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Basic Program in Greek

In the first six weeks of the summer, students work through the entirety of Hansen and Quinn's Greek: An Intensive Course. During this time, students master the forms and syntax of the language while reading relatively simple selections of unadapted prose and poetry.

In the final four weeks of the course, students read longer texts in the morning and, in the afternoon, survey major authors and genres ranging from the Archaic through the Hellenistic periods. They also have two opportunities each day for additional readings at sight. Core texts in the basic Greek program include Plato's Ion and Euripides' Medea. Supplementary lectures (e.g., on textual criticism, the history of the Greek language, meter, rhetoric) provide further enrichment. The program concludes with a two-week elective in which students choose an author to read and analyze in even greater depth.

Greek Institute

Required of all students.

• Attic Prose: Plato—A close translation and examination of the syntax, style, and rhetoric of Plato's Ion.
• Survey of Greek Prose and Poetry—Representative selections of Greek prose and poetry of the Archaic and classical periods will be studied with emphasis on rhetoric, metrics, the development of style and dialectical differences.
• Greek Tragedy: Euripides—Extensive selections from Euripides' Medea are read with a view toward an appreciation of Euripides' style, rhetoric, meter, and poetic technique.
• Greek Prose Composition—Simple and complex English sentences are translated into Greek with a threefold purpose: 1) to review basic rules of syntax, 2) to expand knowledge of Greek syntax by applying basic rules previously learned to more intricate constructions, and 3) to call attention to matters of word order, style, and prose rhythm in order to create a sensitive response to the art of Greek prose.

Greek Institute Electives

Each student will choose one two-week mini-course (18 class hours). A minimum of three of the following will be offered.

• Greek Epic—Homer
• Greek Historiography—Thucydides
• Greek Philosophy—Aristotle
• New Testament Greek—Selections from one of the Gospels