Athenian Democracy: the Assembly
The following text is useful for those who are taking Greek language lessons or learn Greek by themselves and want to the GCSE Classical Greek exams The Assembly (Ekklesia, ἐκκλησία) was the regular gathering of male Athenian citizens (women also enjoyed a certain citizen status,…
Metics:Advantages of Living in Athens
Advantages of Living in Athens Despite the disadvantages, Athens was still a great place to live. Very rarely, a metic could be granted citizenship as a gift from a city official, but most continued to live in the city bearing the burden of their lesser social…
The Populace of Athens – Freemen-citizens
Freemen encompassed all male citizens of the city. They were divided into numerous classes whose status reflected the degree to which they were self-reliant or autarkic. Ideally the Greeks believed professions that relied on the payment of others were less favorable than professions in which…
Reading for GCSE Classical Greek
Read the passage and answer the questions. The Wooden Horse of Troy. οἱ Ἕλληνες δέκα ἔτη ἐμάχοντο τοῖς Τρωσίν. ἐβούλοντο γὰρ τὴν Τροίαν λαμβάνειν, ἀλλὰ οὐχ οἷοιτ’ ἦσαν. τέλος δὲ μέγαν ἵππον ξύλινον ἐποίησαν, καὶ ἐν τούτῳ στρατιώτας ἔκρυψαν.ἔπειτα δὲ οἱ ἄλλοι Ἕλληνες πρὸς νῆσόν…
How is the genitive used in Ancient Greek?
In broad terms the genitive ‘limits the meaning of substantives, adjectives, and adverbs, less commonly that of verbs’ (Smyth §1289); historically speaking it has absorbed some functions of the lost ablative case and so often denotes separation, where we then find the ideas of comparison,…
Tenses in Modern & Ancient Greek
The following tenses exist in both Modern and Ancient Greek (you will see them presented usually in the same order in Greek grammar books): Present, denoting both continuous and habitual aspects. There is no distinction between continuous (“I am helping”) and habitual (“I help”) aspects…
2 notes on accents- Classical Greek
While some vowels are LONG “BY NATURE” (e.g. η, ω…), ALL DIPHTHONGS are long (e.g., ει, οι, ευ…). There are two exceptions, however, to this diphthong rule. For indicative verbs – and all nouns and infinitives – FINAL –αι and –οι were pronounced quickly by the Greeks, and so regarded as short when determining accent type and placement. Note,…
The Recessive Accent 3 rules you need to know – Classical Greek
For most Greek verbs, the principle of RECESSIVE ACCENTUATION determines which syllable will receive the accent. In other words, the accent on a Greek verb form will fall as far back from the ULTIMA as the rules allow. There are three rules. Rule 1: If a verb form has…
Ancient Greek prepositions
Prepositions in Greek for the most part work as they do in English . The principal difference is that the object of a Greek preposition must be inflected in either the genitive, dative, or accusative case. The preposition together with its object is called a PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE. Three…
Ancient Greek: ίστημι
Active Present Indicative Conjunctive ίστημι ιστ-ώ ίστ-ης ιστ-ής ίστ-ησιν ιστ-ή ίστ-αμεν ιστ-ώμε ίστ-ατε ιστ-ήτε ιστ-άσιν ιστ-ώσι/ ιστ-ώσιν Are you looking for Greek Lessons/ courses in Manchester or online with a professional teacher? Click here: Modern Greek Language courses to learn more about our Greek lessons. You…