Classical Greek Online

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Grammar

46 Texts.

Editors have worked with Greek texts since the Alexandrian period, when the texts of Homer were essentially fixed. Western scholars have continued the tradition as in the Teubner publications, those published by the Clarendon Press, and so on. If one examines an edited text with extensive introduction and commentary, such as Hesiod: Works and Days, M. L. West, ed. xiii, 399 pp. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), the information provided is enormous. The author states that he "perused" over six hundred texts when producing his book. As noted in the comments to the selection included here, the differences between his text and others, however, are slight.

Unless a text with extensive commentary is desired, readers of the Greek texts will do well to use the editions of the Loeb Classical Library, which have the added advantage of including translations. They are readily available from the Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA 02138). The texts have been widely read in schools and universities, such as those of Xenophon, Plato and Homer have been published with introductions and commentaries, often also with glossaries. Or commentaries may be published separately, such as A Commentary on Herodotus by W. W. How and J. Wells, 2 vols., 456 and 445 pp. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1912, often reprinted). References may be found in catalogues of libraries and publishers, and increasingly on web sites.

47 Grammars.

Similarly, grammars of Greek are based on long attention. The fullest grammar is that of Eduard Schwyzer, Griechische Grammatik, I-III. Munich: Beck, 1939-53. For ready reference, most readers will find useful a shorter grammar, such as that of Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar (1920), revised by Gordon M. Messing, Harvard University Press (1956).

For a historical treatment, see the Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin by Carl Darling Buck (Chicago: University Press, 1933). A successor is the New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, by Andrew L. Sihler (Oxford: University Press, 1995); it is written like a novel -- no references, no bibliography.

48 Dictionaries.

Dictionaries of various extent are readily available. An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, founded upon the seventh edition of Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon: 1989) provides good coverage for texts of every type.

49 Specialized handbooks.

Catalogues in libraries and lists of publishers are excellent sources for handbooks dealing with all aspects of Greek culture and history. A highly interesting work for information on oral epic and especially Homer is The Making of Homeric Verse, the Collected Papers of Milman Parry, Adam Parry, ed. (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987). While no Mycenaean texts have been included here, chiefly because of their brevity, readers may wish to consult Documents in Mycenaean Greek, by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick (Cambridge: University Press, 1956). The sub-title reads: Three hundred selected tablets from Knossos, Pylos and Mycenae with commentary and vocabulary. A History of Greece to 322 B.C. by N.G.L. Hammond (Oxford: Clarendon, 1986, 3rd ed.) provides broad coverage, dealing also with dialects, literature, art and thought. A Smaller Classical Dictionary, ed. E. H. Blakeney (New York: Dutton, 1928) provides compact entries on persons, places and things in the Roman and Greek world. One should not overlook the essays in encyclopedias, such as those in the celebrated 13th edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica. These deal with various aspects of culture and history.

50 The Legacy of the Greek World.

The legacy of the Greek world on western civilization is evident in all aspects of political and cultural life. Democratic government had its start there. The works of Thucydides, Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle among others provided many of the principles as well as intellectual support for civil arrangements.

In literature the Homeric poems have been a constant inspiration, as translations, commentaries and references indicate. The great tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, as well as the author of comedies, Aristophanes, are similarly admired, as well as lyric poets like Pindar. The influence of Greek art and architecture, whether produced by unknown artists or sculptors like Phidias, is visible on government buildings throughout the western world.

While Greek religion maintains interest for mythology and literature, the wide adoption of Christianity is evident in the maintenance of the New Testament and the majority of early commentary, as of St. Augustine, through the Greek language. The three creeds, the Apostle's, the Nicaean, the Athanasian, were all formulated in Greek. And while Roman culture has been influential in these fields as well, it owes much to the heritage of the earlier Greek culture, as in matters like the alphabet. The Greeks may have adopted it and other items from other cultures, but they reshaped them and passed them on in improved form to lands much larger than their small area. As a result especially of Alexander's conquests, Greek civilization and culture influenced the entire Mediterranean and surrounding areas, with lasting effects on far larger areas.

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