How to Prepare a Reading Assignment

1.  Read the entire passage aloud in Greek.  Your goals for this reading are to pronounce it accurately and to understand some of what the passage is saying.

2.  Now work through one sentence at a time.  If the sentences are very long, take one clause at a time, up to a colon or, perhaps, a comma.  For each sentence, look up the words you do not know and write them down (on your separate note sheet of course).  Mark the words you feel you should know, or would like to add to your active vocabulary, with a highlighter or by underlining in a different color.  If there are any unfamiliar or complicated grammatical constructions, look them up too and make an appropriate note;  you may want to include the number of the relevant section in your textbook (or in a reference grammar).  Then read the sentence straight through.  Do not attempt to turn the Greek into English word order, but read it in its Greek order.  Your goal is to determine what the sentence means in context.

3.  Once you've looked up the vocabulary and grammar for each sentence and read the sentences once, go back over the entire passage from the beginning.  Read it over in Greek, thinking about what it means;  at first, this probably means making a mental translation into English.  Your goal for this step is to understand what you're reading, as you are reading it.  Try to get a mental picture of the action being described.

4.  Finally, read the whole thing aloud again in Greek, this time trying to read both accurately and expressively.  Your goal here is to begin trying to understand the Greek without going through English, but don't expect this to happen right away.

For the following example, you may wish to use the >Stoa Display Tool to show the Greek in the Greek alphabet.

Here's an example.  First, a sample passage (from the first story in Morice's Stories in Attic Greek):

*So/lwn h)=n sofw/tatos pa/ntwn tw=n *)Aqhnai/wn. th\n ga\r sofi/an au)tou= ou) mo/non oi( poli=tai e)qau/mazon, a)lla\ kai\ oi( a)/lloi *(/Ellhnes pa/ntes, polloi\ de\ kai\ tw=n barba/rwn. *Sku/qhs tis, o)no/mati *)Ana/xarsis, h)/kouse peri\ tou/twn. e)bouleu/to tw=| *So/lwni o(milei=n. ei)/xe kai\ au)to\s do/can e)n th=| patri/di w(s sofo\s w)/n. e)/pleusen ou=)n ei)s ta\s *)Aqh/nas kai\ h)=lqe eu)qu\s e)pi\ th\n e)kei/nou oi)ki/an.

Step 1:  Read the passage aloud.

