Greek O Level 1983

You might like to pit your skills against this O Level paper from 1983.  The comprehension and unseen translation questions are the place to start.

Download:  Classical Greek O Level June 1983

We are not alone

People studying Latin and Greek

 

Click here for larger version

Don't grow old - in Sardinia !

It was a custom in Sardinia that the children of aged parents beat them to death with clubs and buried them, in the belief that it was wrong for the excessively old to continue living, since the body, suffering through age, had many failings....The Derbiccae kill those who are seventy years of age. They sacrifice the men and strangle the women.

Νόμος ἐστὶ Σαρδῷος, τοὺς ἤδη γεγηρακότας τῶν πατέρων οἱ παῖδες ῥοπάλοις τύπτοντες ἀνῄρουν καὶ ἔθαπτον, αἰσχρὸν ἡγούμενοι τὸν λίαν ὑπέργηρων ὄντα ζῆν ἔτι, ὡς πολλὰ ἁμαρτάνοντος τοῦ σώματος τοῦ διὰ τὸ γῆρας πεπονηκότος.....Δερβίκκαι τοὺς ὑπὲρ ἑβδομήκοντα ἔτη βεβιωκότας ἀποκτείνουσι, τοὺς μὲν ἄνδρας καταθύοντες, ἀπάγχοντες δὲ τὰς γυναῖκας.

Aelian, Varia Historia 4.1 (tr. N.G. Wilson): 

An Ancient Greek Joke

Γραμματικοῦ θυγάτηρ ἔτεκεν φιλότητι μιγεῖσα   παιδίον ἀρσενικόν, θηλυκόν, οὐδέτερον. 

A grammarian’s daughter, having 'known' a man, gave birth to a child which was masculine, feminine, and neuter. (translated by W. R. Paton)

Taken from the Greek Anthology  9.489 and attributed to Palladas 

Class Schedule for the remainder of the course.

March 12th: Week 8
March 19th: NO CLASS.
March 26th: Week 9
April    2nd: Week 10

-Chris

The Wisdom of Herakles: a new translation.

I thought I'd have a go at translating this piece myself......

Euripides, Alcestis 780-802 (spoken by Herakles, tr. Chris Maughan)

Do you conceive the nature of mortality?

I imagine not; how could you?

But hear me out.

All men are in the sights of Death.

No mortal can be sure that he

will live out his life ‘til tomorrow.

Events that come by chance, are not foreseen.

They can’t be learnt nor swayed by any skill.

Listen to this and learn from me; drink, be merry

and tick off your days as you live your life.

Those left belong to Fortune.

Pay honour too, to Love, that most delectable of deities,

for she is well-disposed to mortal men.

Let all else go and heed my words,

If I seem to you be talking sense. Indeed, I believe that I am.

So cast off your pain and drink with me.

Sport the victory crown as you overcome Fortune.

I am wise to know that the sound of a splash, like oars, in a drinking cup

will unwind your moorings from this mood of melancholy.

Being mortals, it is right that our thoughts are mortal.

In my opinion, life, for all solemn frowning men,

is not truly life but an affliction.

-Chris

 

Akropolis World News - in Ancient Greek

I've recently discovered the site of a Greek tutor at St Andrews who posts extracts from current news in elegant Classical Greek.  http://www.akwn.net/

I've had a look at the latest one on the Ukraine troubles.  Here's the text with a few annotations (click to enlarge):

The Wisdom of Heracles

This is a marvellous piece on why we should eat, drink and be merry

Euripides, Alcestis 779-802 (spoken by Heracles, tr. Moses Hadas and John McLean):

Come here and learn a thing or two. Do you understand the nature of mortality?

I suppose you don't. How could you? But listen to me.

All men have to pay the debt of death, and there is not a mortal who knows whether he is going to be alive on the morrow.

The outcome of things that depend on fortune cannot be foreseen; they can neither be learnt nor discovered by any art.

Hearken to this and learn of me, cheer up, drink, reckon the days yours as you live them; the rest belong to fortune.

Pay honor too to Cypris, most sweetest of goddesses to men; she is a gracious deity.

