From Alpha to Omega: A Beginning Course in Classical Greek

by Anne H. Groton

From Alpha to Omega is a Classical Greek grammar textbook of fifty lessons with readings beginning with Aesop. Answer Key contains answers to all exercises. The exercise text provides additional exercises, additional explanatory material and answer keys for all exercises in the ancillary text. Online audio files of vocabulary and exercises are available for the first half of the text, developed by David Noe, Calvin College.

Genres: Language, Classics, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Reference, Classical Studies, School

520 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Liz]

It’s all Greek to me

[David Fenske]

ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ δοῦλος Ἄννης Γροτώνης

[Vrixton Phillips]

10 weeks is not long enough to get a thorough introduction to Ancient Greek, but by the gods I did it.

I would like to thank my patroness, Athena, for helping me get through High School and College with a B average and hope she will continue to shower me with her blessings <3

[Hannah Victoria Katherine]

This is the only Greek textbook I've used so I can't compare it to others but I worked with it for 2 semesters and got A in both classes.

[Tyler]

I should begin by admitting that my frame of reference for textbooks on Ancient Greek is functionally limited to two works -- Athenaze and now this one, From Alpha to Omega. I used the former in my university classes; I read the latter in its entirety after uni, feeling dissatisfied with my level of Greek and hoping for a refresher as I read the textbook's accompanying chrestomathy, 46 Stories in Classical Greek. I think I greatly prefer this textbook to Athenaze. Why?

Athenaze is the standard textbook for Ancient Greek in the university setting, a two-part textbook produced by Oxford, representing the combined work of three scholars, Maurice Balme, Gilbert Lawall, and James Morwood. Across both volumes, there are thirty chapters; each chapter introduces roughly twenty to thirty words for students to memorize -- and bears a lengthy (glossed) reading, grammatical explanations interspersed with four or five student exercises, another medium-length glossed reading with comprehension questions for students, and one or two shorter unadapted texts from Classical and Koine Greek.

From Alpha to Omega, on the other hand, is much simpler. Although there are fifty chapters, each chapter only includes about ten words for students to memorize, clear but detailed grammatical explanations, one medium-length reading (glossed and adapted from a Greek text), and only two sets of exercises: ten Greek-to-English translations -- and five English-to-Greek. I truly believe that less was more.

In the course of two semesters of Athenaze, it was not possible to introduce all the grammar topics magnified with such prolixity in those two 400-page volumes. By semester two, our teacher gave up on asking us to memorize 10 new verbs per week, each with six principal parts -- along with a bevvy of nouns, adverbs, and modal particles. She mostly 'threw in the towel' on those dread MI-verbs (and who could blame her?). Readings and exercises were many enough to pick and choose, but I didn't want to need to pick and choose -- I prefer the continuity of learning that reading a single textbook cover-to-cover would provide, and Athenaze was simply too lengthy for that to be a possibility.

From Alpha to Omega moves quickly -- and it does not extensively reiterate former grammatical topics in case students have forgotten them. It thus requires a dedicated learner who is capable of remembering when and where certain topics were covered, who can recognize them when he spots them, and if he feels iffy, who has a set of handwritten notes that he is prepared to consult. Such was my case, and this textbook served me well.

[Caleb Kirk]

Excellent primer! I’ve gone through two semesters with it and loved the experience. My one criticism is that the vocabulary and the reading entries don’t correlate so well as other primers (for example Wheelock’s Latin, which uses the vocabulary already introduced extensively). The fourth edition does have a couple typos, but the corrections can be found in the appendix.

[Jennifer]

Pretty good but sometimes the lessons don't receive as much attention as they should. Many important details are also written in tiny print. However, there are plenty of interesting passages to translate and I did learn a lot from this book.

[Maya]

I love the Aesops fables at the end of the chapters. Children's literature is the best way to learn a language.

[Jessy]

I started on Greek with this.

[Mike]

This was the third Greek textbook that I've used. It was by far the best. Highly recommended.