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Athenaze
Balme, Maurice and Lawall, Gilbert, Athenaze: An
Introduction to Ancient Greek, Books I and II; Teacher’s
Handbook, Books I and II, Oxford University Press, 1991. Book I,
Pp 270, ISBN 0-19-505621-3; Teacher’s Handbook, Book I, Pp 110,
ISBN 0-19-506384-8; Book II, Pp 297, ISBN 0-19-505622-1; Teacher’s
Handbook II, Pp 129, ISBN 0-19-506930-7.
Balme and Lawall introduce their well-planned beginner’s
course in Ancient Greek with the following statement of purpose
and scope: “This course was written for use in schools,
colleges, and universities with students who have not necessarily
been exposed to any other highly inflected language. The course
aims at teaching students to read and understand Greek within the
context of fifth century civilization and culture.” Through 31
well-developed lessons in two volumes, linked by a fictional
narrative about the Aristophanic Dikaiopolis and culminating with
adapted and some unaltered selections of Classical writers, the
course stresses learning to read Ancient Greek through an
inductive approach; that is, in the lesson plan readings come
first and direct morphological and syntactical explanations with
exercises follow the readings where the new language points have
been encountered already by students. Follow-up grammatical
material, however, is copious and detailed so that a student will
understand clearly what grammar needs to be mastered within any
given lesson. Moreover, unlike many contemporary beginners’
Latin programs, which use a reading approach, sentence-level
composition is not omitted from Athenaze, a feature which will
appeal to more traditional teachers of Greek. Each student’s
book also contains a full “reference grammar”, a
Greek-English, English-Greek glossaries at the back of the volume.
In addition to the student’s texts, two teachers’ handbooks,
paralleling the students’ volumes, offer instructors such useful
pointers as a scope and sequence charts, summaries of lesson
purpose for each lesson as well as suggested answers for
exercises.
Carefully designed and engaging lessons, constructed to give
students confidence in reading continuous text with a clear
understanding of Greek morphology and a feeling for syntax, stand
at the core of Balme-Lawall program. A typical chapter evolves as
two lessons, separated by a cultural topic, into alpha and beta
Greek sections with basically the same format in each section.
First in section alpha comes new vocabulary that will be found in
the following Greek reading of 20-30 lines. After the Greek
reading, new forms and rules of syntax are explained in detail
with exercises and drills (including writing in Greek) for
reinforcement. Between the two Greek sections of the chapter a
pertinent cultural topic on Greek history, myth, religion,
archaeology or daily life is inserted. Section beta again presents
more vocabulary and another reading in Greek, with further
grammatical material explained and drilled through another bank of
exercises. These major Greek readings are for the most part
fictional and centered on the character of Dikaiopolis , a fifth
century Athenian farmer, known from Aristophanes’ play, the
Acharnians. After the grammar exercises in section beta,
additional Greek reading selections based on Homer, Herodotus and
Thycidides, and reading comprehension questions conclude the
lesson. All the readings have good glosses on difficult or unusual
words and constructions.
Overall, as an introductory program, Balme and Lawall offer a
sound approach, particularly for younger students. Much of the
more demanding morphology and syntax, such as the full principal
part structure of the verb, mi-verbs, conditions, indirect
statement, is postponed until the second volume of the course.
This postponement lessens for the younger beginner a sense that
Classical Greek is “hard” to learn. For the more mature
student and language learner, the Hansen and Quinn approach of “verbs
up front” in Greek: An Intensive Course might generate more
momentum. But for any teacher of Greek who has taught from a text
such as Chase and Phillips, the Balme-Lawall program offers real
improvements, fuller morphological explanations, thematically
linked and continuous reading texts, while at the same time
retaining traditional sentence drills and English-to-Greek
composition. Some might wish for more authentic Greek earlier in
the course, but again the younger or linguistically inexperienced
student might find uncut Greek tough going at first. Designed to
be completed in two to four semesters, the Balme-Lawall approach
is planned to ease the student into Greek by offering strong
cultural context, based in daily life, coupled to readings of
graduated difficulty and ample explanation of morphology and
syntax.
One final word on the looks of the text, a matter of less a
concern at the college than the school level. The texts are
pleasingly formatted using black and white print, with some items
printed in bold type to focus attention. There are pictures and
illustrations throughout the two student texts: all are in black
and white. Although one should not expect the color splash of the
Oxford Latin Course, the all black-and-white color scheme does not
seem to detract for the decorous formatting and presentation of
the text. The paper, too, is of high quality and printing
conventions consistent with the excellence expected of books from
the Oxford University Press.
