Author Description
Combining the best features of traditional and modern methods, Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek 3/e, provides a unique, bestselling course of instruction that allows students to read connected Greek narrative right from the begining and guides them to the point where they can begin reading complete classical texts. Carefully designed to hold students' interest, the course begins in Book I with a fictional narrative about an Attic farmer's family placed in a precise historical context (423-431 B.C.). This narrative, interwoven with tales from mythology and the Persian Wars, gradually gives way in Book II to adapted passages from Thucydides, Plato, and Herodotuc and ultimately to excerpts of the original Greek of Bacchylides, Thucudides, and Aristophanes' Acharnians. Essays on relevant aspects of ancient Greek culture and history are also woven throughout.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This workbook serves as a pedagogical tool to facilitate the acquisition of Ancient Greek through a combination of traditional grammatical instruction and immersive narrative reading. The authors, Gilbert Lawall, James Morwood, and Maurice Balme, utilize a structured approach that transitions students from foundational linguistic exercises to the comprehension of authentic classical texts. By anchoring the curriculum in a specific historical narrative, the text provides a contextual framework that supports the rigorous study of morphology and syntax.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Exercises reinforcing vocabulary and grammatical structures presented in the primary textbook.
- Practice in translating connected Greek narratives set in the late 5th century B.C.
- Drills focusing on Attic Greek inflection and sentence construction.
Scope Limits
- The workbook does not provide a comprehensive dictionary or exhaustive reference grammar.
- It does not cover post-classical or Koine Greek dialects.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Educators and students frequently identify this series as a standard, highly effective curriculum for university-level introductory Greek courses. Experts highlight the balanced integration of narrative context and systematic linguistic practice as a primary strength of the pedagogical design.
Page Count:
240
Publication Date:
2015-12-29
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190607688
ISBN-13:
9780190607685
Ancient Greek
Language Learning
Education
textbook
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