Learning Greek with Plato: A Beginner's Course in Classical Greek (Bristol Phoenix Press Classical Handbooks)

Compressed, no-nonsense, consistent. I have several books on Ancient Greek. This one, I believe, would be more difficult as a starter book vs. being another resource. However, I prefer reading real Greek, thus Plato here, even if he advocated totalitarianism. Socrates didn't.It is interesting learning the idioms and nuances. The difficulty with verbs is ever present, though overridden by the beauty of the language.

I learned Greek when I was a boy in school - some time ago. This is just to buff things up a bit. To be honest it's a little chaotic but does what it says on the packet. Almost immediately you're confronted with real Greek texts which is good but you haven't really learned enough to appreciate them (there are translations of almost every word in some examples). The grammar is explained but only sufficiently for you to understand the text. As far as I can see there's no attempt made (nor claimed) to teach Greek comprehensively. Beetham himself says in the introduction this course was cobbled together for his philosophy classes rather than for language students. That being said, if you are a philosophy student or if you have a Greek background (as I have) this book is excellent for teaching Plato's style and for giving you a good approximation of the language as used by 4thc authors.

Lovely way to get started with Greek philosophical writing. The goal of reading the Meno gives purpose to the drudgery.

Quite nice although the Greek dictionary is just an afterthought and not really coordinated with the book. Minor problem. Altogether nice.

Very interesting approach, wish I had this years ago in school

I got it right on!!! Good service and quality. I certainly recommend it.Very deep into Greek language from its most interesting aspect, its dialectical structure.

What a great way to learn Greek

Beetham is brilliant! He really knows how to get you to read Greek. Ordinarily, I'd say that Plato is a bit ambitious for the beginning student, but Beetham makes it more than manageable. Every step along the way (really, every step) he stops to give you practice. The learning vocabulary (and Platonic idioms) are used over and over again in the exercises, and the the readings from Plato themselves are accompanied by very fulsome notes. Critical for the student learning on his or her own, there is a *complete* answer key. Also, for someone who's learned Greek once upon a time and is looking for a means to recover it, there couldn't possibly be a better book.The typesetting is not the best (a very small complaint given just how good this textbook is!), though it is worlds better than his  Beginning Greek With Homer  (also a very good book, BTW!). Since the paradigms in the back of the book are quite spread out, you might also want to get  Greek Paradigm Handbook , for handy reference. An English translation of Plato's Meno will come in handy about a third of the way through the book, as well. The author suggests either Sharples's  Plato: Meno (Aris & Phillips Classical Texts)  or W. R. M. Lamb's  Plato: Laches, Protagoras, Meno, Euthydemus, (Loeb Classical Library, No. 165) (Greek and English Edition) .

Frank Beetham sets out to provide the independent learner with a way into mastering the basics of Classical Greek, using one of Plato's dialogues. It sounds a 'tall order', but even for someone like myself who is no natural linguist he succeeds in making the language work interesting and accessible. It gave me a grounding from which I feel I can move on to further study with some confidence. Highly recommended.

Fantastic coursebook, even for self-teaching.

Arrived on time! An international mail miracle!!!! Good book, very interesting.

Great.

Excelente