Richard L.S. Evans, St. Thomas' Episcopal School, lysias@msn.com
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Lysias on the Murder of Eratosthenes
Lysias on the Murder of Eratosthenes. Edited with
introduction, notes, and vocabulary by Douglas Domingo-Foraste.
Short Greek and Latin Texts for Students. Materials available from
Professor Gilbert Lawall, General Editor of CANE Instructional
Materials, 71 Sand Hill Road, Amherst, MA 01002.
This compact presentation (only 55 pages) of the famous Speech
1 of Lysias , according to its Preface, "…is designed to
provide reading material for students who have completed Book II
of Athenaze (Oxford University Press 1991)."
Constructed as a follow-up to the Athenaze I and II series,
a set of introductory Greek texts built on the reading approach,
parallel to the Oxford Latin, Lysias on the Murder of
Eratosthenes is a realistic intermediate text for a student's
initiation into authentic, Attic Greek. Every line of the Greek
text is numbered, by page, with vocabulary, syntactical, and
historical notes on the opposite, facing page. Vocabulary items
previously not seen in the Athenaze series are glossed on pages
facing the Greek text and all words found in Lysias 1 are included
in the vocabulary section at the end. The heavy glossing of
vocabulary purposefully promotes the editor's view that the "…intermediate
Greek student's time is more productively spent in enjoying and
reading Lysias than in turning pages in Liddell, Scott, and
Jones." Clearly, reading more text of an original Greek
author should be the outcome of this wise and very realistic
orientation toward students who have just come off their basic
introduction to elements of Greek.
In addition to vocabulary glosses, the facing-page notes offer
fairly detailed syntactical comments, especially pointing out
constructions which might be a challenge, such as conditionals,
accusative absolutes, duals, future optatives, analytic perfect
middle forms and the like. This careful notice of syntactical
issues goes beyond what is typical for a commentary on Lysias like
the Selected Speeches, edited by C. Carey, in the Cambridge
Greek and Latin Classics series. Such grammar support is very
useful for the intermediate reader and is one of the strongest
features of this edition of Lysias 1.
Very basic cultural and legal information about Lysias and the
speech is provided in the Introduction, together with an
interesting reconstruction of Euphiletos' house, but almost no
remarks on the position of Lysias in the canon of Greek orators
and little in the way of rhetorical background is offered. There
is limited commentary on formal, rhetorical structure, devices of
style or parallels to other orators in the notes. Further, the
editor does not mention what text he is following nor is there an
apparatus criticus; all of this adds up to what we are told up
front, that we have a student's text, not a scholarly edition and
commentary. Teachers must be prepared to do some filling in of
rhetorical and historical issues for themselves and their
students, but after all, that's what teachers are meant to do.
The text itself is printed in large, clear typeface with
vocabulary and glosses in boldface. Thus, the Greek is very
legible and easy on the eyes; notes appropriately attract the
reader's attention. The binding is a light tan paper, featuring a
reconstruction drawing of the house in which Eratosthenes was
caught and killed by Euphiletos.
Richard L. S. Evans, St. Thomas' Episcopal School, lysias@msn.com
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Ancient Greek Alive.
This review originally appeared in Classical Outlook.
Many thanks to Rick LaFleur and Mary Ricks for allowing to post
this article.
Ancient Greek Alive. By PAULA SAFFIRE and CATHERINE FREIS. 3rd
ed. Chapel Hill NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1999. Pp. xxiv
and 271. Paper. $19.95.
Almost every teacher of ancient Greek will find Ancient Greek
Alive both praiseworthy and problematic, sometimes for the same
reasons. The bottom line, though, is that this spirited
introduction to ancient Greek, meant for a two-semester sequence,
will raise many beginners to a plateau from which they can
confidently ascend to the reading of continuous ancient
texts.
The authors have combined clear, detailed, and correct
exposition of grammar and syntax with several creative
ingredients-initial "scripts" for class conversation,
the conscious employment of "translationese" as a
mediator between Greek and English, and readings that include
Saffire's Greek translations of the legendary figure of Sufi
wisdom literature, Nasrudin, along with renderings into Greek of
African, Armenian, Chinese, Indian, Siberian, and Yiddish
folktales. A "Thesauros" offers appropriately glossed
selections from an interesting range of texts in verse and prose.
