This little grammar has been composed to provide the reader of ancient Greek texts with indispensable information, and just enough of that to get on with, but maybe a brief chapter on how to go about reading will be in order. When one has intimate knowledge of a language one is reading, the words get almost automatically fixed in their correct syntactic structure as one goes along; from the start one knows the meaning and mutual relations of the string of words one is reading. But the more foreign a language is, the more difficult it becomes to keep track of what the user is trying to convey. For anyone but those familiar with Latin, Greek will be pretty foreign. The way it has of expressing relations by noun cases and of condensing all information about the predicate into one verbal form, so that extracting it is a specialized procedure requiring some exercise, causes considerable difficulties for beginning and not infrequently for advanced readers too. A thorough grounding by means of analysis of simple sentences, even single forms, used to be deemed obligatory as an initial stage.

For the purpose of this chapter I imagine a prospective reader who already is capable of spotting the forms fairly quickly, however (s)he may have achieved this happy state[1]. Progressing from one word to the next one must note (and store away) the forms and estimate possible functions thereof and continue with this until the  conclusion of a unit is reached. Preconceptions caused by the structure of English (and any other language) must be avoided: the first sbs, for instance, is by no means the subject of the sentence, unless it is also in the right case; often, in fact, no subject will be found and in that case must be borrowed from the previous sentence, unless it is a self-evident ”I” or “You”, which also are not always expressed, but to be found in the verb. Before my reader is lost in all the abstraction, I will give a little example.

                                              Ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν Ἀθηνᾶν δέδιεν, ὡς φησίν, καὶ τὴν Γοργόνα, μηδὲ φοβηθεὶς τὸν τοῦ Διὸς κεραυνόν.

                                                                                                         [This sentence has been chosen for the simplicity of it’s vocabulary]

First sbs Ἀθηνᾶν is not suitable for subject, not being in the Nominative. The whole sentence has no sbs in the N, the only N case being φοβηθεὶς, a ptc which may or may not be the subject, possibly no more than an adjunct to it; in that case there is no subject, and “(s)he” must be interpolated (the verb being a 3^rd sg), whose identity is already given previously. The process of interpretation ideally goes like this:

 Analysis:
Ἀλλὰ (=but, creates a “contradiction” between this sentence and the preceding), τὴν (> F sg Ac of the article, creates the expectation[2] of a F sbs in the Ac) μὲν (creates the expectation of a following δὲ) Ἀθηνᾶν (Ac sg of Ἀθηνᾶ, a F sbs; τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν must form a group which has some function of the Ac) δέδιεν (perf A pr-ind 3^rd sg “(s)he is afraid of”; this word invites an Ac as object: one can hardly be wrong in assigning τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν to this function. “But of Athena (s)he is afraid.....”), ὡς (one of the most-feared words of the Greek language: a great many possible meanings) φησίν (du A pr-ind 3^rd sg of φημί, to say, “(s)he says”),  καὶ (and, too) τὴν (>F sg Ac  of the article, creates the expectation of a F sbs in the Ac) Γοργόνα (Ac sg of Γοργών, a F sbs, must form a group with the last τὴν; maybe a good hypothesis would be to take καὶ as connecting τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν & τὴν Γοργόνα, but never be too sure of your first ideas), μηδὲ (and not, not even) φοβηθεὶς (P aor ptc >N sg M; “having feared” in some way connected to the subject of the sentence; although a P, this word invites an Ac as object) τὸν (>M sg Ac  of the article, creates the expectation of a M sbs in the Ac case) τοῦ (>M+Ne sg G  of the article, creates the expectation of a M or Ne sbs in the G case) Διὸς (G sg of Ζεὺς, Zeus, a M sbs, must form a group with τοῦ, having some G function) κεραυνόν (Ac sg of κεραυνός, lightning, a M sbs, must be the Ac we waiting for since τὸν; the whole string τὸν.....κεραυνόν must be one group) End of sentence.

Now we must get on with assigning functions, or never understand the sentence: τὸν τοῦ Διὸς κεραυνόν could be made object of φοβηθεὶς “having feared the lightning of Zeus”; our idea about καὶ τὴν Γοργόνα must be correct as well and we translate: “But of Athena (s)he is afraid, as (s)he says, and of the Gorgo, not even having feared the lightning of Zeus.”Main question: can we make anything of this? Athena is the well-known goddess, the Gorgo is a frightful creature of Greek mythology, both of whom might well be viewed with some concern; Zeus’ lightning may put fright in anyone too, and even more than Athena and/or the Gorgo, as he is mightier by far than anyone in the Greek pantheon, barring the Fates. So this interpretation seems quite reconcilable with what we know of Greek culture. Is the subject “she” or “he”? The ptc φοβηθεὶς is in the >M form, so it would seem to be a “he”. That’s about all we can extract from these words, but it seems satisfactory enough, so we can leave it at that. One unresolved matter is the expectation of δὲ created by μὲν; but it is always quite possible that this expectation is not fulfilled until the next sentence. Would it be worth the trouble to try an interpretation with φοβηθεὶς as subject instead of adjunct? This idea would generate the following translation: “But of Athena one who has not even feared Zeus’ lightning, is afraid, as he says, and of the Gorgo.” Although not impossible this doesn’t look any better than the first translation; the context would have to contain the information for making the right choice. Of course one is free to speculate why anyone (and who?) would say such a thing as we have found about another person. It sounds a bit like a complaint: the speaker seems not pleased with the fears of the “he” who is subject of the sentence.

All this for one measly sentence? Don’t forget that for the interpretation of an English sentence, or any other, just as many snippets of information must cross the brain, and that such pieces of syntax as “creates the expectation of such-and-such a sbs” need to be said only once, because next time, hopefully, it will be taken as read without filling so much space.

