/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.12995292]

Ancient Greek or Latin?

[Anonymous No.12995304]

Bof

[Anonymous No.12995307]

>>12995292
Ancient greek comes more useful with etymologies.
Latin is easier to learn, read a make compositions in.

[Anonymous No.12995327]

Are you a classics scholar

[Anonymous No.12995334]

>>12995292
Nordic

[Anonymous No.12995335]

>>12995327
not professionally.

[Anonymous No.12995346]

>>12995335
Well then I wouldn't recommend learning either unless you're absurdly into the classics
If that is the case, I'd say greek because it has a more interesting body of work

[Anonymous No.12995364]

>>12995292
both. it should only take you a week or two to learn both of them.

[Anonymous No.12995427]

Greek was good enough for God so it should be good enough for you

[Anonymous No.12995429]

>>12995292
Hebrew

[Anonymous No.12995513]

Obviously Greek.
You can count the Latin writers worth reading on one hand. (Cicero, Horace, Virgil, Augustine, Erasmus.)

[Anonymous No.12995537]

>>12995304
>>12995334
>>12995427
>>12995429
Sun is setting, time is calling you to sleep, my children.

[Anonymous No.12995738]

>>12995513
Seneca ?
Tacitus ?
Lucan ?
Petronius ?
Marcus Aurelius ?
Apuleius ?
Caesar ?

[Anonymous No.12995767]

>>12995738
Aurelius wrote in Greek, unfortunately. To OP: learn Latin.

[Anonymous No.12995771]

>>12995738
>>12995513
Not to mention that latin extends all the way into the renaissance
Latin: 1600+ years worth of literary tradition
Greek: ~200 years of tales of pederasty and basic bitch philosophy

[Anonymous No.12995792]

>>12995738
you don't read half of those because of their latin but because of their thought or pragmatics (not at all saying they were bad writers, but that their writ is a tertiary bonus enjoyment)

[Anonymous No.12995798]

>>12995771
all latin philosophy is derivative of this man (and aristotle)

[Anonymous No.12995824]

>>12995771
>Implying Greek literature stopped after the classic era
How retarded could you possibly be?

[Anonymous No.12995839]

>>12995292
“No”

[Anonymous No.12995847]

>>12995824
>modern greek literature
>anyone caring
Pick only one

[Anonymous No.12995850]

>>12995292
Arabic or Hebrew for me famalam.

[Anonymous No.12995857]

>>12995847
this

[Anonymous No.12995860]

>>12995847
Neoplatonic philosophy, the Greek church fathers, Byzantine theologiy, etc. You are retarded.

[Anonymous No.12995869]

>>12995847
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sophistic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_literature

[Anonymous No.12995876]

>>12995860
Below is the list of people who care:

[Anonymous No.12995879]

>>12995857
You're retarded too. Congratulations.

[Anonymous No.12995885]

>>12995876
>>12995798

[Anonymous No.12995893]

>>12995876
And what is your glorious list of "1600+ years worth of literary tradition" in Latin? Medieval history texts, church registers, geometry textbooks, theology (apparently no one cares about this), etc. There's a reason almost no one studies medieval Latin literature. The interest is almost entirely restricted to people engaged in theological studies.

[Anonymous No.12995919]

>>12995876
Christianity through Pseudo-Dionysius, Islamic Neoplatonic thought, Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Aquinas, Scholasticism, Calvin, Schopenhauer, Bergson.

>"With Plotinus there even appears, probably for the first time in Western philosophy, idealism that had long been current in the East even at that time, for it taught (Enneads, iii, lib. vii, c.10) that the soul has made the world by stepping from eternity into time, with the explanation: 'For there is for this universe no other place than the soul or mind' (neque est alter hujus universi locus quam anima), indeed the ideality of time is expressed in the words: 'We should not accept time outside the soul or mind' (oportet autem nequaquam extra animam tempus accipere)."

[Anonymous No.12995939]

>>12995307
>ncient greek comes more useful with etymologies
what
French, Italian and Spanish are direct descendants of Latin, and it was spread and spoken all over Europe for millenia. How could Greek, practically an infertile language after Alexander's conquests, be more relevant to the understanding of word etymologies than Latin?

