Wednesday, August 18, 2010

3.2 Greek Reading

I've typed up the exercises for 3.2, and I'm about to start translating them. One thing's for sure -- the amount of vocabulary that this book throws out at you is enormous compared to other "beginner" books I've seen. Just from this chapter:

ἀκίνητος motionless
ἀνεξέταστος without enquiry
ἄνευ without
ἀπαραίτητος unmoved by prayer, pitiless
αὐθαίρετος self-chosen, self-inflicted
βάτραχος frog
βιωτός worth living
δραστήριος active
εὐτυχία good fortune
κολακεία flattery
λίμνη pool, marsh
λύπη grief
μακρόβιος long-lived
ὁμιλία company
παμπλούσιος very rich
πλοῦτος wealth
πολύφιλος having many friends
σαφηνίζω make clear
σφόδρα very much, exceedingly
σχολή leisure, rest
ταλαιπωρία hardship, distress
Τύχη Fortune, Chance
ὑγίεια health
ὑποπτεύω suspect, be suspicious
ὕστερον later, afterwards
χρῄζω be in need of, desire

This is only the second chapter that gives vocabulary, and they're already throwing out words like these!! Can you imagine?!

Question
6. τὰ μεγάλα δῶρα τῆς Τύχης ἔχει φόβον.
What does it mean to "have fear"? Does it mean "to be afraid"? I'm not sure how to understand this sentence. "Great gifts of Fortune have fear." Any suggestions? Thanks!
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5 comments:

  1. JasonAugust 18, 2010 at 2:23 AM

    I spend more time reviewing the vocabulary than reading the Greek. There is just so much in the lists! By the end of it, I write and memorize the words, and when I read the stories it all makes sense. They aren't bad readings either. This chapter has a story about the frogs sending emissaries to Zeus (ὁ Κρονίδης) to beg for a king. When Zeus gives them a log to rule over them, they complain that he's motionless and lazy (ἀκίνητος καὶ ἀργός). In his place, Zeus gives them a hydra, which starts eating them! When they send the emissaries to Zeus, he says that they shouldn't have complained in the first place. The moral is given that δεῖ τοὺς ἀργοὺς δεσπότας φέρειν ἐπεὶ οἱ δραστήριοι δεσπόται ταλαιπωρίας πολλάκις φέρουσιν - it's necessary to bear with* lazy masters, since active masters often bring* hardships.

    * "Bear with" and "bring" are the same word in Greek.

    Great chapter, if you ask me. :)

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  2. JasonAugust 19, 2010 at 8:48 AM

    I think one disadvantage of having so much vocabulary in each unit is that it doesn't provide enoough contextual practice to see the differences in apparent synonyms. For instance, in chapter 4, we find the word ψόγος ("blame"), and there's no reason to think that it means anything other that αἰτία ("censure, blame"), the opposite of ἔπαινος ("praise"). The only sentence that we find ψόγος in in the reading exercises is: μισθὸς ἀρετῆς ἔπαινος, κακίας δὲ ψόγος ("the reward of virtue [is] praise, but of wickedness [is] blame"). That's not enough to establish a difference between the two words.

    Should one live in LSJ to overcome these disadvantages? Nate and I noticed a similar issue with various words for "new" and "old" a few days ago. Even going to LSJ didn't provide any clarity, since a few of the words had overlapping (I mean completely overlapping) meanings. What to do? Memorize two words for one thing?

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  3. Nathan DAugust 20, 2010 at 12:01 AM

    Perhaps if we encounter two words which, on the face of it, seem to share the same meaning, we can search the databases to find out which of the two was used more frequently than the other. :)

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  4. MarkosAugust 20, 2010 at 4:15 AM

    Jason,

    I agree with you that those words seem very advanced for an early chapter. δραστηριος seems particularly obscure, although I wonder if that is where we get "drastic."

    I assume that the authors have some method in this madness of introducing hard words early on. It should be noticed that most texts, which start off with easy words, don't really work all that well in that people (including me) have a hard time learning Greek. Maybe they just wanted to try something new. Do they say anything about their method in the intro?

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  5. JasonAugust 21, 2010 at 2:02 AM

    There may be something to that, Markos. It's for certain that most introductory books don't get you prepared to deal with the types of words you find in actual texts. Having to tackle words like these really gets one into the mindset for reading long words or getting used to compounds! I'll check the intro to the book and let you know if it says anything relevant (though I doubt it).

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