kundalini's log

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kundalini
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Re: kundalini's log

Postby kundalini » Thu Apr 14, 2022 3:13 pm

I'm about 120 lines into book 4. With 20 more books to go, I really ought to direct all the time and energy I have for language learning to reading the Iliad, but curiosity got the better of me and I wandered into reading the first 40 or so lines of Herodotus and around 80 lines of Plato's Republic. It was a nice surprise to find out that I didn't struggle with these texts as much as I thought I would. In fact, it was rather enjoyable. I found that Homer prepared me pretty well for the idiosyncrasies of Herodotus's Ionian dialect. And what little I've read of The Republic was actually somewhat easier to read than the Iliad. So this feels encouraging. But I really should keep going with the Iliad, and fight the impulse to keep sampling other Greek authors.
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Iliad: 12 / 24

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Herodotean
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Re: kundalini's log

Postby Herodotean » Thu Apr 14, 2022 4:04 pm

Check out the free resources at https://geoffreysteadman.com/ (if you haven't yet).

Homer is much more repetitive than Plato, due in large part to the formulaic nature of traditional oral poetry. In my experience, reading Homer is perhaps more challenging at first than reading Plato, but Homer's difficulty starts to level out sooner. That's partly due to the language and partly due to the content.

I should add: both Homer and Plato are well worth the time. Even the best translations can't come close (in my humble opinion).
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kundalini
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Re: kundalini's log

Postby kundalini » Sun Apr 17, 2022 11:54 pm

Somehow able to get my wanderlust under control for the last few days, I finished book 4 of the Iliad. I wrote down about 220 new words from book 4 in my notebook, which I'll need to review in the next few days.

This was a sad and violent chapter, with vivid imageries of warfare:

οὖτα δὲ δουρὶ παρ' ὀμφαλόν: ἐκ δ' ἄρα πᾶσαι
χύντο χαμαὶ χολάδες, τὸν δὲ σκότος ὄσσ' ἐκάλυψεν.

He stabbed him by the navel. All his guts poured out to the ground, and then darkness overcame his eyes.

In contrast to the violence of the battle, the inaction of Achilles was striking:

οὐ μὰν οὐδ' Ἀχιλεὺς Θέτιδος πάϊς ἠϋκόμοιο
μάρναται, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ νηυσὶ χόλον θυμαλγέα πέσσει.

Achilles did not fight, but stayed by the ships, nursing his aching anger.

Herodotean wrote:Check out the free resources at https://geoffreysteadman.com/ (if you haven't yet).

Thanks. I actually have a hard copy of Steadman's Herodotus, and I really like the running vocabulary he provides in his books. But when available, I prefer the bilingual format of Loebs. On that note, as I'm reading the Iliad, I'm super grateful to Assimil's ancient Greek course for its lessons in parallel text and its audio, which gave me an intuition for Greek that I never developed for Latin despite taking years of it in college.
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Iliad: 12 / 24

kundalini
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Re: kundalini's log

Postby kundalini » Mon Feb 06, 2023 3:40 am

I'm now on line 330 of book 5, which averages out to about a line per day since my last update almost a year ago. Of course, I didn't actually read a line every day, but put down the Iliad for a while, then resumed it.

I took about a month to review my notebook of 1000 or so words from the first four books, and began reading at book 2. Reading the Iliad is much more fluent and enjoyable this time around. I'm guessing it's mostly due to putting in a serious effort to consolidate the vocabulary.

So I'm back on the saddle, and making progress again. At this rate, I'll be finished with the Iliad no later than... 2040!
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Iliad: 12 / 24

kundalini
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Re: kundalini's log

Postby kundalini » Tue Feb 07, 2023 6:53 pm

Quick update: I read a couple of hundred more lines, and I'm up to 5.565. I find that studying the vocab of a passage beforehand makes reading it a much more pleasant experience.
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Iliad: 12 / 24

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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: kundalini's log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Wed Feb 08, 2023 3:05 pm

kundalini wrote:I find that studying the vocab of a passage beforehand makes reading it a much more pleasant experience.
Agreed. I'm doing the same now with The Agamemnon, though in fact I have gone through the play once before, without thoroughly learning the vocabulary. Learning ahead of time is a more effective procedure.
Who is the translator in your Loeb edition, if you are referring to one?
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

kundalini
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Re: kundalini's log

Postby kundalini » Thu Feb 09, 2023 5:52 am

Update: I made it to 5.730 today, getting closer to the end of this very long chapter.

