so I have struggled through a couple of books of Iliad
 

and have started John in Greek.

Should I also continue the Iliad to learn better Greek or am I screwing up my understanding by reading John?

First, congrats on teaching yourself Greek. You're an animal (or insane).

You're not going to screw up your understanding, but reading John is going to be a hell of a lot easier than reading Homer. That's why people who take New Testament Greek struggle a bit when they look at "real" Greek (Archaic / Classical stuff), but those who do the harder stuff first seem to breeze through the NT, especially after they've nailed down some basic vocabulary.

I'm in a class on the Iliad and the Gospel of John at the moment, and the Gospel of John is preposterously easier.

I highly recommend Dr. Norbert Duckwitz's Reading the Gospel of John in Greek, by the way; especially for those who are just starting out.

That's what I'm using and it's very readable and interesting.

It's the text we're using for our Gospel of John class-- and he's the professor, as luck would have it. A similar book is in the publishing stage for the gospel of Mark, and he's putting the finishing touches on Matthew at the moment. It's good stuff.

I wish such a detailed book existed for Homer, as it would make my life easier.

I've learned the basic verb tenses, mood and conjugations, the first and second declensions for female nouns, first for male nouns and am working on the others.

I get mixed up on alpha and eta transitions from Doric to Attic or vice versa, but there's so much to keep straight.

What software can I use or download to type Greek type especially with accents? I'm not good on accents. Even on First Declension Female Nouns I get the accents screwed up in my head. I just think aigu instead of circonflex. And circonflex means short not falling rising like unto Mandarin.

BTW, my son is giving his presentation on the Iliad, by doing this

First, he's acting out the first lines of Book 1, by memorizing and reciting in Greek (nobody will know how bad his pronunciation is),

Second, he will describe, thanks to AA, how Achilles represents the will of the people, standing up against the tyranny of a bad ruler.

Third, he will show how Achilles responded to the needs of the people and for the grief of a friend. (When I explained pedarasty to the boy, he responded with "ew, but not the Spartans, because they didn't view women with the traditional Greek view." I responded, we'll have to research that)

Finally he made some props, including 9th century armor for the armor of Achilles.

He's having a lot of fun with it and next wishes to work on Gilgamesh.

I don't know what level of detail you're looking for, but there are scores of commentaries on Homer. You also might want to pick up a Homeric dictionary - it makes life a lot easier.

The best online stuff for classics (for free) is at the Perseus project. The main page is at www.perseus.tufts.edu. Make sure you go to the Perseus 4.0 site (it's a lot faster than the old one).

Here's their Greek and Roman collection:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/...on:Greco-Roman

Here's the Iliad:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/...t:1999.01.0133

Here's the gospel of John:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/...0155:book=John

Click on a word to see the form and definition.

Also, typing Greek font in a PC is really tricky, since there is no free unicode-typing font that I know of. The best I've found is New Athena Unicode (freeware - just google it) that allows you to read everything. If you end up needing to type something, I always end up looking up the passage in Perseus (or in the Thesaurus Lingua Graecae - an awesome site that, unfortunately, costs a lot of money but is probably available through most university libraries), and then copying-and-pasting it into the text (in New Athena Unicode). It's a pain in the ass, but it's all I have right now.

Typing Greek with accents is much easier for those with Mac's, but I'm not rich enough for one of those.

Are some of these translations too literal?

For example I read the first part of the first book and psuchas is translated as breath, when I thought of it as souls.

Hey I just noted, as dense as I am, that the will of Zeus being accomplished or completed in the first part of the Iliad is the same root word as that of Be ye therefore perfect. The first "he" threw me. heleteleieto didn't automatically look like teleo.

Why does the Homeric version have the "he" intro to teleo?

What's the line number with the word in it? Line 5?

Διὸς δ’ ἐτελείετο βουλή, is the standard end of the line "the will of Zeus was accomplished). If your text has a "he" on there, it's probably a font issue or a corrupted line in that edition.

ψυχὰς on line 3? I'd translate this as shades or souls too - Achilles sends them to Hades.

the apostrophe here doesn't denote an "H" sound? Or is that supposed to be an aigu accent? I kinda thought it was an "h", but correct me as I'm self-taught [i.e., I'm an idiot who didn't recognize the digamma, remember].

Look for SPIonic font. You'll have to learn how to use beta code, and it won't be good for much more than typing in word processors, but it's something.

That's a smooth breathing mark. The rough breathing mark (with the H sound) faces the other way. Most texts will have either a rough or smooth breathing mark at the beginning of every word that starts with a vowel, though I've seen several that have only the rough breathing mark.

Thanks. Don't know how I missed that, so you can imagine me chagrined and red-faced. Reverse ' is an H, otherwise it's a smooth breathing. Okay. Thanks. My weak defense is an acknowledgement that I'm starting to need glasses for reading and my vanity won't let. Thus I can't see the direction of the apostrophe looking thingy, but I would have screwed it up on a test any how.

It's stupid, but I remember it as a "c" looking mark makes an "h" sound. The smooth breathing mark makes no sound, and resembles no alphabet letter. You'll get used to the words that usually take a rough breathing, and those that don't in time.

In large type:
ἐτελείετο (with smooth breathing)
ὕστερον (with rough breathing and accent)

Why wouldn't one just denote words which are non-smooth? Do you think it's related to a lack of spacing in some early documents? Btw, thanks for the help and if you're in town, I'll buy you a beer.

It's a good question, but I'd guess that you're right - it has to do with textual tradition etc. Occasionally, the same word will be spelled the same save the rough/smooth breathing mark, but IMO the smooth breathing mark should be understood unless the rough is indicated.

I have to copy-and-paste, then blow up the font to 14 or 16 to even make out the words, let alone the rough breathing marks.

I'd take you up on the beer (or at least a good conversation) if I could ever get close to your neck of the woods. Alas . . . . I'm trapped in the weather hell of the northeast for the foreseeable future. BTW, you're the only guy I've ever heard of (outside of crazy Renaissance geniuses) who's taught himself Greek.

Talk to me when I've mastered it or gotten a reasonable degree of proficiency. Right now I'm at a rudimentary level making mistakes left and right.

I still need to make it through all the noun declensions and I don't remember all aspects of verbs.