then read some more. Latin mastery comes the same way.

Here are a couple of good Greek composition books:

- North & Hillard - Greek Prose Composition
- A. Sidgwick - Intro to Greek Prose Comp

Remember to also buy the answer keys.

Some good "first readers":

- C.M. Moss - First Greek Reader
- F.H. Colson - Stories and Legends
- Rev. E. Fowle - First Easy Greek Reading Book
- F.D. Morice - Easy Stories in Attic Greek
- G.S. Farnell - Tales from Herodotus with Attic Dialect

All are here listed by order of difficulty. The readers can be downloaded for free from Google books, Textkit.com, Gutenberg, and similar sites.

Another suggestion: skip the Koine (Biblical) Greek courses and go straight for the richer Attic. You'll still be able to read Koine if you study Attic, and Attic is the dialect in which most interesting ancient and modern texts are written (except Homer, which is written in "Epic" or "Homeric" dialect).

Tυχη αγαθη!