ANCIENT GREEK

          A language, a part from acommunication means, is mostly a distinctive system of values, which reveals the mentality and identity of every people. That means that the introduction and immersion in the Greek Language, especially in its Ancient form, constitutes a way of approaching to and becoming familiarised with the Greek Culture, which is, admittedly, universal.

          In Gnomon the teaching of the Ancient Greek Language is developed in three levels with the following characteristics:

LEVEL A: Beginner

          Fruitful knowledge of main aspects of the Ancient Greek Culture. Take the first steps to the language structure, through Grammar and Syntax. Learn the Greek polytonic writing system. Be acquainted with the miraculous world of Etymology. Learn how to separate words in their roots and reach their “etymon”, i.e. their real origin. Read, analyse, recite and learn by heart brief apothegms by the great orators, historiographers and poets of Ancient and Medieval Greece, while being familiarised with their fascinating lives. Discover Ancient Greek in derivatives and compound words of Modern Greek and other languages. Take the first steps to the language of the Eastern Orthodox Church Greek Hymnology and Divine Liturgy.

LEVEL B : Adequate knowledge of Ancient Greek (e.g. capability of reading the New Testament in the original).

          What is taught in Level A is also taught in Level b, yet on a deeper level. Study selected texts of the whole range of Greek Literature: Attic Greek Writers (Orators, Philosophers, Historiographers), Herodotus, Pre-Socratic Philosophers, Lyric Poetry, Drama, Homer, Scientists (e.g. Eratosthenes), Ecclesiastical Writers, Hymnographers. Be acquainted with the major accomplishments of Greeks through out history and with texts which further elaborate  on the Greek Identity (e.g. Why did Greeks become Christians?)

LEVEL C: Proficient knowledge of Ancient Greek. Teaching of a specific work (e.g. Sophocles’ Antigone) in the original.

          General Remark: Some of the basic parameters of our lessons are slow-paced progress, revision, proper recitation, respect of every student’s particularities and prominence of the essence of Greek Culture.