Contents. Acknowledgements 9. Before I Begin The Wordy Stuff: Classical Languages 15

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1 Contents Acknowledgements 9 Before I Begin The Wordy Stuff: Classical Languages 15 The Greek alphabet 15 A touch of logorrhoea 17 The root of the matter 18 Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera 19 Singulars and plurals 25 Speaking of genera and species The Made-Up Stuff: Religion and Mythology 29 The gods family tree 30 A bit about the Underworld 33 The female of the species 40 The Labours of Hercules 44 The Judgement of Paris 48 Miscellaneous myths 49

2 3. A Detour: Crete The Old Stuff I: Ancient Greek History 59 The birth of democracy 60 The Athenian Empire 63 A bit about Greek historians 66 Cue the beginning of the Golden Age 69 A bit about Sparta 70 Off with the old 73 Alexander the Great The Old Stuff II: Roman History 77 Romulus and Remus 77 The seven hills of Rome 78 The Roman Kingdom 79 A bit about Gaul 80 The Roman Republic 82 A bit about Carthage 84 Marius and Sulla 87 A bit about Latin names 88 Pompey and Caesar 90 A bit about the Roman calendar 95 And after Caesar? 96 The Roman Empire 97 A bit about Roman citizens and slaves 99 A bit about Roman historians 107

3 6. The Posh Stuff: Classical Literature 111 Homer and other Greek literary figures 111 A bit about Troy 114 The classical theatre 118 Roman literature 121 A bit about Cicero The Fancy Stuff: Architecture and Art 129 Doric, Ionic and Corinthian 129 A bit about the Seven Wonders of the World 132 Some important buildings 134 Roman buildings 136 On a smaller scale 139 A bit about the Forum 140 What s a Grecian urn? The Clever Stuff I: Maths, Science and Inventions 145 Maths and science 145 A bit about numbers 148 Medicine 151 So what about the Romans? 152 But they did invent some things 154 Back to basics 156

4 9. The Clever Stuff II: Philosophy and the Liberal Arts 159 The father of philosophy I: Socrates 159 The father of philosophy II: Plato 161 The Master: Aristotle 163 Other schools of thought 165 So what s all this about virtue, happiness and pleasure? 167 Roman philosophers 169 A classical education A Bit of Light Relief: The Games 179 The Olympics 179 Roman games 181 A final word 184 Bibliography 185 Dramatis Personae 189

5 1. The Wordy Stuff: Classical Languages At a conservative estimate, about half of modern English derives from Latin, and a lot of that has Greek origins, with the result that just under a third of the words in an average English-speaker s vocabulary are ultimately drawn from Greek. So, although very few people learn either language these days and most of us would be hard pushed to tell an ablative from an aorist, we nevertheless blithely babble away in these ancient tongues all the time. But it has to be said that there is something slightly offputting about your first glance at Greek The Greek alphabet This is a very different beast from the Roman alphabet we use today, although the Romans evolved theirs from a classical Greek original. Greek letter Symbol English equivalent Alpha A, α a Beta B, β b Gamma G, γ g Delta D, d d Epsilon E, e e (as in met) Zeta Z, z z or ds (as in gods) [ 15 ]

6 A Classical Education Greek letter Symbol English equivalent Eta H, h e (as in meet, sometimes as in may) Theta Q, q th Iota I, i i Kappa K, k k Lambda L, l l Mu M, m m Nu N, n n Xi X, x x Omicron O, o o (as in hot) Pi P, p p Rho R, r r Sigma S, s s Tau T, t t Upsilon U, u u Phi Φ, φ ph Chi Χ, c ch (as in loch) Psi Y, ψ ps Omega Ω, ω o (as in slow) Most people are content to sail through life without bothering about this, but if you do any amount of maths or science you will come across π, r, q and many others; if you read the Bible you will find I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending which is just the Greek way of saying I am A and Z, not to be confused with a street directory ; and if you are an outstanding scholar in the US you might be honoured with [ 16 ]

7 The Wordy Stuff: Classical Languages the ΦBK (Phi Beta Kappa) award. That said, what really matters to most of us are not the letters but the words. A touch of logorrhoea That s a posh word for verbal diarrhoea, and just to prove the point that it is not all Greek to any of us, here are some examples of everyday words with Greek roots. Asterisk asteriskos (little star) Biology bios (life) logia (study) * Catastrophe kata (down) strophe (turning) Clone klon (twig, i.e. from which a new plant is created) Democracy demos (people) kratos (rule) Dyslexia dys (impaired) lexis (word) Economy oikos (house) nemein (to manage) Geography ge (earth) graphein (to write) Helicopter helikos (spiral) pteron (wing) Hippopotamus hippos (horse) potamos (river) Homeopathy homoios (similar) pathos (suffering) Horoscope ora (time) skopein (to observe) Monogamy monos (one) gamos (union) * And all sorts of other bio words such as biography, biosphere, biodegradable and ologies such as geology, astrology, sociology, theology. See you learn one thing and you find you know lots more. [ 17 ]

8 A Classical Education Pantomime pantos (all) mimos (mimic) * Rhinoceros rhinos (nose) ceros (horn) Telephone tele (far) phone (voice) Xenophobia xenos (stranger) phobos (fear) Zoo zoion (animal) The root of the matter Being aware of a few basics can help enormously with vocabulary and spelling, as the bio and pan examples show. Switching to Latin, for instance, mater and pater mean mother and father, so that s a clue to the meaning of anything beginning with matri or patri : patricide, patrimony, matriarch, matrilineal. Lux and its genitive form lucis mean light, which helps with lucid and elucidate. Vertere means to turn, hence vertigo, subvert, advertisement (literally something you turn towards). Intra means within and inter means between, which explains the difference between the internet, which is a link between various networks, and an intranet, which is confined to an * There are lots of other pan words, too: panacea (see p.152), pancreas (literally all flesh ), pantechnicon, panorama. Sadly, panda, pangolin and pantyhose are completely irrelevant here. Matrimony also comes from mater and has a complicated derivation that involves a no-longer-used meaning of an inheritance from one s mother. Patrimony, however, still means an inheritance from one s father and has nothing to do with marriage. [ 18 ]

Achievements in Writing! Directions: The First Writing Evolution in Writing Cuneiform in Mesopotamia: from 3100 BC

Achievements in Writing! Directions: Read and annotate the selection below. Make sure to answer the guided questions in COMPLETE sentences and to complete your own Rosetta Stone. The First Writing Writing