Why Prose Fiction for Intermediate Greek Courses?
By Robert Groves, University of Arizona
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.
Looking Beyond Athens in the First-Year Greek Classroom
By Elizabeth Manwell, Kalamazoo College
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!
Who Wants to be Normal Anyway?: Biblical Greek and Interlingual Pedagogy
By Daniel Golde, The Jewish Theological Seminary
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.