Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not good enough
Review: I don't find anything wrong with this text, and it's better than others I've worked with. But I want to chime in and add my echo to a reviewer below on a point which applies to this book and to all Greek textbooks in general. It really is difficult to understand why these texts do not have answer keys. I do understand that they are well-nigh useless for truly learning the language, since the teacher is going to give you the sinew and the essentials of the sentences. But, nevertheless, a lot of these books begin like this: "Given the mortal danger that classical Greek is in these days..." Well...ENCOURAGE THE AUTODIDACTS! Every textbook I'd ever worked with before taking a class left me flabbergasted by the third or fourth chapter because of some really easy to clear up confusion about how to translate the exercises. Often it involves minor points like how to understand "ti" in a particular instance.
If classicists want the classics to live, then get them out of classics departments and give them to the hoi polloi. Otherwise, they're just helping to murder it. The lack of aid to potential learners is reprehensible.
But as it goes, this is a good text.
Rating: 
Summary: The pleasures of an ancient language
Review: A professor once told me that it takes ten years of constant work to become really good in an ancient language. After working through Pharr, I could and did read the Iliad and the Odyssey in Greek, with the help of a lexicon. They are much much better in Greek than in any translation I've ever read. (One must also practice reading Homer aloud.) With a little work (learning not to miss the elided vowels), one can then read classic Greek, such as Herodotus. It is a pity that schools no longer emphasize these languages and what they teach about the structure of language. It is great to see Pharr here, and I highly recommend it to the diligent. If one does not understand the concept of inflection, however, and have the patience to learn the Greek alphabet, Pharr may be a frustrating exercise. If you succeed, however, and memorize a few lines here and there, you'll never regret it. "En de pithoi oinoio...." Homer is so incredibly human and real.
Rating:
Summary: Menin aiede, thea
Review: After New Testament Greek, Homeric Greek is arguably the easiest dialect of Greek to learn, although the Classical tends to be standard. As the world of classical languages seems to lose ground in the schools, the introduction to Greek via Homer would prove an interesting exploration. This chestnut on the subject is well-done, concise and well-organized,leading briskly into the strangely distant yet near world of both the Iliad itself and the mysterious age of the Archaic Greeks whose sudden precipitous surging advance in the eighth century gave birth in a rapid clip to our most fundamental traditions. The Iliad, by a strange mystery, came first before everything and yet has always remained the greatest of the epics. Surprising to find this old standby at Amazon. If you feel like learning a mysterious language and poetry, this book would make a fine hobby. I.F. Stone (Cf. Socrates on Trial) learned Greek at seventy. Your move.
Rating: 
Summary: Lack of an answer key is a detriment to self-study
Review: Alas, a major shortcoming of this particular book -- and quite a few otherwise superb Ancient Greek textbooks -- is the lack of an answer key for the included translation exercises. Some highly motivated learners cannot take a formal course or afford to pay a tutor. Most attempts to teach oneself ancient Greek from scratch probably ultimately fail, and the enterprise is already daunting (or foolhardy) enough without relinquishing the corrective feedback a live instructor -- or dead answer key -- provides. One almost suspects a conspiracy against would-be autodidacts on the part of the professional classics community!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, you can't go wrong with this.
Review: Excellent book, but I'm really writing to correct Amazon's listing of the editor as "Photographer." This is not a picture book. I've reported the error twice to Amazon on their correction form, but they have not corrected it. So, at least, now YOU know.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, you can't go wrong with this.
Review: For all those who wonder what they're missing by not reading 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' in the original, there's no better way to acquire the ability than through this book. There are quite a few different texts and programs for beginning ancient Greek, but none other so successfully focused on the 'kit' needed for Homer's works. I'm grateful to the many reviewers who have already praised this book, and particularly to Steven Blackwelder, whose helpful guide on Amazon.com, 'Read Ancient Greek Outside the New Testament' lays out a most effective and logical plan of study. Starting with the pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet, in about 25 pages Pharr builds up to the first verse of the Iliad. By the end of the book (77 lessons) the whole of the first book of the Iliad (600 plus lines)is covered. The lessons are compact - so for those who may have no more than half an hour a day, they're ideal, combining vocabulary, grammar(to be learned from the section of almost 140 pages in the back of the book) and exercises in translating from Greek to English and vice versa. Study of the grammar is completed by lesson 55, and includes useful reviews. It may help to come to Pharr with a little background in ancient Greek, say from the Athnaze or JACT ('Reading Greek')series, unless, like apparently some of the reviewers, you have an extremely retentive memory for grammatical structure. There is a recent, British text ('Beginning Greek with Homer', by Fank Beetham, Bristol Classical Press, 1996) which uses the fifth book of the Odyssey for a similar purpose. It just cannot compare with Pharr's classic from 1920 - the doses of grammar and text in Beetham's primer are indigestible, and the vocabulary is confusingly organized, much of it in enormous footnotes. To return to Pharr's text, it takes a little time to get used to the frequent cross-references in the section on grammar, which would have benefited from even a brief index (e.g. for terms like 'deponent' and 'ablaut', which recur). But this is a minor criticism of a truly splendid work. Incidentally, I suggest that the only translation of the Iliad which catches the rythm and spirit of the original is that by Robert Fagles - it's fascinating after reading the original to see how deftly Fagles handled a labor which many have considered next to impossible. NOTE TO AMAZONCOM: Please correct the description of John Wright as "photographer", as requested repeatedly by another reviewer! For heaven's sake - Wright revised the text as the cover makes clear.
