Classical Greek

The Greek Language stretches back into the mists of time, onto cryptic clay tablets from Bronze Age Cyprus and Mycenae, through Homer’s brilliant Iliad and Odyssey (an oral tradition only written down centuries later), Athenian comedy and tragedy (Aristophanes, Sophocles, Euripides), history (Herodotus, Thucydides…), and the earliest true philosophy (Plato, Aristotle…). It became the language of empire under Alexander the Great, and is the original language of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. With many more twists and turns it became Modern Greek as spoken today. Learn the Greek Alphabet (widely used in mathematics and many sciences), learn the language, history and culture that began Western Civilisation, gain direct access to the New Testament, learn how an ancient religion functioned and how its mythology still speaks to us today. Dead languages have so much life in them!

Enjoyment: Playing language games and Greek sports, acting out role-plays, making short films/animations, singing songs, visiting museums, hearing guest speakers, undertaking cultural craft and computer activities, celebrating major festivals, cooking.

Challenge: Learning any language is hard but amazingly rewarding. It is like learning a whole new way to think. FMRI studies show that it exercises the whole brain more than any other kind of learning. In Classical Greek, we learn language on a very deep level with a focus on how language works and how vocabulary is built.

Achievement: Classical Greek will unlock English on a nuts-and-bolts level, help understand and write it at a sophisticated level, and greatly accelerate later learning of other languages (particularly the Greek and Slavic languages). This one year elective will not allow a student to progress to the HSC in Classical Greek.

Although some speaking, listening and writing of Classical Greek will be used to enliven our classes, play games and activate more brainpower, learning Classical Greek is primarily about learning to read it. In the process students will gain extraordinary insight into the workings of languages in general and of complex English vocabulary in particular. Many modern languages are part of a large family called Indo-European. This family stretches from northern India, through the Middle East, to Europe, Russia and Scandinavia. Students will learn the history of this family, charted back to 10,000 BCE in modern Turkey.

Classical Greek is about Ancient Greek culture and history too. Topics will include: Bronze Age Greece, daily life, love and marriage, slavery, theatre, exercise, oratory, religion, mythology, art, philosophy, science, medicine, law, history, the military and democracy. Students will develop intercultural understanding by comparing modern life with a complex and historically influential culture which is the grandparent of our own.

Students will gain skills in linguistic analysis: understanding the components of language, phonology (a language’s system of sounds), word formation, syntax and vocabulary. They will understand how language functions as a system by comparing Classical Greek with other languages, primarily with English. Students will begin to understand how languages change over time and are interrelated.

By studying a culture from long ago, but which has heavily influenced many later civilisations including our own, students will learn dispassionate analysis of society and improve their critical thinking.

Students in the Classical Greek Elective will be eligible for the trips to Greece and Italy planned for 2023 and beyond.

$30 (Including International Greek Exam)

This course will appear on your RoSA as Classical Greek.