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As the list of quality options available for intermediate Greek instructors continues to expand, even beyond those highlighted by Trzaskoma (2011), this is perhaps an opportune moment for those of us who teach intermediate Greek to reconsider our options. This short paper will briefly outline some of the challenges facing the student of intermediate Classical Greek and articulate some of the ways that using prose fiction (the “Ancient Greek novels”) as the primary text(s) in those courses can address those challenges.

Many standard textbooks focus explicitly (e.g., Athenaze) or implicitly (e.g., From Alpha to Omega, Greek: An Intensive Course) on preparing students to read Athenian authors of the 5th century BCE. Yet, even if students have a good command of grammar and vocabulary, the continuous prose selections introduced in many books remain challenging, because of their specialized content in genres largely unfamiliar to contemporary students (e.g., philosophy, rhetoric). And woe to those many whose grasp of the basics is less secure!

In the introduction to his commentary on 1 Maccabees, Jonathan Goldstein writes that the Greek of 1 Maccabees is an “extremely literal translates” making it anything but normal (1976:14). As the field of Classics continues to interrogate long held assumptions about cannon, Goldstein’s remark should encourage us to probe these atypical kinds of Greeks. The Greek of 1 Maccabees is anything but normal because it translates a now lost Hebrew Vorlage.

Recent years have seen much new scholarship on the prose writings of Philodemus of Gadara. But before the decipherment of the Herculaneum papyri, Philodemus was primarily known for his epigrams, and he still has much to teach us about Hellenistic poetry.

In recent years, numerous studies have documented the indebtedness of early Roman comic genres to Greek antecedents, and more specifically connected Lucilius’ Satires to Greek comedy (see particularly Delignon 2004 and Pezzini 2018; cf. already Fiske 1920 and Fraenkel 1922).

Nicander’s Theriaca has recently experienced renewed attention (Clauss 2006; Overduin 2013; 2015; Wilson 2018), but his other surviving poem, the

In this paper, I analyse the fragments of two Hellenistic epics which both retell Jewish biblical tradition through the medium of epic poetry: Philo’s On Jerusalem (

Rivers course through the verse of the Hellenistic period.

Scholars of Hellenistic Sicily have paid increasing attention to how Hieron II of Syracuse (r. 275-215) used cultural patronage to assert his status on the Hellenistic world stage (Lehmler 2005; Zambon 2006; Veit 2013; Krüger 2022).

The present-day linguistic sensitivities render one’s native tongue, accent, or speech peculiarities as important aspects of their identity. A native language of a displaced person, an accent of an emigrant, or a special manner of speech typical of a certain local or social background are often among the most eloquent and truthful testifiers of who the person is, where they came from, and what they have been through.