Ancient Greek Studies
Attic Greek language acquisition and ancient text analysis. Focus on medical/scientific authors, esoteric texts, and pharmacological knowledge.
🚀 Quick Links
📚 Book Collection (Local)
Location: /mnt/storage/books_organized/History/Ancient/
📖 Language & Grammar
| Text | Author | Use |
|---|
| Greek: An Intensive Course | Hansen & Quinn | Primary textbook |
| Greek Grammar | Smyth | Reference grammar |
| Lexicographical Sources | — | Dictionary work |
🏥 Medical & Scientific Authors
| Author | Works Available | Era |
|---|
| Galen | (to acquire) | 2nd c. CE |
| Hippocrates | (to acquire) | 5th c. BCE |
| Dioscorides | (to acquire) | 1st c. CE |
| Aristotle | Political Terminology | 4th c. BCE |
Priority: Galen’s pharmacology, Hippocratic corpus, Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica
🎭 Literature & Authors
| Text | Author | Genre |
|---|
| Peace, Birds, Frogs | Aristophanes | Comedy |
| Carmina cum Fragmentis | Pindar | Lyric poetry |
| Works | Callimachus | Poetry |
| Achilleid | Statius | Epic |
| Meditations | Marcus Aurelius | Philosophy |
🔮 Esoteric & Religious
| Text | Focus |
|---|
| Orphic Hymns (Athanassakis) | Religious poetry |
| Orphicorum Fragmenta (Kern) | Source fragments |
| Lexicon of Divine Epithets | Orphic terminology |
| Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) | Practical magic |
| Hermetica (Copenhaver) | Corpus Hermeticum |
| On the Mysteries | Iamblichus |
| Theology of Arithmetic | Iamblichus |
| Oracles of Apollo | Divination |
| Greek & Roman Necromancy | Ogden |
| Proclus Hypotyposis | Neoplatonism |
💊 Pharmacology & Altered States
| Text | Author | Focus |
|---|
| The Chemical Muse | Hillman | Drugs in antiquity |
| Mushrooms, Myth & Mithras | Ruck | Entheogens |
| Dionysos | Kerenyi | Archetypal analysis |
| Maculate Muse | Henderson | Obscene language (medical terms) |
| Magika Hiera | Faraone | Greek magic & religion |
🎯 Learning Tracks
Track 1: Language Acquisition
Hansen & Quinn → Smyth (reference) → Adapted readers → Original texts
| Stage | Focus | Goal |
|---|
| Foundation | Grammar, morphology | Parse basic sentences |
| Vocabulary | Core 1500 words | Read with dictionary |
| Reading | Adapted texts | Fluency building |
| Original | Target authors | Unassisted reading |
Track 2: Medical/Pharmacological Greek
Hippocratic vocab → Galen → Dioscorides → PGM medical sections
| Stage | Text | Outcome |
|---|
| Terms | Medical lexicon | φάρμακον, θεραπεία, νόσος |
| Theory | Hippocrates | Humoral system, symptoms |
| Practice | Galen | Compound medicines |
| Materia | Dioscorides | Plant identification |
| Magic | PGM | Ritual pharmacology |
Track 3: Esoteric Greek
Orphic Hymns → Hermetica → Iamblichus → PGM
| Stage | Text | Outcome |
|---|
| Hymns | Orphica | Divine epithets, invocations |
| Philosophy | Hermetica | Cosmology vocabulary |
| Theurgy | Iamblichus | Technical ritual terms |
| Practice | PGM | Spells, voces magicae |
🔗 Cross-Area Links
📜 Text Acquisition Pipeline
→ Full docs: Greek Text Acquisition
Online Sources (Free, Scrapable)
| Source | Has | Format |
|---|
| CMG (cmg.bbaw.de) | Galen (150+ texts), Hippocrates | PDF, HTML |
| Perseus | Aristotle, Hippocrates, Theophrastus | XML/TEI |
| Archive.org | Pre-1927 Loebs (public domain) | PDF, TXT |
| First1KGreek | Medical texts (GitHub) | TEI XML |
| OpenGreekAndLatin | Clean Perseus mirror | TEI XML |
Overnight Pipeline
CMG + Perseus + Archive.org → Normalize → Chunk → greek_corpus
Cron at 2 AM. Acquire while sleeping.
📋 Acquisition Priorities
High Priority (Pharmakon Miner)
Medium Priority (Esoteric)
Nice to Have
🏷️ Key Terms
| Greek | Transliteration | Meaning |
|---|
| φάρμακον | pharmakon | drug, medicine, poison |
| κυκεών | kykeōn | ritual barley drink |
| βοτάνη | botanē | herb, plant |
| θεραπεία | therapeia | healing, treatment |
| νόσος | nosos | disease |
| ἰατρός | iatros | physician |
| ῥίζα | rhiza | root |
| χυμός | chymos | juice, humor |
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|
| Perseus | Morphological parser, texts |
| TLG | Thesaurus Linguae Graecae |
| Logeion | Dictionary lookup |
| CLTK | Python NLP for Greek |
| Alpheios | Browser reading assistant |
📖 Reading Order (Recommended)
Phase 1: Grammar
- Hansen & Quinn chapters 1-20
- Begin Smyth reference habit
Phase 2: Easy Prose
- Xenophon — Anabasis selections
- Lysias — speeches (simple Attic)
Phase 3: Target Authors
- Hippocrates — Airs, Waters, Places
- Galen — selected treatises
- Dioscorides — plant entries
Phase 4: Esoteric
- Orphic Hymns (with Athanassakis)
- PGM selections
- Hermetica
Hub for ancient Greek language and textual studies.
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