Each of the book's 54 lessons is structured around one or two
grammatical themes and features many worthwhile in-class and
homework exercises. Along the way, memorization of poetry plays an
important pedagogical role. Informative readings in English about
various aspects of Greek civilization and folklore appear
throughout.
Matters connected to declension occupy most of the first 24
lessons. The order of cases followed in paradigms is nominative,
accusative, genitive, and dative. The generally good formal
treatment of verbs does not begin until about halfway through the
book and stretches over 20 lessons, with contract and -mi verbs
saved until the very end. However, the informal treatment of verbs
begins much earlier, and the comfort level of many students will
be so expanded by then that the intimidation factor of verbs will
be greatly reduced. Pauô is the model -ô verb. Verb paradigms at
the book's end are generally clear, though imperfects are not
labeled as such. There is a good list of principal parts of
important verbs, with those whose first three parts should be
learned designated by asterisks. Consistently clear, if sometimes
idiosyncratic, exposition helps offset the often cluttered
appearance of individual pages. Errors are minimal, most confined
to the introduction.
Many other introductory Greek texts have already raised the
issue of the use of synthetic Greek. Might too much turn off
students impatient to get to the "real stuff"? In most
cases today, I doubt it. It is a sad fact that ever more students
have little idea of what, perhaps beyond the New Testament and
maybe Plato, the "real stuff" is. I am convinced that
Ancient Greek Alive will actually lead to more, better- prepared
students continuing-indeed, looking forward to continuing-their
study of Greek. I encourage all teachers of Greek to examine this
text. Even if it does not fit your needs perfectly enough to
warrant its adoption, there is a good chance you will find much in
it that is useful and inspirational.
THOMAS M. BANCHICH
Canisius College Buffalo, New York
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Xenophon's Gynaikologia
Doty, Ralph, Ed. Xenophon's Gynaikologia: The Training of a
Greek Housewife. Short Greek and Latin Texts for Students, CANE
Instructional Materials, 71 Sand Hill Road, Amherst, MA 01002.
A short introduction, thirty sections of text from Xenophon's
Oeconomicus (VII.1-IX.13) with facing lexical glossing and brief
grammatical and cultural commentary, and a concluding vocabulary
glossary comprise this new students' edition of the animated
dialogue between Ischomachus and his adolescent wife on household
duties and management, known as the Gynaikologia.
The full Oeconomicus of Xenophon is structured carefully like a
Chinese box: first a dialogue between Socrates and Critobulus, son
of Critias; next an encounter between Socrates and the gentleman
estate holder, Ischomachus, who explains the art of good estate
management; then within this discussion of Ischomachus on estate
management, a third dialogue, the Gynaikologia, between
Ischomachus and his wife about her proper role as wife and manager
in the home.
This handy edition of a socially provocative work from ancient
Greece offers reading material appropriate for intermediate
students of Greek who have finished the Athenaze course as the
Introduction of the Gynaikologia reminds us: " This book is
keyed to the vocabulary in the introductory Greek textbook
Athenaze…Words in the text that also appear in Athenaze will be
listed in the end vocabulary. Words that do not appear in Athenaze
will be listed in the running vocabulary at their first appearance…."
The usefulness of this text for intermediate Greek students other
than those who have used Balme and Lawall should not be
overlooked, however. There is excellent support in the commentary
for syntactically challenging items and sufficient historical and
cultural information to keep a student reading without long pauses
away from the text for consultation of lexica or classical
dictionaries. All lines of the Greek text are numbered
conveniently on a given page, by page, for quick reference and
keyed to a line-numbered commentary that itself faces the Greek
text on the opposite page. The typeface is a large font for a
clear, legible text, making work with this edition painless and
pleasant.
Additionally, with the exception of the traditional Anabasis
and selections from the Hellenica, little of Xenophon is packaged
for the beginning reader of authentic Greek prose. This edition by
Doty of a selection from the Oeconomicus helps remedy that
disadvantage to the beginning reader for the works of Xenophon, a
writer prized by the ancients for his smooth style which
Quintilian lauds with this remark, "ut ipsae sermonem
finxisse Gratiae videantur" (Institutio Oratoria X.1.82).
Ralph Doty's text will bring the pleasure of Xenophon's stylistic
finesse as well as engaging social issues to a wider readership
while stimulating a broader view of Socrates than many
intermediate students obtain from Plato's dialogues alone.
Richard L.S. Evans
St. Thomas' Episcopal School
lysias@msn.com
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