This revised edition has been improved by the addition of standard book, section, and paragraph references for prose selections and line numbers for poetry; by additional exercises on participles and conditions; and by the correction of errors throughout the text.
Frederick Williams presents a text that is "crystal clear, full but not pedantic, simple but not superficial." He has designed the text for a course meeting four or five times a week for two semesters. Each lesson should take about four or five days, depending on the length and complexity of the material: one day for an introduction, one or two days for reading Greek sentences aloud in Greek and translating them into English, and another day or two for drill.
In this book some of the readings that normally seem impenetrable to beginners are presented first in simple, then more complex language, thus leading gradually to the words of the actual ancient author all within the same lesson. This elementary device helps bridge many difficult gaps between modern English and ancient Greek. The book includes four supplementary readings: extended passages from Plato's Ion and Republic, Aristophanes' Clouds, and Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.
I took Greek with the author in the academic year of 1993-1994. Apart from the fact that the author was my professor, there are a couple notable items concerning this text. There are more than an adequate number of exercises to each lesson. What makes them noteworthy is the fact that Williams uses both actual quotes from Classical authors (and New Testament as well) and his own constructions. He employs his own constructions...
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I first used this book in the Fall Semester of 1990 when I was a junior at Southern illinois University. I took the course CLAS-130a with Dr. Williams as the instructor, who is also the author of this book, but an earlier edition. Although I did not do well enough in the class to proceed in Classical Greek (I had enough with my Economics Major and Political Science minor). I had a great time learning Ancient Greek...
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