Rating: 
Summary: Not Ideal for the Solo Learner
Review: The best thing about this book is the introductory article explaining why Homeric Greek should be the first type of ancient Greek that a student should be exposed to. Of course the incredible quality of certain New Testament Greek introductory grammars provide, in my opinion, a more practical introductory source. They claim that classical Attic is usually a student's first dialect and that Xenophon's Anabasis is normally a student's first text, and that this is a bad choice because Homer is more interesting to prospective classics students and more relevant in terms of its effect on classical culture and world literature. They also make the point that Homeric Greek is easier than Attic and a more appropriate stepping stone. Against this argument one can say that there is no text more culturally relevant than the New Testament, and that New Testament Koine is both easier than Attic and more similar to it than the Homeric form.
As a grammar, this book is inferior to, say, Bill Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek. The print is small and often unclear, and the lessons are peculiar in their organization. The beginning of the book consists of graduated lessons that contain little instruction, but merely references to other paragraphs in the later part of the book where grammatical information is presented. This makes the book very flexible for a Greek teacher, who can choose to edit the content of each lesson. The text can also serve as a useful reference tool, as the informative section of the book is organized like a reference grammar.
I really can't knock the book, as Homer is a good medium for introductory Greek, and this work makes an innovative attempt to provide both a classroom textbook and a reference grammar. My chief complaint is that I have always been self-taught. The book really requires a teacher to relate its rather unfriendly declension and conjugation tables and tie together the rather odd organization. It just isn't working for me like Bill Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek, or even David Mastonarde's Intruduction to Attic Greek in terms of organization and clarity.
If you have a good teacher and a good classroom environment to work with, Homer makes a great study of basic Greek. For the self-learner, stick with the Koine Greek of the New Testament. It is an easier form of Greek and the text is interesting and relevant for all types of readers. The variety of New Testament writers makes for a more diverse sample of Greek forms. Finally, there are a larger number of higher quality learning materials available, and there is a greater access to distance education courses.
Apart from all this, though, I have to say that I haven't found any introductory grammar devoted exclusively to Homer other than this one. If you want to read Homer in the original, you are going to want this book. It does a decent job of showing the idiosyncrasies of the Homeric dialect.
I would give this book four stars in terms of use in a classroom. It is a little tough for self-teaching, though, so I only gave it three.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for beginners. Immediate access to the Iliad.
Review: This book has helped me realize a lifelong dream--to read Homer in the original Greek. This book isa reprint, with some revision, of a text used in the early part of the 20th century. It is not, as far as I can tell "watered down" and the vocabulary started with words that allow the learner to begin reading the Iliad almost immediately. The practice lessons are sentences that relate to the first lines of the Iliad. Both Greek->English and English-> Greek are provided. The first half of the book are the lessons and explanation, the last half is a grammar and usage. The lessons take the learner through the first book of the Iliad. You begin actually reading and translating the first five lines in Lesson XIII. The author also spends times explaining the scansion of the Iliad so that the learner can begin to "hear" the Iliad as well as read it. Although Attic Greek is different from Homeric Greek, I found Teach Yourself Ancient Greek: a Complete Course helpful in clarifying some of the explanations of the grammar and syntax. This book is also available from Amazon. In fact, I don't suppose I would be reading Greek now if I hadn't discovered Amazon (pardon the plug, but I'm hooked!). Finding the complete Iliad can be a challenge. I finally located it at Harvard University Press: Greek and English on facing pages. Join the new Renaissance made possible by the Internet and read the real Homer. It is, to use a common expression, awesome!
Rating: 
Summary: A fast, thorough initiation to Homer's Greek.
Review: This book is good if you can already read in a language that puts "case endings" on nouns, such as any of these: Greek from any other time including today's Demotiki; Latin; any Slavic, Baltic or Celtic language; German; Sanskrit; or Norse/Icelandic. Pharr empowers such a person quickly to read Homer well.If you're new to the notion of "noun case," Pharr might feel overwhelming. Use Balme and Lawall's "Athenazde," level one, half of the lessons, for a friendlier introduction to the basics; then switch to Pharr. After Pharr's Lesson 12 you plunge directly into the Iliad, the real text, from Book I Line 1, and you understand it! You learn the grammar as you go, with footnotes explaining the forms you'll get lessons for later. Pharr has you read all of Book I of the Iliad.
Rating:
Summary: Straight to the top
Review: This is an excellent way to learn classical Greek. It takes you straight to unsimplified Homer within a few lessons and if you tough it out you can end up able to read Homeric Greek quite well. It works fine as a teach-yourself book. I had had a semester of Greek many years ago, but I was essentially starting from scratch.
Each lesson provides the vocabulary for a few lines of Book I of the Iliad and sends you to the reference grammar at the back of the book to learn the grammar incrementally. Early on there are some prose sentences in Homeric Greek to translate, but these go away in later lessons. Once you have finished the book you will have read all of Book I and will be ready to continue through all of Homer (with a lexicon). My only gripe is that a few more prose sentences to illustrate the grammar points by repetition would have helped a bit. Overall a great teach yourself book.
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