You have probably been used to commenting on the style of English writers, especially poets. Greek authors use similar techniques and you should be ready to comment on the style as well as the content of your set texts. If you can translate and understand the significance of the text, this should not present too much of a problem. A key difference between English and Greek is word order, which is much more flexible in Greek. Because Greek and Latin, unlike English, are inflected languages, classical authors can arrange words in a variety of ways to alter the emphasis, while keeping the same basic meaning.
You can find much more stylistic commentary on each of the four separate texts on the parallel open-access website (supplementary resources for these volumes can be found at www.bloomsbury.com/
One useful way to think about style is to ask yourself how the author could have expressed himself most simply, and then to consider why he has chosen to elaborate his point in particular ways. There is often no right or wrong answer, and effects may be subtle, so be prepared to engage in discussion with your fellow students and teacher. Writers on literature have developed technical vocabulary to help describe some literary effects. Before setting out a few of these terms, it is worth emphasising that as well as identifying an effect, it is important that you explain how it enhances the meaning.
An author makes many choices: for example, selecting one from a number of words with the same basic meaning (synonyms), or including words, especially adjectives and adverbs, which may not be strictly necessary. This selection is sometimes termed diction (from the Latin dico – I say) or lexis (from λέγω).
When you start learning Greek, you get used to a fairly predictable word order, often involving a nominative at the start, and a verb at the end of the clause. Unusual word order is likely to be significant. For example, has an action been emphasised by promoting the verb (moving it forward) or placing it first? Has the subject been delayed, exciting suspense in the reader? Try to read or re-read the Greek words as they come – how is the picture being built up, word-by-word? Since the lines in verse set texts (unlike prose texts) are fixed, you might also consider emphasis through position – for example, a word being delayed to the next line (‘enjambment’) or coming first in a line.
End of sample. Continue to next page to purchase book.