[Anonymous No.12995961]

>>12995939
>>12995953

[Anonymous No.12995971]

>>12995327
>>12995346
Brainlet.

>>12995767
>>12995771
The right answers.

If you want to learn one language, learn Latin. If you want to learn both languages, learn Latin first.

[Anonymous No.12995975]

>>12995961
>>12995971
I'm not saying Greek is bad or unimportant, I just think that for the average person, Latin is more useful and simpler to learn. IMO, everyone worth their salt should know: Latin, Greek, French, German, and English -- plus, whatever their native/mother tongue is.

[Anonymous No.12995991]

>>12995939
Bitch, even the word etymology comes from greek.
Most medical terms do, philosophy is full of greek words, Cicero constructed a whole fucking philosophical lexicon based on Greek.
Evrery fucking succesful company gets his name from greek words.
Nike ? Means Victory in greek.
Ariston ? Amazon ? Atlas ?
Take a guess you troglodyte (this too comes fron greek)

[Anonymous No.12996008]

>>12995991
Just clarifying.
What I mean is that high level language, scientific words and intellectual jargon come from greek.
It's the same for latin.
There's the "sermo" or folk talk and the high level language that comes fron greek

[Anonymous No.12996018]

>>12995991
I'm sorry for being mean to you.

[Anonymous No.12996037]

>>12995991
Dude chill
Jeez
Show us where latin man touched you

[Anonymous No.12996077]

>>12995991
Ok, you retard (that word comes from Latin :^), but I was talking about general tendencies, while you only list specific cases. It is a fact that Latin was known over a larger area, for a longer period of time (long after the fall of Roman Empire), which gave it more room to influence other languages. Maybe the medical jargon is primarily Greek, but the natural, real languages of Europe are certainly more Latin. If you pick a speaker of two or three living European languages, they'll understand a Latin text significantly better than a Greek one, precisely because of all those shared etymologies and roots.

[Anonymous No.12996120]

>>12996077
Latin stands in immediate proximity to romance languages clearly and similarities are just obvious .
Unfortunately it doesn't fall too far from the tree, whereas greek represents the gateway to a deeper understanding of language and its evolution.

[Anonymous No.12996139]

>>12995893
Are you that ignorant? Do you realize that most academic texts were written in Latin up to middle 18th century? You could add to that list of classics philosophical giants such as Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz and Wolff, just to give you four names that shaped modern and contemporary philosophy.
Also your dismissal of Medieval philosophy is pathetic, not everything was theology, and not all theology is mere apologetics. From Abelard, St. Thomas and Duns Scotus you can learn way more than arbitrary Biblical precepts.

[Anonymous No.12996455]

>>12995292
>what did the ancient greeks learn
greek
>what did the romans learn
greek

[Anonymous No.12996523]

Depends if you wany to read stuff that was written in Greek or latin

[Anonymous No.12996551]

I'm gonna learn both starting with greek fuck all ya'll why should i care about opinions XD

[Anonymous No.12996738]

Latin

[Anonymous No.12996744]

>>12996037
lmaooooooo

>>12995991
as a classics major who picked latin over greek, you are making me regret. thanks

[Anonymous No.12996768]

>>12996744
Eat your pancreas ( παν=all , kρεας=meat)

[Anonymous No.12997026]

>>12996120
You're just making shit up

[Anonymous No.12997040]

>>12997026
It's true.
The phonemes and alphabet of their language can be examined to discover the secrets of the universe.

[Anonymous No.12997082]

>>12997026
Says the monolingual

[Anonymous No.12997173]

>>12996120
>>12997026

Complete bullshit. Greek is a gay language whose only benefit over Greek is that vowels are more clearly delimited in writing. Other than that, Greek has far too many exceptions and vowel contractions to be considered a top-tier language. Latin only really has 5 or so deeply irregular verbs, and they are only irregular in some tenses.

