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Learning Ancient Greek in 50 Minutes Those attending the presentation entered Room 307 of La Maison Francaise as “barbarians” but left as “Hellenes.” Catto began the lesson by explaining that the ancient Greeks referred to those who didn’t speak Greek as “barbarians.” The Greeks called themselves “Hellenes” as “Greek” is actually a term developed by the Romans. Catto taught the 24-letter Greek alphabet to the group beginning with lowercase letters before moving to capital letters. She explained that the Greeks primarily wrote in capital letters as they were easier to inscribe on monuments and tablets. Some of the letters such as alpha, beta, gamma, delta, zeta, pi, sigma, and omega were already familiar to the group from their usage in American culture. The group practiced the letters by saying them aloud and in unison. The class then had a chance to try its hand at deciphering some Greek words such as drama, dogma, comma, crisis, aroma, philosophy and exodus. Then the class moved on to the names of Greek gods and heroes such as Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Heracles. In the final phase of the presentation, the class began translating sentences. The session was primarily attended by students, one of whom literally got into the Greek spirit by wearing a tee shirt adorned with the letter pi. The informative presentation gave those in attendance a unique insight into the language of another culture but more importantly forever revoked their right to utter the phrase “It’s all Greek to me.”
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Worcester, MA - Rome wasn’t built in a day but you can learn a little ancient Greek in less than an hour. That’s according to