Καλημερα. During my junior year of college, which is when I think I really started to embrace the idea of learning for learning's sake, I took two semesters of Attic Greek. I was a Classics major, but Greek wasn't required since I was Classical Civ., not Greek Lit. I had three reasons for putting myself through this: 1) Desire to read New Testament Greek 2) Desire to read Greek lyric poetry as it was originally written and 3) Just to be able to say that I did it.
By the end of the year, I was obviously able to say that I did it. I was reading snippets of NT Greek, but because of the complexity of Greek dialects, I hadn't yet gotten to the level where I could open up a book of Greek poetry and understand it. One of the most common misconceptions is that there was one language known as "Ancient Greek." In reality, there were scores of regional dialects, all of which were based around common grammatical principles and vocabularies, but like the Pirate Code, it was really just a set of guidelines that were loosely adhered to. What we now call Ancient Greek and what is taught in most Classics departments is Attic Greek, which is the vernacular that was spoken in Hellenic Athens 2,500 years ago.
I bring this up not only to show off but because after the spring of 2005, I gave up on Greek. I had extra credits to fill my senior year and decided French and art history would be more interesting. While I thoroughly enjoyed those classes, I have since missed committing myself to the Greek language. Make no mistake, you can't really dabble in Greek; you must make a full commitment. Having grown tired of dominating my fiancee in Mario Kart Wii, Risk, and Scene It!, it's time for a new challenge, and that new challenge moving forward will be re-learning Greek.
Yesterday, I used a Barnes and Noble gift card (thank you future in-laws) to purchase H.G. Scott and Robert Liddell's canon of the Attic Greek language, Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, lovingly referred to by Greek scholars as "Middle Liddell." I also found a used copy of our old textbook, Athenaze. One of the great things about something like this is that you get to commit yourself and not make the same mistakes you would have as an undergrad. While I was one of the better students in the class at the time, I still had other obligations that kept me from focusing solely on Greek, such as other classes, hockey, and XBox. It's not that I don't have even more and arguably more important things going on in my life, but as an adult, you should possess the discipline and focus to drive you even harder than you may have as an undergrad. No one understands this better than Jasper Rees, a middle-aged man who studied some French Horn as a kid but gave it up, only to pick it up again 25 years later, master the instrument, and even play before a paying audience.
I don't see live readings of Sappho in my near or distant future, but my study of Greek is symbollic of my idealism and curiosity as a young student. As I now become increasingly jaded with the lack of intellectual curiosity and even respect for what I consider to be a true education in the "real world," I'm afraid that I will ultimately lose touch with my own intellectual identity as I try to keep up. In the past 2,500 years, what has since become known as the Greek language has only changed about as much as English has in the past 500. Such stability, especially for a language, is remarkable. I hope that studying Attic Greek will keep me connected to my intellectual roots, roots that are as constant and deeply embedded as the original language is itself.