Latin influence on English and on modern European languages is 500x greater than Greek influence. Count the number of Latin-derived words in this thread alone. Our entire vocabulary beyond basic shit is Latin-derived. Greek is just a novelty.

Plus everything in Ancient Greek has been translated into Latin, but not vice-versa.

Caesar's writings alone justify learning Latin over Greek. They are literally one of the most interesting things I have ever read in any language period

[Anonymous No.12997183]

>>12997173
*only benefit over Latin

[Anonymous No.12997197]

>>12997173
>Greek is a gay languag
hmmmmm

[Anonymous No.12997199]

>>12997173
What is interesting about Caesar's writings? Which one would you recommend

[Anonymous No.12997220]

>>12997199
First hand accounts (written in the 3rd person though) of one of the greatest military men ever to have lived.
Clear and precise prose -- Montaigne rated it higher than Cicero's writing.

[Anonymous No.12997233]

>>12997220
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/jcsr/dbg1.htm
this?

[Anonymous No.12997248]

>>12997233
Yeah, de bello gallico is a good one and the most famous.
They are all good though desu

[Anonymous No.12997250]

>>12995292
Latin

[Anonymous No.12997286]

>>12997199
It's direct and concise.
Really repetitive and has obvious propagandistic intent.
If Cicero's latin is solid like a solid temple and became paradigm of proper latin grammar, Caesar's rises like an Obelisk among plain old houses.
Don't get me wrong I love Caesar and Latin but ancient Greek is undoubtedly takes the cake.

[Anonymous No.12997306]

You all know that Latin is the correct answer.

[Anonymous No.12997345]

>>12997173
What makes Greek so special is being unconscious of grammar unlike any modern language, dominated by definitions and trained upon dictionaries.

Plato's greek is perhaps the most beautiful and a mind candy.
You know absolutely nothing .
The most meaningful words come from greek, see any medical term, or philosophical speculaultion, high language...
Nothing meaningful can be said without it.

[Anonymous No.12997472]

>>12995738
>Ovid
>Horace
>Vergil

[Anonymous No.12997532]

aesthetically speaking, latin is one the most beautiful languages created, while greek sounds like a hoary pedophile whispering creepy things into your ear
Just compare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNagtW_FJBg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOvVWiDsPWQ

The simplest proof of that is how prevalent latin remains in the mainstream culture despite being, you know, dead. Latin names, latin phrases, in movies, songs, videogames, dog latinate usage in science fiction and fantasy books etc.

[Anonymous No.12997574]

>>12997199
Everything. Read De Bello Gallico from beginning to end; don’t read scattered fragments (like they way you do in Latin classes). It’s a complete narrative.

[Anonymous No.12997587]

>>12997040

[Anonymous No.12997622]

>>12997286
The 'clarity' and 'conciseness' Caesar's writing isn't what makes it worth reading, although it helps; Caesar's Latin is certainly eloquent. I mean, the guy wrote hundreds of pages detailing, in great detail, events that took place over many years. Imagine a modern politician, of any country, doing anything similar. Think about all of the bullshit 'literature' produced by modern politicians - the generic, ghostwritten crap.

Reading Caesar, you learn what a real VIR is; Caesar was clever, extremely accomplished in his military exploits, clearly intelligent (he spoke and wrote in both Latin and Greek), and, while of course he wrote the works and they did serve a political purpose, he convincingly portrays himself as a complete and utter badass in his relations with the various groups he comes across in DBG.

Plus the work contains great descriptions of military relationships in that period, as well as an overview of the state of western Europe at the time, the various important political players, their relationships, the German savages always on the verge of overrunning EVERYTHING, etc

[Anonymous No.12997633]

>>12997532
The odyssey was sung and accompanied by music.
It sounds like the lyrics of a song but spoken by an old men that doesn't even follow the metric.

