Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding text for new students of Greek
Review: As a 37 year old physician, I decided to learn Ancient Greek on my own without any prior experience in classical languages or grammar. Having reviewed a few other texts, this is absolutely the most useful and easily accessible. That's not to say that it's easy, but everything is explained in a well-organized and complete manner. The drills and exercises are very well done and it was thrilling to be able to tackle such a difficult subject on my own. My only minor issue with this book is that there is no answer key for the exercises, so one has to puzzle them out for oneself--a good experience in itself--but there are periodic self-scoring tests with answers that do keep you on track. Overall a wonderful introduction to Greek for the novice.
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Summary: A DENSE introduction to Attic Greek
Review: As a linguist, this text was very informative and written for those of us with natural talents in language...I used this text in an Elementary Classical Greek course and was very glad I was receiving formal instruction. The chapters in this book are extremely long, dense, and jam-packed, and when a new grammatical point is introduced, they throw everything about it at you (for instance the chapter on verbs throws every possible active form at you, which for those who have no training in Ancient Greek, is A LOT to digest in one chapter) The sections on vocab are great because there are informative insights into each new word. Overall a good book, but I really wouldnt recommend it for self study, as there are no answer keys to follow up the exercises.
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Summary: You can learn Ancient Greek
Review: As an avid reader of the classics I wanted to learn Ancient Greek so that I could appreciate the works in the original language. I started out at my local library where I found very few books on the subject. The few that I did find were too advanced or were poorly written. Hansen's text book is different. It starts out slowly with pronunciation and alphabet lessons. These are very valuble and were the elements that were most lacking in the other texts. The book builds to syntax and vocabulary. The great thing about the book is that they put easy reading and speaking drills early on. This makes you feel like you are learning and builds your confidence. The book also stresses thinking in Greek, since it makes the language easier to learn and since Greek is one of the most expressive languages. This truly is an intensive course in the language and some devotion to study is required. However, it is fairly simple and fun to learn from the book. At the completion of the lessons, you will have a basic understanding of the Greek language and will be able to express ideas in the language. I am not very good at learning languages. If I can learn ancient greek so can you. Other good features of this book are its Greek/English English/Greek translation dictionary for many usefuls words and phrases.
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Summary: Not Perfect But There's Not Anything Much Better
Review: As complex as Ancient Greek is, trying to organize the key grammatical concepts in an understandable and concise manner is a daunting challenge. In this repect, Hansen and Quinn succeed admirably. Although some may be intimidated by the size and the ammount of material included in each unit, with study and practice one can pick up the concepts very quickly, and, because the grammar is organized so well in the book, the concepts seem to effortlessly (untill the last few units) build on each other. The only drawbacks to this book are these: not enough vocabulary, boring excercises (some are downright horrendouss), and some grammatical concepts (e.g. the dual) are left for the appendix which might be better placed in the main body.
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Summary: There really is no other choice for elementary Greek...
Review: Hansen and the late and sadly missed Quinn put together in the 1970's what is well nigh the only elementary Greek text worth considering. Greek: An Intensive Course covers in 20 units and an appendix what other courses cannot aspire to manage in multiple volumes (e.g., the disgraceful Athenaze series). Hansen and Quinn provide a solid and rigorous foundation in morphology and syntax. Ancient Greek is not supposed to be easy; it is as it is and any attempt to dilute its reality does a disservice to people who actually want to read the classical authors. The only disappointment is that I would have suggested to the authors that space be devoted in the appendix to a discussion of the dialects, especially the Homeric, along with readings of other passages than Attic Greek. The book's readings are perhaps the only weakness in a largely flawless text; there is far too much of an emphasis on Plato and the orators at the expense of historians and tragedians. Most students today will not care to learn so much grammar just to read the Gorgias...without Homer and mythology forget keeping most people's interest today. But for the serious student who does not need to be coaxed into learning her or his lessons, this is the text to use.
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Summary: Wonderful resource!
Review: I am currently using this book to learn Greek with a friend. It is VERY helpful and easy to understand. There is occasional confusion simply because everything references something else, but this is very rare. I would recommend this to anyone!
Rating:
Summary: Great text
Review: I began my study @ the University of Washington three months ago and have finished half of the Hansen and Quinn text.
The book is well-organized and presents all concepts clearly and with excellent examples.
I looked through the text prior to beginning the quarter and was, needless to say, driven nearly to tears by the level of complexity and the amount of rote memorization that was going to be required of me. However, I can't think of a better way to organize the information than the authors of this book have done.
The units start simply and then begin to require more and more work, yet keep the workload manageable, as long was one is constantly working. The only flaw I can see is the claim that this text can be used by anyone seeking to learn Greek on their own time. I don't think this is entirely possible, unless one is willing to devote a large amount of time to the subject. I believe this weighty tome is designed for college students with ample time to spend translating sentences, not for the average individual with an already full schedule.
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Summary: Stop your search for an ancient greek manual here
Review: I had tried to learn ancient greek for years with other manuals. Even though I love languages, have Latin and am interested in classical culture and civilization, I was lost with every other Greek manual by the time I got to the first aorist. This is the definitive text, as far as I am concerned. Tip for the students: If your teacher tells you not to worry about the accents in the beginning, change teachers.
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Summary: Outstanding and currently without rival
Review: I have taught ancient Greek to students from middle school age to graduate students for more than ten years. This book is the best available, hands down. It is not condescending. It contains no serious errors; such infelicities as there are in its Greek sentences are to be excused on the grounds of pedagogical expediency. Its grammatical and morphological sections are the very definition of clarity and succinctness. It may be guilty of an occasional oversimplification or a venial sin of omission. It leaves certain declensional systems and conditional constructions to the appendix, for example, and it certainly should include the an account of the dual, at least for nouns, somewhere in the body of the text. But those shortcomings are easily outweighed by the advantages of this textbook. It's the only one I have found where a student can actually a) get through the morphology and grammar of the Attic dialect in a realistic amount of time (Athenaze, in contrast, takes FOREVER) and b) leave students actually ready to tackle, say, a Platonic dialogue or a Euripidean tragedy when they're done. (Athenaze takes a distant second on this count, too.) Other shortcomings: not enough vocabulary to give students a real "working minimum". Relegation of some fairly important morphology and grammar to the appendix. Or, conversely, Other strengths: Doesn't overwhelm students trying to give them a "working minimum vocabulary", I take it because the contents of such a hypothetical working minimum vocabulary vary widely depending on the genre or author the student is going to tackle.
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Summary: An Excellent, Not-For-Dummies Greek Course
Review: I picked up this book recently with a friend with the intention of learning Attic Greek. We are both Latin students, and having heard many good things about this book, we decided to try it. After just a few weeks of work, I can already see the difference between this text and others: this book assumes that the reader is capable of understanding a language vastly more complicated than English. Having a strong background in Latin and an open mind definitely helps, though; I don't suggest using this text if you lack either of these qualities. However, if you are planning to work alone, this may not be the best option: the title does not lie when it reads "Intensive." I know that working with a friend has helped me so far, and I can only imagine how much help a qualified instructor would be. After the first few units, I was already finding myself reading and understanding parts of Plato's Republic and other authentic Greek texts. Either way, I highly recommend this series over the other Greek texts out there, and i hope you pick this one up.
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