Online Ancient Greek Courses

Encouraged by the response to our online Summer ‘taster’ Greek courses, it is with great pleasure that we announce the launch of online Ancient Greek classes that will run this coming autumn and winter. 

Our tutors are Dr. George Gazis and Dr. Chiara Blanco who will lead the classes live.

The deadline for application for the courses starting in October is Monday 5th October 2020.

Courses will be taught live on Zoom and recordings of the lessons will be available after each class to those who register.

Beginners Ancient Greek Course

This course is aimed at Greek learners with a knowledge of the alphabet and some basic notions of the Greek language (article, declensions, pronouns etc.). 

We will be following the texts in “Reading Greek Beginners Course”, supplemented by grammar and syntax handouts where necessary. 

In our first class, we will revisit Units 1A-F of the textbook, in order to refresh our basic concepts and we will begin to read some simple Greek texts, including the intriguing “Insurance Scam” and the escapades of the cunning Dikaiopolis. 

The course will comprise 10 classes (2 hours each) in total, starting from the beginning of October 2020 and finishing in the second week of December. 

The course will be taught live online on Zoom.

Greek for Philosophers Reading Group

We will be meeting once a week online to read from the original text one of the most entertaining Platonic dialogues, the Ion, (recommended text: Plato on Poetry – P. Murray (ed.): Cambridge University Press, 1996) in which the undeclared war between poetry and Socratic philosophy is in full swing. 

The Greek for Philosophers Reading Group is open to all levels of Greek learners, from Beginners to Advanced level, since the focus will be mostly on the content rather than the language. Participants will be asked to prepare a translation of a short passage in advance and then present their translation in class, after which the discussion of the content will be open to all. 

Translating will not be compulsory for participants and in the case of lack of translators, the seminar leader will lead the group through the text. 

The aim of the reading group is to provide students and scholars interested in Plato with an informal platform in which they can come in contact with the text in the original Greek and discuss the content in a relaxed and friendly environment. 

There will be 10 ( x 1 hour) weekly meetings, starting on the 7th of October and finishing on the 9th of December. The course will be taught live online on Zoom.

All courses will be taught in English by George Gazis and Chiara Blanco.

Dr Gazis is Assistant Professor in Greek Literature at the Department of Classics and Ancient History, at Durham University. His research interests lie in Archaic Greek Poetry (mainly Homer), as well as Greek Lyric and Tragedy. He is the author of Homer and the poetics of Hades (OUP, 2018) and the editor of Aspects of Death in Greek Literature (LUP, forthcoming).

Dr Blanco is a Research Lecturer in Classics at Trinity College, University of Oxford. Before joining Trinity, she was a Lecturer in Classics at Exeter College, Oxford, and she also taught Classics at Durham University and the University of Cambridge, where she also completed her PhD. Her main research interests lie in the intersections between ancient literature (Greek tragedy in particular) and medicine, and she is also interested in the role of the senses and emotions in Greek and Roman culture.