Let these other things go, and heed my words—if I seem to you to be talking sense; I think I am.

Come away from the door there, bind your head with garlands, and drink with me.

I know well that the splash of the wine in the cup will shift you from this dour, tight moodiness.

We are only human, and our thought ought to be human.

Life for all you sober and frowning folk, if you take my opinion, is not really life but a calamity.

δεῦρ' ἔλθ', ὅπως ἂν καὶ σοφώτερος γένῃ.
τὰ θνητὰ πράγμαθ' ἣντιν' οἶσθ' ἔχει φύσιν;
οἶμαι μὲν οὔ· πόθεν γάρ; ἀλλ' ἄκουέ μου.

βροτοῖς ἅπασι κατθανεῖν ὀφείλεται,
κοὐκ ἔστι θνητῶν ὅστις ἐξεπίσταται
τὴν αὔριον μέλλουσαν εἰ βιώσεται·
τὸ τῆς τύχης γὰρ ἀφανὲς οἷ προβήσεται,
κἄστ' οὐ διδακτὸν οὐδ' ἁλίσκεται τέχνῃ.
ταῦτ' οὖν ἀκούσας καὶ μαθὼν ἐμοῦ πάρα
εὔφραινε σαυτόν, πῖνε, τὸν καθ' ἡμέραν
βίον λογίζου σόν, τὰ δ' ἄλλα τῆς τύχης.
τίμα δὲ καὶ τὴν πλεῖστον ἡδίστην θεῶν
Κύπριν βροτοῖσιν· εὐμενὴς γὰρ ἡ θεός.
τὰ δ' ἄλλ' ἔασον πάντα καὶ πιθοῦ λόγοις
ἐμοῖσιν, εἴπερ ὀρθά σοι δοκῶ λέγειν.
οἶμαι μέν. οὔκουν τὴν ἄγαν λύπην ἀφεὶς
πίῃ μεθ' ἡμῶν [τάσδ' ὑπερβαλὼν τύχας,
στεφάνοις πυκασθείς]; καὶ σάφ' οἶδ' ὁθούνεκα
τοῦ νῦν σκυθρωποῦ καὶ ξυνεστῶτος φρενῶν
μεθορμιεῖ σε πίτυλος ἐμπεσὼν σκύφου.
ὄντας δὲ θνητοὺς θνητὰ καὶ φρονεῖν χρεών·
ὡς τοῖς γε σεμνοῖς καὶ συνωφρυωμένοις
ἅπασίν ἐστιν, ὥς γ' ἐμοὶ χρῆσθαι κριτῇ,
οὐ βίος ἀληθῶς ὁ βίος ἀλλὰ συμφορά.

Class schedule change

Because of new travel commitments, Steve asked if we could cancel the class scheduled for Wed. March 19th and hold it the following Wed. March 26th. The class agreed.

March 19th class is cancelled and will be held on March 26th.

-Chris

Class Feb 19th: What we covered and prep. for next class.

In the grammar book we covered the new topics in section 16A-B.

In the text, we worked on section A.

Prep for next week: Text section A and B.

 -Chris

Typing Greek letters in a Word document

A Google search on "typing greek letters in word" turns up a load of of sites; this one is typical...

http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/GreekSymbols.htm

I have not tried this as I don't use Word, but it doesn't appear to cope with accents.

Another very handy site I found is....

http://www.typegreek.com/

This one does allow you to enter accents, breathings and subscripts. You type the Greek within the online tool and then you can copy and paste it into your document.

Another option is not to use Word at all. I use OpenOffice, a complete office suite that can replace Microsoft Office. It will open and save .doc(x) ppt excell files etc and it is completely FREE. And because it is open-source, there are lots of free extensions available that do lots of things. Should you want a Serbian dictionary, you can have one - {subjunctive} One such extension is called "Graecise" and it allows you to switch to typing in Greek(with accent support).

If you don't fancy switching to and learning a new word processor, typegreek.com is probably your best option.

If you want to try OpenOffice you can find it here...

http://www.openoffice.org/product/

DON'T INSTALL THE LATEST VERSION!

