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Over the summer, I attended a class at Harvard University on Ancient Greek. It was hard work, but really quite rewarding to learn a completely new language. We started learning how to write the letters in the alphabet ("alphabet" is actually a Greek word). Then we practiced reading some basic lines. Reading the first lines of The Iliad and The Odyssey gave me goosebumps... reading something that I have been obsessed with since 7th Grade in its original language! By the end of the class, I was able to read a variety texts, from Theognis' sayings about wine-drinking to Plato's views about government. My final exam consisted of translating a passage about the story of Daedalus and Icarus:
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ἦν ποτε ἀνήρ τις πάντων σοφώτερος καὶ πολλᾱ̀ς ἐπιστάμενος τεχνᾱ́ς, ᾧ τὸ ὄνομα
*Δαίδαλος ἦν. οὗτος δὲ δὴ ἐποίει ὅτι *Μῑ́νως ὁ βασιλεὺς κελεύοι αὐτόν, οὐκ ἑκών γε ἀλλὰ
διὰ μεγάλην ἀνάγκην · ὁ γὰρ Μῑ́νως ἐτεθήκει αὐτὸν ἐν *πύργῳ τινὶ ὥστε μὴ δύνασθαι
φυγεῖν. ᾱ̓́θλιος οὖν ἦν ὁ Δαίδαλος, οὐ μόνον διὰ τὸ δοῦλον τοῦ βασιλέως εἶναι ἀλλὰ καὶ
φοβούμενος μὴ ὁ παῖς, ὃς ἐτύγχανε σὺν ἑαυτῷ ὤν, οὐδέποτε ὄψοιτο τὴν πατρίδα καὶ τᾱ̀ς
πόλεις ἀνθρώπων. ἐβούλευσεν οὖν ὅντινα τρόπον αὐτός τε καὶ ὁ παῖς δυνήσονται ἐκ τοῦ
πύργου φυγεῖν καὶ οὕτως ἐλεύθεροι γενέσθαι. ὁ οὖν πατήρ, οὐκ ἐξὸν αὐτοῖς ἐκ τοῦ πύργου
τοῖς ποσὶ βαίνειν, *πτερὰ μακρὰ ποιήσᾱς τῷ παιδὶ ἔδωκε καὶ οὕτως εἶπε · “πείθου μοι, ὦ
φίλτατε. εἰ μὲν γὰρ πρὸς τὸν *ἥλιον εἶ, πεσὼν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ θανῇ. ἐὰν δὲ μὴ τοῦτο ποιήσῃς
ἀλλὰ σύν μοι ἐλθῇς, σωθήσῃ.”
εἴθε τοῦ πατρὸς ἤκουσεν ὁ παῖς. οὕτω γὰρ οὐκ ἂν ἔθανεν.
(There was once a certain man, wiser than everyone and understanding many arts, whose name was
Daedalus. This man used to do whatever King Minos commanded him—not voluntarily, of course,
but under great compulsion. For Minos had placed him in a tower so that he not be able to escape.
So Daedalus was miserable, not only because he was (“on account of being”) a slave of the king but
also because he feared (“fearing”) that his child, who happened to be with him, would never see his
fatherland and the cities of men. Therefore he planned how he and his son would be able to escape
from the tower and in this way become free. And since it was not possible for them to walk out of
the tower on foot, he made large wings, gave them to his child and spoke as follows: “Listen to me,
dearest one. If you go towards the sun, you will fall out of the sky and perish! But if you do not do
this but instead come with me, you will be saved.”
If only the child had listened to his father. For in this way he would not have died.)
After this amazing adventure, I have noticed that I have changed. My "a"s look like alphas, my "d"s look like deltas, and I am constantly seeing words and finding their Greek etymologies. Like for example, did y'all know that "Philip" really means "lover of horses"? Or that someone from the "police" is someone who serves his "polis" (city)? Or, for those who love Greek myths like myself, Oedipus, who was taken as a baby and had his ankles stapled to the ground, means "swollen feet"? Yeah, I know! It's so cool!!!!!! Anyway, I would definitely recommend this course to anyone else who has an intense love for the Classics, and languages in general, like me!
Be back soon with more!
Lykorhetor
(Speaking Wolf)