Let’s try another. This is the beginning of a forensic speech:

I would deem it valuable for myself, gentlemen, that you would be similar judges for me in this case, as you would be for yourselves having experienced such  things; for I know very well that if you had the same opinion about others as about yourselves, there would not be one man among you that was not angry, but that you would all consider the fines for those that perpetrate such things, small. And that would not only be thought so among you, but in all of Hellas......

Περὶ τούτου γὰρ μόνου τοῦ ἀδικήματος καὶ ἐν δημοκρατίᾳ καὶ ὀλιγαρχίᾳ ἡ αὐτὴ τιμωρία τοῖς ἀσθενεστάτοις πρὸς τοὺς τὰ μέγιστα δυναμένους ἀποδέδοται, ὥστε τὸν χείριστον τῶν αὐτῶν τυγχάνειν τῷ βελτίστῳ· οὕτως, ὦ ἄνδρες, ταύτην τὴν ὕβριν ἅπαντες ἄνθρωποι δεινοτάτην ἡγοῦνται.

[Speech by a man who has been accused of murdering his wife’s lover, which was allowed by Athenian law, provided the adulterer had been caught and dispatched “in flagrante delicto”; the accusers say he had arranged the adultery so as to have cause for murdering the victim for quite another reason]

[The vocabulary of this one is not as simple as of the foregoing; words marked with a * should be looked up in a lexicon]

Analysis:

Περὶ (preposition with G, D or Ac, *) τούτου (>M+Ne sg G ; <οὗτος, =this, that; may be independent or agree with another word; may be (part of) complement of περὶ) γὰρ (coordinating conjunction =for; this sentence must contain an explanation of the preceding) μόνου (<μόνος, >M+Ne sg G, =alone, only, sole) τοῦ (<article, >M+Ne sg G) ἀδικήματος (G sg <ἀδίκημα, a Ne sbs*) καὶ (*) ἐν (preposition with D, *) δημοκρατίᾳ (D sg, <δημοκρατία *, this word must be the complement of ἐν) καὶ (*) ὀλιγαρχίᾳ (D sg, <ὀλιγαρχία) ἡ (< article, >F sg N) αὐτὴ (<αὐτός, >F sg N *) τιμωρία (N+V sg, *, ἡ αὐτὴ τιμωρία must form a group and have the function of subject or adjunct to it: “the same......”) τοῖς (<article, >M+Ne pl D) ἀσθενεστάτοις (spl >M+Ne pl D, <ἀσθενής *) πρὸς (preposition with G, D or Ac *) τοὺς (<article, >M pl Ac) τὰ (<article, >Ne pl N+Ac) μέγιστα (spl >Ne pl N+Ac, <μέγας =big) δυναμένους (P du ptc > M pl Ac, <δύναμαι *) ἀποδέδοται (perf MdP pr-ind 3^rd sg, <ἀποδίδωμι *), {we have now reached the end of a unit, for no words from these groups will be found after the next word ὥστε; for ὀλιγαρχίᾳ no other function can be found than stringing it along with δημοκρατίᾳ, using καὶ: “in democracy and oligarchy”;  no sbs in the D pl is coming to which τοῖς is connected, so the words τοῖς ἀσθενεστάτοις will have to make do by themselves, which is perfectly possible in a D function; similarly no sbs is coming after τοὺς, which must be article to δυναμένους solely: “those who......”; again no sbs is coming after τὰ, which together with μέγιστα will come to mean something such as “the biggest/largest”; ἀποδέδοται (with ἡ αὐτὴ τιμωρία as subject)must mean something like “has been....... “), ὥστε (subordinating conjunction, so that; can be followed by an (Ac c) inf or a finite verb) τὸν (<article, >M sg Ac) χείριστον (>M sg Ac +Ne sg N+Ac, of χείριστος*) τῶν (article, >M+F+Ne pl G) αὐτῶν (>M+F+Ne pl G of αὐτός*; τῶν αὐτῶν must mean something like “the same”; the expression invites a D or καὶ as a complement) τυγχάνειν (du A inf of τυγχάνω*; this word can invite many complements: a G, a ptc, a D)  τῷ (article >M+Ne sg D) βελτίστῳ (>M+Ne sg D of βέλτιστος*) (We come again to the end of a unit and must now make something of what we have read; last part: “so that {probably followed by an Ac c inf, for that is what we have} τῶν αὐτῶν could be taken as compl. of τυγχάνειν, which leaves for τῳ βέλτιστῳ the position of compl. of τῶν αὐτῶν: “so that the worst gets the same as the best” whether this is really the right meaning will depend on what we find for the preceding part. For ἀδικήματος it is hard to find any other position than compl. of περὶ and of course μόνου must agree with it: “about this sole wrong-doing......” “in democracy and oligarchy the same help/punishment, is rendered to the weakest/poorest/most insignificant. ??????? those that are capable of doing the biggest, so that ............;what are we going to do with the first καὶ? The solution might come from the meaning “not only”, so that the following καὶ wil come to mean “but also”:

(Περὶ τούτου γὰρ μόνου τοῦ ἀδικήματος)( καὶ ἐν δημοκρατίᾳ καὶ ὀλιγαρχίᾳ)(ἡ αὐτὴ τιμωρία)(τοῖς ἀσθενεστάτοις) {πρὸς τοὺς (τὰ μέγιστα) δυναμένους} ἀποδέδοται, [ὥστε (τὸν χείριστον) (τῶν αὐτῶν) τυγχάνειν (τῷ βελτίστῳ)]· οὕτως, ὦ ἄνδρες, (ταύτην τὴν ὕβριν) (ἅπαντες ἄνθρωποι) δεινοτάτην ἡγοῦνται.