Living Ancient Greek

Living Ancient Greek

An Online Ancient Greek Curriculum

Forthcoming in 2025

Course Overview

Living Ancient Greek is a self-paced online course that offers a complete introduction to the Ancient Greek language. It features animated videos teaching Ancient Greek grammar, a graded reader which starts out in simple Ancient Greek and gradually increases in difficulty as students master grammar and vocabulary, and supplementary articles on the history and culture of the Greek language across the centuries. It will be available for individual learners and for teachers, who can enroll their students in a class and access a reporting system, which allows them to keep track of their students’ progress.

The Living Ancient Greek course is currently under development by the Paideia Institute's team of curriculum designers. We expect to release Living Ancient Greek in 2025. If you would like to support the project, please consider making a gift on our donation page.

Interest Form

If you are interested in being notified when Living Ancient Greek is published, please sign up here.

Grammar Lessons

Living Ancient Greek features fun, engaging videos teaching Ancient Greek grammar. These videos start with the basics of the language, like pronunciation, and proceed all the way through the most complex topics in Ancient Greek grammar necessary to read authentic texts. All grammar videos are followed by written summaries of the main topics covered, as well as quizzes that check students’ comprehension.

Graded Reader

Living Ancient Greek also includes an illustrated graded reader of more than 80,000 Greek words. This reader tells the story of a group of students from around the world studying abroad in Greece and around the Mediterranean. On their travels, they visit sites of historical and cultural interest and encounter Greek authors of different genres whose work spans over more than two millennia; from Homer and Plato, the New Testament, through the Middle Ages and all the way to the Greek Enlightenment.

The first part of the reader (Chapters 0-32) introduces students to Classical Attic and the literature of ancient Athens (philosophy, drama, rhetoric). The second half (Chapters 33-60) aims to introduce the student to other forms of Greek and Greek literature, such as the Homeric dialect and other literary dialects of Ancient Greece, but also looking forward and introducing the Hellenistic Koine, Biblical, and Medieval Greek.

History and Culture

In addition to the grammar videos and graded reader, each chapter of Living Ancient Greek includes a short article in English expanding on an aspect of the history or culture of the Greek language that comes up in the chapter. Since the scope of Living Ancient Greek is not limited to antiquity, these articles cover the history and culture of not only the Classical period, but also delve much deeper into the Hellenistic and Medieval periods, all the way up to the beginnings of Modern Greek.

Exercises and Assessments

Each chapter features interactive exercises focused on vocabulary, morphology, and syntax. As students work through these exercises, they gradually develop their language skills and enhance their ability to read and write Greek.

Quizzes follow each lesson, reading, and history and culture article to check student comprehension of the subject matter covered. Additionally, after every section of the course (first after chapter 5, and then at the end of every 9 chapters), a larger summative assessment in both English and Ancient Greek recapitulates and tests the learner’s command of the grammar introduced to them in previous chapters, ensuring a solid foundation before moving on.

Agora

All Living Ancient Greek users have access to a general Agora, an online message board where they can post questions and interact with other users. The Agora is monitored by Paideia staff, who are available to answer questions.

Learning Analytics

Teachers whose students are using Living Ancient Greek gain access to the platform’s customized reporting tools. These tools allow teachers to view student performance in the course, and filter by individual student or specific quiz or lesson elements.