Because greacise doesn't yet support it. Install OpenOffice version 3.4
Graecise is available from the same site on the exensions page.

Have fun,

Chris

New Sappho poem - 'The Brothers' - read in Greek

Listen to one of the new Sappho poems read in Greek.  Below - the text with two translation versions

Link to YouTube

ἀλλ’ ἄϊ θρύληϲθα Χάραξον ἔλθην
νᾶϊ ϲὺμ πλέαι· τὰ μέν̣, οἴο̣μα̣ι, Ζεῦϲ
οἶδε ϲύμπαντέϲ τε θέοι· ϲὲ δ’̣ οὐ χρῆ
ταῦτα νόειϲθαι,

ἀλλὰ καὶ πέμπην ἔμε καὶ κέλ⟦η⟧`ε΄ϲθαι
πόλλα λί̣ϲϲεϲθαι̣ βαϲί̣λ̣η̣αν Ἤ̣ραν
ἐξίκεϲθαι τυίδε ϲάαν ἄγοντα
νᾶα Χάραξον,

κἄμμ’ ἐπεύρην  ἀρτ̣έ̣μεαϲ· τὰ δ’ ἄλλα
πάντα δαιμόνεϲϲ̣ιν ἐπι̣τ̣ρόπωμεν·
εὐδίαι̣ γ̣ὰρ̣ ἐκ μεγάλαν  ἀήτα̣ν̣
αἶψα πέ̣λ̣ο̣νται·

τῶν κε βόλληται βαϲίλευϲ Ὀλύμπω
δαίμον’ ἐκ πόνων ἐπάρ{η}`ω΄γον ἤδη
περτρόπην, κῆνοι μ̣άκαρεϲ πέλονται
καὶ πολύολβοι.

κ̣ἄμμεϲ, αἴ κε τὰν κεφάλα̣ν  έργ̣η
Λάρι̣χοϲ καὶ δήποτ’ ἄνη̣ρ γένηται,
καὶ μάλ’ ἐκ πόλλ⟦η⟧`αν΄ βαρ̣υθύ̣μιάν̣ κεν
αἶψα λύθειμεν.

Why the incessant gossip about Charaxus’ arrival,

in a loaded ship? Only Zeus, I think, knows

the truth, along with all the gods—it’s not for you

to have an opinion!

Hardly! You should be telling me to go and make

repeated appeals to Queen Hera

that Charaxos can make his return here,

ship and all,

finding us safe and sound. Let us place

everything else in the lap of the gods.

Sudden spells of fine weather often emerge

from heavy gales.

Some people are lucky enough to have

their problems averted by the King of Olympus.

They are blessed

and enormously fortunate.

In our case, if Larichos can just grow up

to be a man of leisure and status,

then from our heavy cargo of sorrows

we may very soon be freed!

But you always chatter that Charaxus is coming,

His ship laden with cargo. That much, I reckon, only Zeus

Knows, and all the gods; but you, you should not

Think these thoughts,

Just send me along, and command me

To offer many prayers to Queen Hera

That Charaxus should arrive here, with

His ship intact,

And find us safe. For the rest,

Let us turn it all over to higher powers;

For periods of calm quickly follow after

Great squalls.

They whose fortune the king of Olympus wishes

Now to turn from trouble

to [ … ] are blessed

and lucky beyond compare.

As for us, if Larichus should [ … ] his head

And at some point become a man,

Then from full many a despair

Would we be swiftly freed.

Here are the first few pages of the Alcestis in graphic form with extracts from the original Greek.

View and Download the pdf  here  (1.3 MB)

Translation and notes on Greek for first section (Word docx)

If anyone wants more, please leave a comment to that effect.

The Alcestis Story

I found a simple version of the background to the Alcestis story.  I thought we might read it in class before tackling the original.  I have added a selection of vocab.

Download the page (from my Amazon Cloud drive)

 

Heracles wrestling with Death for the body of Alcestis

by Lord Leighton

Hello Everyone

Hello Everyone,

On this blog you can discuss any aspects of the Maidenhead Greek class and check for updates on weeks that you may have missed.

Using the blog should be straightforward (ahem!) but feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.