Here are the notes a hypothetical student might make during step 2.
*So/lwn -- nominative, so the subject; one of the Seven Sages and traditionally the designer of the Athenian law code.
h)=n -- he is about to be identified
sofw/tatos -- nominative, agrees with Solon; this makes sense given what we know about Solon. There will probably be another noun, like a)nh/r, or perhaps a partitive genitive coming, to answer "the wisest among whom?"
pa/ntwn tw=n *)Aqhnai/wn -- the expected partitive genitive
th\n sofi/an -- accusative, so probably a direct object; if it were subject of an infinitive, we would have had a verb like le/gei before this.
ga/r -- we are about to get supporting evidence for the previous statement
au)tou= -- must refer to Solon because there are no other people in the story yet.
ou) mo/non -- introduces a contrasting pair, so we can expect there will be an a)lla\ kai/ coming up.
oi( poli=tai -- nominative, so this must be the subject of the verb whose object is sofi/an; the citizens do something to Solon's wisdom. And it's probably the citizens who are the contrasting pair: not only are they doing whatever it is, but so also is somebody else.
e)qau/mazon -- as expected, a transitive verb in the third person plural. It can't be first person singular because we already know what the subject is.
a)lla\ kai/ -- as expected; here comes the second part of the contrast
oi( a)/lloi *(/Ellenes pa/ntes -- as expected, this is parallel with oi( poli=tai. We won't need another verb.
polloi\de\ kai/ -- Another idea tacked on to what was already a complete and satisfactory sentence. Probably names more people who e)qau/mazon, but we don't know for sure yet. We expect a noun or a partitive genitive to define polloi/
tw=n barba/rwn -- The expected partitive. As the sentence is now over, the many non-Greeks must be doing the same as all the Greeks.
*Sku/qhs tis -- Another character, and not someone we're supposed to know, just a random guy. The adjective is masculine, so it's certainly a male.
o)no/mati *)Ana/xarsis -- OK, now he has a name.
h)/kouse -- What Anacharsis did. We expect a direct object.
peri\ tou/twn -- Instead of a direct object we have this: we're told that he heard about something, not that he heard something. The antecedent of tou/twn is vaguely everything that's come before: that there is a smart person named Solon that everybody knows about.
e)bouleu/to -- Subject must still be Anacharsis because nothing tells us it's changed. We expect a direct object or, perhaps more likely, a complementary infinitive.
tw=| *So/lwni -- Since e)bouleu/to can't take an indirect object, this may go with the infinitive we're waiting for.
o(milei=n -- The expected infinitive, and the dative is now accounted for as well.
ei)/xe -- Anacharsis is still the subject. There will almost certainly be a direct object for this verb.
kai\ au)to/s -- Emphasizes the subject: "Anacharsis too." This probably introduces some sort of parallel or comparison between him and Solon.
do/can -- The expected direct object. This noun is pretty vague all by itself: are we talking about something Anacharsis believes, or his reputation?
e)n th=| patri/di -- Must be A's reputation, but we still need to know what it actually is.
w(s sofo\s w)/n -- This explains it: this is A's do/ca, and the implied comparision with S is now clear.
e)/pleusen -- Still nothing to indicate a change of subject, still A. If there is a direct object it will be the ship or the journey; more likely, there will be some phrase to tell us where he went, and we can make a good guess where that's likely to be.
ou=)n -- This sentence is a result that follows from what's come before; in other words, the previous discussion is the reason why A sailed.
ei)s ta\s *)Aqh/nas -- As expected, this is where A went.
kai/ -- Could connect two objects for ei)s ("he sailed to Athens and to Corinth," say), or could connect two clauses ("he sailed... and he did something else.")
h)=lqe -- Another verb; therefore kai/ is connecting the two clauses. This is rather crude style; it would be more graceful to subordinate one to the other, generally making the subordinate member a participial phrase rather than a clause. We expect another spatial phrase to say in detail where A came to.
eu)qu/s -- Nominative, so modifies Anacharsis. English would use an adverb here.
e)pi\ th\n e)kei/nou oi)ki/an -- The expected information about place. e)kei/nou cannot be the subject of the sentence, so must be the other person in the story.

Here is the mental process that accompanies step 3:
*Sw/lwn h)=n sofw/tatos pa/ntwn tw=n *)Aqhnai/wn. -- Sets the scene.
th\n gar\sofi/an au)tou= -- Explanation of his sofi/a coming up.
ou) mo/non oi) poli=tai e)qau/m/azon -- It doesn't just impress his fellow Athenians.
a)lla\ kai\ oi( a)/lloi *(/Ellenes pa/ntes -- His reputation for wisdom is pan-Hellenic.
polloi\ de\ kai\ tw=n barba/rwn -- Almost an afterthought: barbarians too.
*Sku/qhs tis, o)no/mati *)Ana/xarsis -- Another person in the story.
h)/kouse peri\ tou/twn -- Like everybody else, he has heard about Solon the wise.
e)bouleu/to tw=| *So/lwni o(milei=n -- His response to what he's heard.
ei)/xe kai\ au)to\s do/can e)n th=| patri/di w(s sofo\s w)/n. -- Why he responds as he does.
e)/pleusen ou=)n ei)s ta\s *)Aqh/nas -- What he does as a result.
kai\ h)=lqe eu)qu\s e)pi\ th\n e)kei/nou oi)ki/an -- Now our two characters are together. What happens next?

Step 4:  Read the passage aloud again, with understanding and expression.

You can find the original story in Plutarch's Life of Solon. The meeting between Solon and Anacharsis is in chapter 5.