How to Learn Ancient Greek: The Ranieri-Roberts Approach

What is the best way to learn Ancient Greek on your own, as an autodidact? Not one of the best textbooks and graded readers — Athenaze, Logos, Alexandros, Thrasymachus, Reading Greek, Ancient Greek Alive — is sufficient to give you the input you need in vocabulary, grammar, or syntax to become a fluent reader. So how can you acquire the Ancient Greek language, from Classical to Koine, from Epic to Aeolic? The Jonathan Roberts Approach to Ancient Greek employs the strengths of all the readers and textbooks to fill in the gaps so that you can truly become a fluent reader of the Ancient Greek language.

Spreadsheet for the Ranieri-Roberts Approach to Ancient Greek:

The books on Amazon:

Athenaze (US-UK) Book 1

Athenaze (US-UK) Book 2

(N.B. I am only familiar with the Second Edition of the original English Athenaze (US-UK), linked above; I hear the Third Edition is vastly different and quite inferior, but I cannot confirm that from direct experience.)

Athenaze (Italy) Book 1

Athenaze (Italy) Book 2

Logos. Lingua Graeca: Λόγος. Ἑλληνική γλῶσσα

Alexandros

Mythologia

Thrasymachus

Reading Greek: Text and Vocabulary

Reading Greek: Grammar and Exercises

An Independent Study Guide to Reading Greek

Rouse’s Greek Boy

Ancient Greek Alive

Seamus Macdonald’s review of LOGOS on The Patrologist:

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Intro and outro music: Overture of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) by Mozart

00:00 Intro
01:42 Athenaze (original US-UK version by Oxford Press)
07:12 Athenaze ("Ørbergized" Italy version by Vivarium Novum)
16:32 Alexandros & Mythologica
20:09 Rouse's Greek Boy at Home
21:37 Reading Greek
24:32 Thrasymachus
26:51 Ancient Greek Alive
29:43 Logos
35:36 The Biggest Flaw: Where Are the Macrons?
37:59 Genesis of the Jonathan Roberts Approach
40:44 Jonathan Roberts' Approach to Ancient Greek
43:10 The 1st Way to Do This
46:38 The 2nd Way to Do This: The Ranieri-Roberts Approach
47:12 The Ranieri-Roberts Approach to Ancient Greek: SPREADSHEET

[polyMATHY_Luke]

Spreadsheet for the Ranieri-Roberts Approach to Ancient Greek:

Athenaze (US-UK) Book 1

Athenaze (US-UK) Book 2

(N.B. I am only familiar with the Second Edition of the original English Athenaze (US-UK), linked above; I hear the Third Edition is vastly different and quite inferior, but I cannot confirm that from direct experience.)

Athenaze (Italy) Book 1

Athenaze (Italy) Book 2

Logos. Lingua Graeca: Λόγος. Ἑλληνική γλῶσσα

Alexandros

Mythologia

Thrasymachus

Reading Greek: Text and Vocabulary

Reading Greek: Grammar and Exercises

An Independent Study Guide to Reading Greek

Rouse’s Greek Boy

Ancient Greek Alive

[vanguelisk]

I am a greek in my mid 30s and we were taught ancient Greek at school for at least 3-4 years. (1999-2003)
On final year we had to study Antigone.

But we were taught in the very worst possible way.
Like here is a weekly list of nouns and verbs you need to learn by heart how to conjugate them.


I bought the 1st volume of Cambridge Latin a while ago and the difference is staggering.
The fact that there are books trying to teach Greek and Latin using simplified dialogs and pictures
is amazing!

[davidross]

I own Alexandros, Athenaze, and Logos. I already found myself using Logos for about nine or ten chapters and then returning to Athenaze to test my progress. I’m glad to see that I was doing it right!

[alexhoffmanjazz]

thank you for making this available to everyone. you're the man.

[blynch]

Taught myself classical Chinese then Japanese about five years ago through the used of graded readers (l did this after learning both the modern languages which made it easier).

Had the urge to learn ancient Greek last year -- made the mistake of picking up the Hansen and Quinn textbook. Worked through about 300 pages or so and got crushed by the tedious grammar exercises. Realized somewhat ironically how lucky I was starting with ancient Chinese (no conjugations / declensions / moods ).

Been feeling the motivation the past few months to give ancient Greek another shot. This video was the perfectly timed. Can't wait to give this method a try!

[simplicius]

Your contributions on ancient Greek learning and phonology are truly outstanding. I always recommend your work on this subject to everyone.
Several months ago I ended up getting stuck on chapter 25 of the Italian version of Athenaze and felt that I was just learning a bunch of grammar concepts without it improving my reading. I hope this will help me move forward.