Rating:
Summary: A great introduction to Homeric Greek
Review: I have been studying Attic Greek for two years and recently picked up this book in order to prepare for an upcoming reading course in Homeric Greek. I have so far been most impressed with the presentation. I'm already up to lesson 21 in the short period of four days and intend to finish the book sometime in the next three weeks. Although, the text was originally intended as an introduction to classical Greek, I feel it serves much better as a supplement once one has achieved a firm grounding in Attic. This is, in part, a sign of the times. The text was never intended for students who had no background in at least Latin, and it is highly unlikely that new students to Greek today will have even minimal exposure to Latin, let alone another heavily inflected indo-european language. There are many excellent introductory texts for Attic Greek which are written with this fact in mind. Two that I most highly recommend are Mastronarde's "Introduction to Attic Greek," and Hansen & Quinn's "Greek: An Intensive Course." Both of these are written in the traditional pedagogical approach which is intense on early memorization of forms (the only approach I feel works effectively), but with sufficient explanations, examples and controlled pace so that someone with no other language experience can find their way through with minimal frustration. I have experienced almost no trouble familiarizing myself with the few morphological quirks that differentiate Epic from Attic. I'm used to seeing more vowel contractions and less of the dual forms, but it's hardly been an obstacle. Anyone familiar with Attic will already be familiar with almost all of the forms present in Homer, and the vocabulary lists, tables in the back, and short translation notes make it very easy to sort out the differences. The fact that one finishes the entire first book of the Iliad by the end of this text makes the trip so much more sweet. Thus, as a supplementary introduction to Homeric Greek, I find this text excellent and worthy of the highest rating. Because of the classically deprived background most new students will have today, I find that treating this text as a supplement to a standard introduction to Attic is the only reasonable thing to do. For students with no background in Latin or Greek, this text will probably be far more daunting than the standard Attic intros.
Rating:
Summary: All-round excellent!
Review: I learned ancient greek before I bought this book, so I can't speak to how well it serves someone just learning the language. Basically, I was a few years out of school and wanted to refresh my Greek. It really served me well, and actually gave me a better mastery of Homer's language than I ever had in college. I highly recommend it to anyone. I would say to beginners that Homeric Greek is the correct approach to learning ancient Greek: first, starting with Homer is a better foundation for learning later dialects than vice versa; second the Iliad (and Odyssey) introduces a beginner to characters, themes, phrases, and other allusions that fill nearly all later Greek literature to some extent; third, the Iliad is simply a damn good story that reads even better in the original. Expand your experience.
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Summary: A Great Primer For Lovers of Literary Ambrosia
Review: If you're that all too rare individual who loves Homer and would like to learn how to read him in the original, then this is the book for you. Along with a quite thorough introduction to the grammar of Homeric Greek, Pharr's course includes the first book of the Iliad with an excellent beginner's commentary. Some might be turned off by the fact that the lessons and the grammar are contained in two different sections. Others might be turned off by the fact that Pharr offers up the grammar in itsy bitsy portions from lesson to lesson. As someone who did find the grammatical spoonfeeding a turn-off, I was actually quite happy to have the grammar separate from the lessons, since it made it possible for me to customize the course to better suit my own learning style. Moreover, the grammar serves as an excellent reference tool until you decide to go whole hog and pick up Monro's Homeric Grammar. Another reviewer was concerned that learners new to inflected languages might have some difficulty in understanding the functions of the cases. I had not had any experience with inflected languages prior to reading Pharr and did not find picking up the basic functions of the cases to be particularly difficult. If you do have difficulty, consulting the opening lessons of any Latin or Greek grammar should help clear away any confusion. Also, if you find the work daunting at first and wonder whether or not it will be worth it or not, be reassured. Although it takes a while to gain a feel for Homer in the original, once you do you will come to see that Homer is infinitely more lovely in the original Greek than he is in even the best English translations. Bon voyage!
Rating:
Summary: there are answer keys on the internet for the autodidact
Review: such as the one at greekgeek dot org. Also from time to time a new study group for this book will start, on the forum/message board of textkit dot com.
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