I’m learning Ancient Greek in 2024–Four (4) real benefits of learning an ancient language
It’s all Greek to me.
Seriously?
Learning a dead language?
Learning something that doesn’t earn you any money?
I was a Philosophy student, so I really understand what it means to do something that doesn’t earn you money.
I did end up as a software developer, so fortune forced my hand. I had to learn something more practical.
But at the same time, life isn’t *just* about the next meal or the next working day.
I want to convince you that learning an ancient language is a worthwhile thing to do. (In doing so, I’m preaching to myself too..)
Here are four reasons I can think of:
i) It helps you understand the world we live in
ii) It expands your horizons of the world we live in
iii) It helps you avoid the ‘blindspots’ of our world
iv) It helps you relax in our busy world
And I’ll top it off with the *one* resource I’ve been using.
So without further ado, the ‘why’s:
i) It helps you understand the world we live in
A lot of our English words come from Greek.
Everyday words such as democracy, chiropractor, or even surgeon came from Greek.
Demos + kratia -> people + power -> democracy
chiro + practor -> hand (cheiros) + worker -> chiropractor
cheiro + ourgos -> hand + worker -> (with a false pronunciation) -> surgeon
You may even be able to come up with new words, like J K Rowling did with Latin like:
expelliarmus
expel + armus -> dispel + arms -> what Snape did.
It gives you an edge in understanding our language and our world.
ii) It expands your horizons of the world we live in
The greatest or most successful visionaries of the world did not start out doing what they do by thinking like everyone else.
Mark Zuckerberg was inspired to found Facebook because he understood that people wanted to connect with people from the past. And nothing on the Internet was offering that.
Arthur Conan Doyle was first a doctor before diving all-in into novel writing. His medical knowledge gave him materials and inspiration to write gripping stories.
Zeus, Artemis, Diana — it may be silly to us that there were pantheons of gods in the ancient world, each in charge of an area of life. But people really believed that.
It shows how we are different, but also how we are similar.
Πάντες ἄνθρωποι τοῦ εἰδέναι ὀρέγονται φύσει.
‘All men by nature desire to know.’ — Aristotle
That’s the opening line from Aristotle’s “Metaphysics”. It accurately describes us, to this day. The fact that you are on this website shows that.
Only you’ll be able to find out what new horizons you’ll reach and see. And you can tell the rest of us when you’re there.
iii) It helps you spot the ‘blindspots’ of our world
When you learn about another culture, you have another pair of lenses to view your own.
When asked about their most important values, middle-class Americans followed a “duty-to-others” in the 1950 to 1960s. But in the early 1970s, according to Daniel Yankelovich, an author, 17 percent of the population opted to follow a ‘self-fulfilment’ or’ duty-to-self’ ethic. Only 20 percent held on to the duty-to-others option. The rest moved back and forth.
The Greeks viewed friendship, loyalty, and virtue highly. Not that we don’t, but they were different. Witness Xenophon, who wrote history:
παντων κτηματων αριστον εστι φιλος αγαθος (accents omitted)
phonetic transliteration: panton ktimaton ariston esti filos agathos
Translation: The best of all possessions is a good friend.
How many of our pop songs are about friendship?
We can drink from their literature and wisdom.
iv) It helps you relax in our busy world
We seem to be told that the best way to relax after a long day is to slump on a couch and switch on a TV programme.
But surely the most relaxing activities don’t involve a screen?
Winston Churchill was known to paint after a long day’s work, to wind down before going to bed.
(I count Kindle as non-screen time.)
There’s a reason why the phrase ‘drinking from …’ to describe someone’s intellectual source. That’s because reading is nourishing.
Imagine a soothing drink in the evening. Why not top it off with a pinch of wisdom from writings which have stood the test of time?
Conclusion
I’ll be striving to read a bit of ancient Greek in the original every day.
I’m trying to ‘learn in public’ to keep myself accountable. Perhaps in a future post I can describe more of my methods — like what I’ve done to learn Greek so far.
I have been using Homeric Greek — Book 1 edited by Leslie Collins Edwards.
Even if not an ancient language, I hope this article has at least inspired you to take up something out of the mundane.