Creating (and maintaining) good Latin/Greek reading habits

- 5 minutes read - 913 words

N.B. This is an old post from the previous iteration of this site. I’ve tweaked a few things here and there in the entry, but they are mostly unchanged. My previous website was more of a jobs site, so a lot of the entries are Classics-centric, and that won’t necessarily be the case going forward.

Since I’m not in the field any more, I’m really trying to be intentional about making enough time for the classics. I have been going to Latin dinners with friends, where we speak Latin and read Latin texts together, which is really helpful. However, that’s only every other week or so, which isn’t all that conducive to me keeping up my skills. I’ve also been trying to listen to Latin podcasts, too, but since my wife and I have been carpooling more often than not – not a bad thing! – I haven’t had a chance to listen to Latin podcasts in the car as usual. I don’t often listen to Latin podcasts while just hanging out at home, since I get too distracted. Strangely, though, while driving, I can pay attention to driving but also focus in on the Latin in the podcast.

As a result, as I mentioned, I need to be more intentional about setting aside time for Latin. I have set a soft goal for myself of 30 minutes of Latin (and/or Greek) reading per day, but have almost always fallen short of that. Last week I ended up reading a bunch of Hyginus’ Fabulae, which are really short and easy and fun to read. The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) offers an insane amount of free Latin texts, and Hyginus’ Fabulae are easily accessible there. An English translation is also available through THEOI. If you’re wanting some relatively easy Latin to roll through and have fun doing it, definitely check out some Hyginus. We read some at Latin dinner recently and I was able to sightread pretty much all of it without looking anything up.

I have also wanted to revisit Caesar. The De bello Gallico is some of the first Latin I ever read – and Caesar really hammered home the idea of indirect statement for me – so it’s a nostos of sorts to read him. I read some of BG 1 with students a couple of years ago; I don’t think they appreciated it as much as I did. On my lunch break at work recently, I read 5 or 6 paragraphs of BG 1 at sight and had no issues. I have a nice omnibus Latin text of the whole BG at home, and I’d like to start reading that as well; it has a decent commentary with it and I think it’d be useful. Caesar writes in clear, very readable Latin, and is really rather fun to read. I like reading about Roman history.

Another thing I’ve been reading, albeit really slowly, is Dictys Cretensis’ Ephemeris belli Troiani. Dictys’ Latin is overall fairly straightforward, but it’s late (perhaps 4th century CE or beyond), and supposedly based on a Greek original. I picked up a text/translation at CAMWS a few years ago and hadn’t looked at it until earlier this year. It’s a nice little text, and fun to read about some of the weird Trojan War traditions that are mostly ignored by Homer and Vergil. Lots of weird Cyclic goodies in there, but in Latin!

I haven’t read any Greek at all lately. I recently read Emily Wilson’s fantastic Odyssey translation – which all of you should read – but haven’t done much with actual Greek itself. I have the Loeb of Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days lying around but it’s untouched so far, unfortunately. I really enjoy Hesiod and he’s fairly readable, and I adore the Muses, who know how to tell both true and false things (!!). So yeah, I need to work on that more. I really want to sit down and read some Homer. I have M.L. West’s venerable two-volume Teubner Iliad, and Peter von der Mühll’s Odyssey Teubner as well. I also have Bristol commentaries for both Iliad and Odyssey, so there’s no shortage of aids, and Autenrieth’s Homeric Dictionary is a fantastic resource. Just need to put in the time.

Basically, my point here is that you need to put in the time. When I was a teacher, I read Latin all the time because it was just part of my job, and required no great extra effort. I always had a Logeion tab open in my browser, and some sort of text open – mostly texts for school-age students, though, or tiered readings. But being out of the field requires you to put in more time and really be conscious of it, which has been a difficult change. I am working on it and it’s difficult, but I think it’ll be fine if I just keep it up.

Sorry for not writing in a long time. I’ve been really busy still getting used to the new job. I absolutely love it and think it’s a great fit. I loved being a teacher, but it just wasn’t a great fit for me long-term. I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time, and things are really looking up. Anyway, I don’t want to let go of the classics by any means, so part of holding the torch is writing on here, inter alia. Hope you all are well, and curate ut valeatis!