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The intensive 1-year course will teach ancient Greek language at the graduate level with the particular aim of allowing graduate research students in philosophy focusing on ancient philosophy to read ancient Greek philosophical texts in the original language. It will teach grammar and vocabulary to students by way of reading passages from ancient texts, a large proportion of which (at least 60%) will be ancient philosophical texts, thereby familiarising the student with ancient philosophical texts and developing vocabulary that is specifically philosophical.

It is envisaged that the course will teach small numbers of students (2-5) and thus allow for intensive interaction with the language tutor. The course will adapt to the needs of the students and their levels of competency in ancient Greek, but it is expected that the course will be pitched at the level of beginner’s Greek, and within the year (terms 1 & 2) bring the students to part of the way through intermediate level Greek. So it will cover (at least) declension, tenses of verbs, contracted verbs, articles, particles, prepositions, pronouns, participles (some principle parts), adverbs, an introduction to numbers, indirect speech, and some important constructions (e.g. the genitive absolute) and verbs (e.g. the verb to be, eimi). Examples of philosophical texts that may be used are Plato’s Apology, and Meno; examples of non-philosophical texts that may be used are Xenephon’s Apology, Symposium, and Anabasis, and Herodotus’ Histories. A textbook of grammar or other ancient Greek textbook suitable for learning the language (such as Athenaze or Reading Greek (JACT) or the St James Greek Course) will also be used.

The course will consist of 2 x 2-hour seminars per week, for each of the 10 weeks of terms 1 and 2. The course will be overseen by Dr. Leigh and run by a language tutor with the appropriate qualifications. The formative assessment will consist of regular homework exercises, while the summative assessment will consist of four in-class quizzes on grammar, vocabulary, and occasional translation exercises (worth 5% each of the final mark), and two end of term unseen exams held in class, of 2 hours each (worth 40% each).

Philosophy Area C