My uni has courses in Ancient Greek and Latin,
Which one should I take, or should I just not take them?
>>352260
Latin is cool because it is the basis of the modern romance languages. Knowing it makes you sound smart, and can double as a way to get a grasp of the other romance languages - should you choose to learn any of them.
Ancient Greek sounds cool to me, but I cannot think of any practical uses of it anymore unless you are going to be an expert in that field. Or read very old Bibles
>>352386
I am leaning towards Greek solely for patrician points.
My uni also has courses in Sanskrit, but I have zero interest in that.
>>352260
desu Lad, I'd go for courses for modern languages, like russian, Chinese or Arab. If you're into history, or actually studying history that opens up more possibilities than just plain old greek or latin, unless you're an antiquity or middle ages person that is.
Latin is definitely more useful for medieval and modern history.
>>352260
Latin. Most everything historic is written in it and most European language plagiarized the hell out of it.
Ancient Greek is really just for reading the bible.
Whats the most interesting language to learn that is moderately useful today?
>>353731
Are you forgetting about the rest of Greek literature?
>>352260
Took latin for 4 years in high school. I thought it was aiite. Teacher was a prick though.
>>353734
Taiwanese mandarin because you learn traditional hanzi
>>352260
Latin if you like Roman to Medieval European history.
Greek if you like Greek history and christian theology.
>>353731
>Latin. Most everything historic is written in it and most European language plagiarized the hell out of it.
Only in Medieval time
>Ancient Greek is really just for reading the bible.
Most literature in Ancient Times is written in Greek.
>>353797
And what fucking literature did the Greeks write? And no the other books of the Bible don't count you literal retard.
>>352260
As someone who studies Ancient Greek full-time I would say take it, but that's because I'm biased.
>>353801
if this isn't bait you need to find a new board
>>353801
>Ancient Greek
>The Bible
Stop being a pleb.
Learn ancient greek, it is one of the most beautiful languages ever created.
As for the utility part, most scientific words are based on ancient greek.
You can guess what a complex scientific term means just by looking at it.
>>353815
It's arguably harder than Latin though, so if one wants a slightly easier ride, one should go for Latin.
>>353801
Are you literally retarded?
First and foremost the Iliad and Odissey are written in ancient greek.
Also Erodotus and Tuchidides, the most important ancient historians were greeks.
Let us also not forget the tragedies, and the lyrics.
Greek literarure is immense and although subjective it is much worthier than latin literature.
>>353818
What makes it harder ia the different alphabet and maybe more complex grammar.
But when you're translating advanced text they're on par, since latin requires perfect understanding of its rules, whereas greek tends to reward intuition.
Latin is fairly more useful today. Especially if you're looking into a career in law or pharmaceuticals.
Also Caesar's books are fairly good reads.
>>353824
>whereas greek tends to reward intuition.
As someone who studies this language full-time, I have to tell you that, this is not true at all.
If you don't have a keen understanding of 1st, 2nd and 3rd declension substantives, and the function of weak and strong aorist, and how the Greeks used participles, plus the 4 cases, you will not understand jack shit.
>>353809
Walt Disney didn't write the bible. Stop forcing that bs
>>353842
The Bible was written in Koine Greek.
Koine Greek is not classified as "Ancient Greek".
>>353840
I studied both Latin and Ancient Greek at high school (don't be fooled in Italy they're very serious about it). And while having only basic understanding of both Latin and Greek grammar, I was a mediocre translator in Latin, but extremely good at Ancient Greek.
I think that Latin has a structure closer to that of modern languages and that forces you to be as close to the original text as possible.
Whereas Greek would make no sense in a literal translation, so you have to basically reinterpret the text every time.
And to do that you need lots of intuition and logic. That's what I meant.
>>353854
Fair enough.
How much has Greek changed from classical antiquity to today, in comparison to Latin? Can Greeks today still understand some things here and there, like Romance speakers can recognize a lot of words in Latin?
>>353908
Greeks can understand a lot of individual words, but they most likely do not carry the same meaning today, and they most likely will not understand sentences because of the complex grammar.
There is a modern Greek speaker in my class and he says that while some words are identical to modern Greek, the pronunciation is way different, and the meaning isn't the same, so he says he would never have understood it if he didn't study it.
One example could be the word "Agathos" which means good, or noble in Ancient Greek, and in Modern Greek I think it means naive or foolish or something.
>>353908
Ancient Greek:Modern Greek=Latin:Italian
>>353820
>reading homer in greek
Is this a meme? It's terrible
>>353945
No it's not. It's awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOvVWiDsPWQ
>>353945
Reading the duel between Hector and Achilles gives me goosebumps, evn if I'm only thinking about it.
>>352260
Ancient Greek.
Latin has more material, but Latin itself is like Ancient Greek Lite, with less precision.
The complex intricacies of Ancient Greek are there because the Greeks knew a lot about the nature of the universe and how sound and language played into that. The Romans were more war-like and based their language on the austerity of the Latin script.
TL:DR
Ancient Greek is a cooler language if you have to pick one. That being said a lot of Latin is directly cognate with A. Greek