Book 5: 730 / 905

MorkTheFiddle wrote:Who is the translator in your Loeb edition, if you are referring to one?


Hi, Mork. I have the older edition translated by A.T. Murray. The language is surprisingly archaic for a translation that's only about a century old, but it's not too problematic, either. To study words, I had been using the interlinear text mentioned in the first post in this log, though recently, I switched to the book below that contains a glossary for each page, followed by the text itself, then a translation. I like it because it's fairly self-contained, other than lacking a commentary.

So I have been reading in blocks of about 18 lines, encountering, on average, about 3-5 unknown words in each block. That is still far too many to read comfortably, though studying the new words in advance does help. I hope to get it down to 1 unknown word or so in the not too distant future.


https://archive.org/details/iliad_202201/page/29/mode/1up

https://www.lulu.com/shop/benjamin-crowell/iliad-volume-ii/paperback/product-9r896g.html?q=&page=1&pageSize=4
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Iliad: 12 / 24

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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: kundalini's log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Thu Feb 09, 2023 6:33 pm

I am familiar with Crowell's translation, although I have not used it.
When I read The Iliad, my outside aid, besides a dictionary, was Richmond Lattimore's translation.
Also I used Steadman's helpful editions for Book 6 and Book 22, and I used LWT as well, but I don't want to get into LWT unless you're interested.
If you want to know more about LWT--completely and totally free-PM me.
2 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

kundalini
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Re: kundalini's log

Postby kundalini » Fri Feb 10, 2023 5:37 am

MorkTheFiddle wrote:I am familiar with Crowell's translation, although I have not used it.
When I read The Iliad, my outside aid, besides a dictionary, was Richmond Lattimore's translation.
Also I used Steadman's helpful editions for Book 6 and Book 22, and I used LWT as well, but I don't want to get into LWT unless you're interested.
If you want to know more about LWT--completely and totally free-PM me.


I have a copy of Lattimore's translation, which I really like, though I've consulted it only a handful of times. That book, along with Loebs edition, Daitz's sound recording, Wilcock's text + commentary, Chantraine's Homeric Grammar, Pharr's textbook, Cunliffe's dictionary, etc. etc. goes toward the nearly comical (or tragic?) amount of time and money I have poured into reading this one book!

Thank you for the offer to share your experience with LWT. I'm intrigued by it, and I even tried to install it once, though unsuccessfully. For the Iliad, I, do feel like the material I have is sufficient, but I'll keep LWT in mind in the future.

Update: up to 5.870. 30 lines left in book 5!
Book 5: 872 / 905
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Iliad: 12 / 24

kundalini
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Re: kundalini's log

Postby kundalini » Fri Feb 10, 2023 9:28 pm

Book 5 is completed, and I'm now on 6.45

Book 5: 905 / 905

Book6: 45 / 529

I liked Book 5 less than the other four books I've gone through so far, but it still had some stirring moments. Sarpedon, fighting for Troy and now wounded and dying, to Hector:

Πριαμίδη, μὴ δή με ἕλωρ Δαναοῖσιν ἐάσῃς
κεῖσθαι, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπάμυνον: ἔπειτά με καὶ λίποι αἰὼν
ἐν πόλει ὑμετέρῃ, ἐπεὶ οὐκ ἄρ᾽ ἔμελλον ἔγωγε
νοστήσας οἶκον δὲ φίλην ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν
εὐφρανέειν ἄλοχόν τε φίλην καὶ νήπιον υἱόν.

Loose translation:

Hector, don't let me lie here as a prey for the Greeks. Guard over me, since I die in your city, and I won't be returning to my dear homeland to joyously meet my beloved wife and my young son.
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Iliad: 12 / 24


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