[Anonymous No.12997643]

>>12997345
Complete and utter brainlet

> a mind candy.
also a faggot

Greeks were aware of grammar, and there were Greek intellectuals far more aware of grammar than the modern education. Also the Romans didn't have dictionaries for most of their history

[Gawain Philbert No.12997654]

>>12995292
I can't speak either, but unless you have something in mind to use aincent greek for, I would suggest latin.
>>12996523
This guy here makes a very interesting point,

[Anonymous No.12997748]

>>12997622
>German savages always on the verge of overrunning EVERYTHING
You should learn to read critically his Commentarii. Caesar like Tacitus after him ever and only praised the Germanic tribes either to denounce the corrupt mores of Roman citizens or to overinflate the fame of whatever general subdued em.
The third person narration was clearly a ploy, a humble brag if you wish.

Eloquent is not the word I'd use to describe his style, but I get what you mean. He certainly was awe stricking and could move the heart of any man to action, that's only proper for a military leader and he excelled in that.

I also don't understand why you would confront Caesar with any Modern Politician lmao.

Knowing greek isn't even a point to his favour, all the elite did.
They disregarded you even if your greek pronunciation wasn't right, all important conversations at his time were handled in greek.

Only with Cicero the language gained some recognition and was accepted even between the ruling class.

I still love him tho and I spent more time than I'm willing to admit translating him.

[Anonymous No.12997754]

>>12997643
Absolute know nothing.
I'm 100% sure this nigger never translated a single line from greek.

[Anonymous No.12997764]

>>12997197
kek

[Anonymous No.12997772]

>>12995292
Both

[Anonymous No.12997785]

>>12995292
start with the greeks bro

[Anonymous No.12997796]

>>12997643
>Greeks being ever bothered with grammar
You mongoloid lmao, they struggled for centuries with certain passages of the Iliad and Odyssey
And when I say dictionary I mean the models with which the romans where always very much concerned with.

[Anonymous No.12997860]

>>12997532
The Latin video sounds extremely flat and autistically boring like American English.
The Greek sounds like Norwegian or some shit and the fluctuations make it much more interesting

[Anonymous No.12997890]

>>12997622
Is it just cataloguing or does it have literally merit like pic related?

[Anonymous No.12997932]

>>12997890
It has literary merit. Roman historiography is based on Greek, including Thucydides.

[Anonymous No.12997936]

>>12997890
It's not as engaging but it has its own charm.
It reads like a military manual, describing strategies, the territory and how they come helpful or are teoublesome, the peoples, their weapons, how to handle negotiations ...

[Anonymous No.12998076]

It doesn't matter. If you don't have the mental fortitude to decide what you want to learn for yourself you probably won't go very far in learning either one. It takes years.

[Anonymous No.12998084]

>>12997796
literally took a trip into the farthest reaches of the negative-IQ realm while reading this comment

[Anonymous No.12998106]

>>12998084
>"I am just gonna assume everyone agrees with this because irony and low IQ joke."

You're simple

[Anonymous No.12999347]

>>12995847
It's unironically very good.

[Anonymous No.12999434]

>>12997860
Here's a better example of classical Latin

https://youtu.be/yyo1ap8V8Ro

[Anonymous No.12999466]

>>12999434
Woops just realized that's French Latin pronunciation. Here's classical

https://youtu.be/3Vdmaqra7Bk

[Anonymous No.12999485]

What do you reckon would be the best language to learn solely for religious purposes? Say I'm coming from a totally neutral standpoint. Which language would I get the most out of in terms of ideas that are untranslatable or books that simply are left untranslated?
Sanskrit, Latin, Greek (Attic or Koine), Arabic, Hebrew, Classical Chinese, Persian. and to some extent Russian all seem to have lots of value and I can't choose which I should learn.

[Anonymous No.12999636]

>>12995847
>he doesn't know

[Anonymous No.12999724]

Can someone understand Plato in translations?

[Anonymous No.12999779]

I wish I was ethnically ancient-athenian

[Anonymous No.12999789]

>>12999485
Greek, Hebrew and Sanskrit.

[Anonymous No.12999800]

>>12999789
Any order you'd recommend?

[Anonymous No.12999808]

>>12999485
Go for ones that not a lot of westerners learn. Arabic, persian, and classical Chinese sound cool. I think classical Chinese is nigh impossible unless mandarin is your native language and you started learning classical Chinese at a young age.