Polyglot · free course
Learn Ancient Greek
Read real Greek from your first week
The grammatical foundations are classical Attic — the standard starting point, from which Koine is a short step and Homer's older epic language opens with help — and the readings deliberately span the tradition a Greek reader actually meets: Homer's epic, Delphic inscriptions, Attic prose, and the Koine Greek of the New Testament, each quoted from the standard editions.
Free · no account needed · about 5–10 minutes per lesson
By the end of the course
By the end of this road you read Greek itself — Homer, Plato, the Gospels — unabridged, in the original.
Try it — the first check of Lesson 1
Quick check
Which letter makes the sound of English “th” (as a breathy t)?
Ancient Greek, from alphabet to Homer — free
Ancient Greek is the language of Homer, Plato, the tragedians, and the New Testament. This free online course takes you from zero — including the alphabet — to reading real passages of that literature in the original, unabridged.
It is built for beginners with no Greek at all. After Unit 1 you can sound out any Greek word as a modern page prints it; by Unit 6 you are reading John, Plato, and Homer with tap-glosses.
What the course covers
6 units · 18 lessons · free, no account needed — progress saves in your browser.
Real texts, from the first unit
Every reading is a real, attributed passage, quoted exactly as standard editions print it — never invented app-sentences alone. By the final unit, the readings are the literature:
- Homer, Odyssey— line 1 in Unit 2; its first three lines in Unit 6
- Plato, Apology— “the unexamined life is not worth living” — read in Plato's own Greek
- John 1— Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος — the opening verses, letter-perfect NA28
- Delphi & Heraclitus— γνῶθι σεαυτόν, πάντα ῥεῖ — the sayings, exactly as the Greeks quoted them
- Xenophon, Anabasis— Θάλαττα! θάλαττα! — the sea, the sea
How the course works
The method is graded reading: short lessons that teach one system at a time — the alphabet, breathings and accents, the article, the case machine, the verb — and then put it to work immediately in real, attributed text. The literary passages are quoted exactly as the standard editions print them (NA28 for John, the Oxford texts for Plato and Homer); the one practice fable is retold after Aesop and labeled as such.
Every example word carries audio in the reconstructed pronunciation, every word in a reading can be tapped for its meaning and grammar, wrong answers explain why, and vocabulary returns for review on a spaced schedule. The whole course was checked line-by-line against the standard grammars and editions before publication.
Common questions
Do I have to learn a new alphabet first?+
Yes — and it is the easy part. Unit 1 covers all 24 letters, the breathings, and the accents in three short lessons, anchored to Greek words English already borrowed (λόγος, δρᾶμα, ψυχή). After Unit 1 you can sound out any Greek word you will meet on a printed page.
Is this Attic, Koine, or Modern Greek?+
The grammatical foundations are classical Attic — the standard starting point, from which Koine is an easy step. The readings deliberately span both: Homer's epic Greek, Attic prose, and the Koine of the New Testament. It is not Modern Greek, which is a different (living) language.
Can I use this course to read the New Testament?+
Yes — John's Gospel enters in Unit 3 and returns through the course, quoted exactly from the NA28 critical text, and the grammar you learn (the article, cases, the verb) is precisely what NT reading requires. Koine-specific forms are glossed where they differ.
How long does the course take?+
The foundations course is 6 units — 18 lessons of about 5–10 minutes each — a few hours of focused work plus spaced review. By the end you read the openings of the Odyssey and John and Plato's most famous sentence with tap-glosses. Unassisted fluency takes months more; this course gets you started honestly.
Is it really free?+
Yes. The full course is free and requires no account — progress is saved in your browser, and a free account keeps it saved to you from Unit 2 on.
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