I'm not sure what you mean when you say that the Odyssey was translated from the Classical Greek and not the Ancient Greek. I know nothing on this subject but as I gather from a Wikipedia article, what is called Ancient Greek is subdivided into three time periods, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic.
You're right that the Odyssey was written in Classical Greek: but that is the middle period of Ancient Greek. In any case I'm sure that the language was not "quite different" in each period; but a single language in a stage of continuous development.
So if you have gathered something different in your internet researches, I'd be interested to know the sources!
Thank you for the site. I've read it, but I don't think I read it the time I made my comment on your blog "Homer's Odyssey." I'm confused.
Ancient and archaic are synonym, right?
I simply thought this way: ancient is oldest, classical is next oldest, and modern is pretty current. I didn't know Classical Greek is just one of the multiple terms within Ancient Greek. That's confusing. I misunderstood it. Thank you very much for this clarification.
So, Classical Greek is from around 5th century.
Once I went to observe just one Classical Greek class for an hour and half, but I ended up not taking it. But, at that time, I asked about the difference between Ancient and Classical Greek. I don't know if the teacher really understood what I asked since I was wrong about the concept of Classical, but I thought he said they were quite different languages. Maybe he thought I asked the difference between Classical and Modern Greek.
Well, I've been using the words like ancient and classical quite loosely. Come to think of it, I should use classical for Genji Monogatari rather than ancient!
2 comments:
I'm not sure what you mean when you say that the Odyssey was translated from the Classical Greek and not the Ancient Greek. I know nothing on this subject but as I gather from a Wikipedia article, what is called Ancient Greek is subdivided into three time periods, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic.
You're right that the Odyssey was written in Classical Greek: but that is the middle period of Ancient Greek. In any case I'm sure that the language was not "quite different" in each period; but a single language in a stage of continuous development.
So if you have gathered something different in your internet researches, I'd be interested to know the sources!
Vincent,
Thank you for the site. I've read it, but I don't think I read it the time I made my comment on your blog "Homer's Odyssey." I'm confused.
Ancient and archaic are synonym, right?
I simply thought this way: ancient is oldest, classical is next oldest, and modern is pretty current. I didn't know Classical Greek is just one of the multiple terms within Ancient Greek. That's confusing. I misunderstood it. Thank you very much for this clarification.
So, Classical Greek is from around 5th century.
Once I went to observe just one Classical Greek class for an hour and half, but I ended up not taking it. But, at that time, I asked about the difference between Ancient and Classical Greek. I don't know if the teacher really understood what I asked since I was wrong about the concept of Classical, but I thought he said they were quite different languages. Maybe he thought I asked the difference between Classical and Modern Greek.
Well, I've been using the words like ancient and classical quite loosely. Come to think of it, I should use classical for Genji Monogatari rather than ancient!
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