ἔπε᾽ ἄγαν: Ancient Greek

χαίρετε, ὦ μαθηταί! Greetings, o students!

We may call ourselves the Gubernatoris Latina Academia Virginiae, but Latin won't be the only language you see in Ashland. Get ready to dive in to Ancient Greek! Following the examples of great Romans such as Cicero, Vergil, Augustus, and Marcus Aurelius, together we will learn to read and love the language of the Ancient Greeks!

The alphabet will be our first step to master: it may seem like a daunting hurdle, but I assure you that after our first day you’ll be reading Greek words like a pro - and you might have a new alphabet song stuck in your head. Our exploration will then blossom into nouns, verbs, adjectives, and the like. We will aim to read sentences and short stories - and even write some Greek ourselves!

The name of our Ancient Greek course, ἔπε᾽  ἄγαν ("words in excess"), is a play on our theme for Academy: μηδὲν ἄγαν ("nothing in excess"). The vocabulary of Ancient Greek is broad, and the forms are numerous. (Need I mention that Greek has not six, but SEVEN tenses? And THREE voices?) But we only have three weeks together, so we'll choose to focus on a sliver of all the Greek there is to learn. After all, even though Greek has words in excess, we must stay true to our theme and have nothing in excess!

But our title ἔπε᾽ ᾽άγαν will have another meaning for us. The Greeks used the word ἔπος to refer to both a "word" that you speak and a literary genre: epic poetry. And in the spirit of epic poetry, we will embark upon reading some of Homer's Iliad in the original Greek. As much fun as conjugations and declensions might be, I find that the most rewarding part of learning a language is to read from real authors!

This may all sound like a lot, but in the end you will find you have a greater familiarity with Ancient Greek. Ultimately our experience will bring new meaning to the phrase “It’s all Greek to me!”

- Magister Jefferson