Illiad online
 

Okay, Greek scholars, so I'm an idiot, but look at the second word of the Illiad in Greek, which means sing in imperative form.

What is that second letter? It's not made the way I've seen the Greek alphabet before. Help, I'm an idiot.

It's called a digamma. Looks like an f, sounds like a w. Or so it is thought. You haven't seen it before because it's an archaic letter that isn't listed with the rest of the greek alphabet. The w sound just went out of use.

For a moment I thought I was a complete moron. Thanks for the explanation. The grammar is tough enough without sneaking in a never revealed letter to me.

Are there any other "archaic" letters that I would like to know about?

A couple of them: "san", "qoppa," and "sampi" that had an s, q, and some sort of a fricative sound, respectively.

An hypothesis not necessarily disproved, eh? ;)

This thread is great. "Hey guys, I am going to read the Illiad in Greek, but I am stuck on the second word." That's awesome, Archaea.

Nice one, Doc.

:)

Hey, you've got to admire the chutzpah of the guy. I suppose once you tackle an ironman, nothing is intimidating.

I like the Samuel Butler English translation of the Iliad that's online a lot.