The sentences here come from Classical Athenian Greek writings from the fifth and fourth centuries BC. They are unchanged, except where “…” indicates a short omission. There are brief introductions the first time that an author is quoted and information that provides context for the quotation. Vocabulary for any words that have not yet appeared in previous lessons are provided for each sentence.
1. Aristophanes Horsemen 1260. The Greeks are justifiably famous for inventing theater, the direct ancestor of much cinema and video to this day. Greek tragedy is perhaps better known, but the earliest comedies in the world also come from Greece. From the Classical Period, the comedies of only one playwright survive, those of Aristophanes (but there are eleven of them). Much of the comedy in these plays is very topical and political. One of Aristophanes’ comedies, Horsemen, consists primarily of a contest between the leading politician of the day, Cleon (thinly disguised as the Παφλαγών, which translates roughly “Poofistani”) and a Hot Dog Man. They compete to determine who can be the most powerful and corrupt leader of the Athenian democracy. The Hot Dog Man wins. Then the Hot Dog Man reveals that he will in fact restore democracy to the people, who are on stage in the character of Demos, the personification of the will of the Athenian people (δῆμος):
Παφλαγών, Παφλαγόνος ὁ Paphlagonian
2. Aristophanes Birds 1122-23. In another comedy, Birds, an Athenian named Peisetairos (whose name means something like “persuasive”) goes to the birds, literally, and convinces them to take over the universe. At one point, a messenger races on stage to report on the building of a defensive wall in the sky. As his manner of speech indicates, the messenger is himself a bird:
ἅρχων = ὁ ἄρχων
’στι = ἐστιν
Πεισέταιρος Πεισέταιρος, Πεισεταίρου, ὁ Peisetairos (nom sg)
ποῦ where?
3. Old Oligarch Constitution of Athens 3.13. Athens was the world’s first democracy, but not everyone in Athens liked the democracy. There were elites who despised it and on two occasions seized control of the government (neither time for more than a year). A brief political tract survives from the fifth century BC by one of these elites, who complains about the Athenian democracy. No one knows now who wrote it, but one scholar sardonically called him the “Old Oligarch,” and the nickname has stuck. At one point, the “Old Oligarch” refers to Athens as the city…
δῆμος δῆμος, δῆμου, ὁ (nom sg) Demos (citizen body)
ὅπου where
4. Thucydides 5.66.4. The Athenian historian Thucydides lived at the same time as the “Old Oligarch.” His monumental history primarily details the conflicts between the city of Athens and the city of Sparta over a period of about twenty years (431-411 BC). Spartan warriors were already famous. Thucydides comments at one point that nearly the entire Spartan army…:
5. Xenophon Anabasis 4.7.19. Thucydides’ history ends abruptly in the middle of critical events in 411 BC. Another Athenian, Xenophon, later wrote a history that covered the next fifty years. Xenophon wrote not only history, but also biography, philosophy, technical treatises (on hunting, horsemanship, economics and more) and fiction, in each case among the earliest writers ever in these genres. Xenophon was also famous for a group of “Ten Thousand” Greek mercenary soldiers who got trapped behind enemy lines in Persia in 401 BC. Xenophon led them safely back to Greece. He published his memoirs about the expedition as the Anabasis (Ἀνάβασις “The March Back”). At this point, the Ten Thousand are at the city of Gymnias (getting close to the Black Sea), where:
Ἕλλην, Ἕλληνος ὁ Greek
ἡγεμών ἡγεμόνος ὁ guide, leader
πέμπει (3rd sg) sends
6. Xenophon Anabasis 4.7.19. At another point, the Greeks capture a village. Xenophon explains what he did with the chief of the village. Chirisophus was a Spartan mercenary commander, also part of the Ten Thousand:
ἡγεμών ἡγεμόνος ὁ guide, leader
Χειρισόφῳ Χειρισόφος, Χειρισόφου, ὁ, (dat sg) Chirisophus
7. Lysias 12.8. Lysias was a son of a Sicilian immigrant (Cephalus, who got rich running a shield factory and is a prominent character at the beginning of Plato’s Republic). Lysias himself became a successful orator and legal advisor in Athens. Lysias also lived through one of the most horrifying periods in Athenian history. In 403 BC, after surrendering in a war to Sparta, a group known as the Thirty Tyrants instigated a reign of terror for months before the democracy was restored. Lysias’ brother Polemarchus (also a character in Plato’s Republic) was assassinated by the Thirty. Lysias’ most famous speech is his prosecution of one of the men responsible for his brother’s death.
Lysias is narrating the events of the night when one of the Thirty, Piso, and his forces come to Lysias’ house. They throw out Lysias’ dinner guests first and then...
με (acc sg) me
Πείσωνι Πείσων Πείσωνος ὁ Piso
8. Demosthenes 43.81. In another legal case, a man named Sositheus is claiming that his son has a right to inherit a share of a disputed estate. Near the end of his speech, he appeals to the jury...
ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί “jurymen” (addressing the jury)
ἐπιμεληθῆναι to take care of
τουτονί (acc sg) ὁ this here
οὖν therefore
ὑμῖν (dat pl) y’all
9. Alcidamas 2.21.107. Greeks enjoyed the performance of legal speeches. Such performances could include speeches delivered as if they were part of famous episodes from mythology. In this one, the hero Odysseus is prosecuting a man named Palamedes for treason and theft during the Trojan War. Here he says Palamedes embezzled money for himself and…
Ἀγαμέμνων Ἀγαμέμνονος ὁ Agamemnon
θῶραξ θώρακος ὁ breast, breastplate
χαλκοῦν (acc sg) ὁ bronze
10. Archelaus fr. 228a.24. Euripides wrote many turbulent tragedies and is reported to have lived a comparably turbulent life. During his career, he seems to have generated controversy with his plays, an artist both captivating and disturbing. Reportedly, Euripides left his native Athens in his last years and took up residence with the king of Macedon, Archelaus. Whether this is true or not is impossible to determine now, but he did write a tragedy about Archelaus’ mythological ancestors which seems to favor the monarch’s genealogy. This play was about the heroic exploits of a grandson of Hercules, also named Archelaus.
In the beginning of the play, Archelaus narrates his family history. Hercules had a son Hyllus, who had a son Temenus. Temenus had no children, so he consulted the priestess of Zeus, who told him... (This child will turn out to be Archelaus himself.)
Ζεύς, Διός ὁ Zeus
παῖδ’ = παῖδα
σοι (dat sg) you
11. fr. 755. Along with Aeschylus and Euripides, Sophocles is the third of the three great writers of Greek tragedy. Here a character declares his allegiance to the king of the gods.
ἐμός (nom sg) my