[eddoautumnocean]

I can't express how happy I am to have found your channel. I majored in linguistics in undergraduate and graduate school. I found the books Lingua Latina by chance in the university library! I am so grateful for Mr. Renaissance Man Ranieri!

[DavidSinghiser]

I have been doing this (Version One - reading or studying as far as I could go and then switching to another text) for Koine Greek. I was beginning to think I had been wasting my time, but now I'm looking at textts that I struggled with and I'm reading without translating.

This is wonderful!

[marmeemarch]

Thank you so much for creating and organizing this spreadsheet. That was a lot of work and thought you put into it. The evaluations of each of the books really shows your generosity, kindness, and most of all, your purpose and desire to unlock good things to the world at large.

[guillermofernandezperea]

I started Athénaze some months ago with the help of some podcast on Spotify, and though I didn’t like it as much as LLPSI, I felt I was making progresses at a good pace. But then the podcast came to an end, and from chapter 5 things were getting harder. I was looking for another path to climb on, and then I fell upon your videos, talking about Logos and Alexandros. So yesterday I ran to my reference library, and I found the books very agreeable, so I decided to buy Logos, which caught me from the beginning. It’s funny, because I was just thinking about doing exactly the same thing you recommend on this video, and buy also Alexandros, and alternate the reading between both books and Athénaze. And then you come up with the Ranieri-Robertson method!
Thank you for all your work and your advices, Luke, you’re really a great inspiration, and I owe you the discovery of LLPSI and the willing to learn this wonderful language which is Ancient Greek.Greetings from Spain.

[bibi_]

I've fallen head over heels in love with this language and in large part I have you to thank for it. Been learning for a few months now and the accessibility and quality of the learning materials that exist today is really astounding. You're doing invaluable work.

[jrcenina]

Amazing! I’ve been reading all of these already but without a map.

I will follow your suggested order and return with comments and observations!

Thanks again, my friend!

[oblodoblodob]

Thank you Luke, I wish I’d seen this 5 years ago! I crawled my way autodidactically through the JACTs book. I‘ve since gone back to scratch with the John Taylor reading Greek book, having recognised that my basic grammar was patchy and confused, and found it is much clearer there. I’m loving rouse’s Greek boy since you got me onto it. It’s a lovely read and very charming. I can occasionally read a page of an original attic Greek text but it’s a bit of a fluke and the next page I might be lost at sea

[prettypaddy]

This is a great resource! I have stoped and started ancient Greek for years. I'd love to see a book from you in the future!

[Dvinik]

For anyone wondering, I (random internet stranger) can vouch for this system of learning Ancient Greek. Started in mid-March 2024 with Logos and progressively started reading Ancient Greek Alive, Athenaze, Reading Greek and Thrasymachus (also read a few chapters of Alexandros, but I do not like the greek as much and so I will read it later).

I am currently at chapter 22 of Logos and I am mostly applying the system designed by Luke, works like a charm. I am super impressed with this method, even more so because the more I read (and re-read!) the simpler it becomes to understand even the new chapters.

I was shocked last night when I was reading chapters 4A and 4B in Reading Greek and could understand while reading "σκιας οναρ ανθρωπος".

Do not worry about the different vocabs in different books, you will end up knowing them already when they are introduced later in another book.

Extensive reading is the way.

Χαριν σοι εχο!

[lynetteh]

Thank you for doing this work!! I already started working on a similar thing myself… starting with Greek Ollendorff and Ancient Greek Alive and hoping to work back up to Italian Athenaze. I was hoping to put more work into coordinating resources, but I never could have been this thorough on my own. Thank you!

[andreashjelde]

This is absolutely amazing stuff. I forgot to go to sleep and stayed up watching this. Thank you from a language nerd

[onlyafly]

Thanks for this, Luke! I've been learning Modern Greek for the past two years, in preparation to learn Ancient Greek. I'm about to kick off the method you recommend, starting with Logos!

[kelvindelgado]

Great content, insight, and help as usual Luke, thank you! I selfishly hope you will make audio recordings for Logos soon! 😁

[jwzanella]

My experience: I started by myself in 2021 with Learning Greek, and some basic courses on Udemy and vídeos in YouTube. It was too tough even from the first section that I couldn't continue. Then I bought the book Learn New Testament Greek by John Dobson and finaly I enhanced my ancient greek. I used these tools because they are avaiable in portuguese. Moreover I recommend the Learn New Testament Greek to start, it's a very straightfoward tool for beginners.
Now I'm in the last but one section of Learning Greek and I see it's getting harder again. Before this vídeo I was already thinking in stoping and go to another book, such as Pharr's Homeric Greek and Greek Boy at Home, and this video came in a perfect time. Surely I will use this sheet. Thank you Luke.