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Greek Minor

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Studying an inflected language like Greek is perhaps the best way to learn English grammar, a command of which will make you a stronger writer and speaker. Just a basic knowledge of Greek can help you make ready sense of many of the most obscure theoretical, scientific, and medical terms. Technical terminology aside, you’ll find that Greek deepens your understanding of the etymology and nuance behind the English words you utter every day.

And of course, Greek opens the door to important seminal works in a variety of fields. Are you pre-med? Why not read Hippocrates or Galen? Philosophy? Read Plato or Marcus Aurelius. Mathematics? Consider Euclid or Archimedes. Theatre? There’s Medea, Bacchae, Lysistrata, and so many other tragedies and comedies! Religious Studies? The whole of the New Testament is in Greek. History? Have you considered Herodotus or Thucydides, the earliest practitioners of the art? Majoring in English or Global Lit? Try Aristotle’s Poetics, one of the earliest and ground-breaking pieces of literary criticism around. Did we forget to mention Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and the very best of Sappho? This list is just the tip of the iceberg.

GRE 103 (Intensive Elementary Greek), taught only in spring semesters, is the starting point for Greek at Davidson. Already in your first semester here you will be reading original excerpts from ancient Greek works. After your first two semesters, you will have completed GRE 201, fulfilled the college’s language requirement, and be eligible to enroll in any advanced Greek course available. We offer one each semester, and we’ll make sure that the same course is not taught more than once during your time at Davidson. Yes, we’ll always have something fresh to read in Greek together!

The minor in Greek requires six courses: CLA 111 (The Ancient World), and five courses in Greek numbered above GRE 200.

A major in Classical Languages and Literatures (Greek and Latin) is also available, as is a major in Classical Studies.

Courses You Might Take

GRE 211
Greek Epic: Homeric Hymns

Composed mostly in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, the ‘Homeric’ hymns offer a varied and delightful glimpse into early views of the Olympian gods in their relations with humans and each other. 

GRE 218
New Testament Greek

Studying the New Testament gives students an opportunity to read in the original Greek the collection of books and letters that is the most frequently read of all ancient texts today.

GRE 233
Greek Drama: Euripides’ Cyclops

We will read in Greek the extant literary accounts of the infamous one-eyed giant Polyphemus: Homer’s Odyssey, Theocritus’ Idyll 11, and Euripides’ only surviving satyr play (Cyclops). 

Related Programs

Interested in Greek at Davidson?