Herodotus' Histories Book 1: Greek Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary 2nd ed. Edition

Having finished your basic Classical Greek grammar books, where should you turn to build your vocabulary and see those grammatical idioms in action? I have various BCP, Cambridge, Reading Greek and Loeb editions of assorted texts, but this really beats them hands down. It's such a pleasure to have the vocabulary just a glance away and the grammatical comments are most helpful. There are other features I really liked too. A separate vocabulary list of the words occuring more than 15 times with the number of times each appears also noted, current books for additional reading, downloadable flashcards and a pdf file available of the entire book. What a wonderful idea and how generous! Instead of covering your text in pencil or biro you can scribble on pages printed from your home PC.The idea of "print-on-demand" books like this is new to me, but it seems to be working very well for everybody. It's explained in the preface. It means that a very nicely produced book is available for well below the price you would expect to pay for such a book. The down side is that there is apparently no independent editor, but the author is far more hands on and has more control over his product than traditional book publishing methods. Updates and corrections are available if needed. Although "printed-on-demand" the book arrived promptly. You'll need to order it from Amazon since you won't find it in bookshops at this time at any rate.Buy this book! I bet you'll buy the rest of the series too, as I did.

This is really the first complete work of Ancient Greek I've ever read. (Well, as complete as 1 book of the Histories can be.) I really like it. It's front and back matter are pretty minimal, but that's fine. Steadman provides red meat. On the left-hand page, there is a scanned image of the Oxford Greek text. The quality is usually pretty decent, though on occasion flaws from the printed edition appear. No worries as they are small. On the right-hand page is a glossary of lower frequency words (those that appear fewer than 15 times) and a bit of commentary. Less advanced students will appreciate Steadman's generous help to get them reading more fluently. There are some typos here and there, but they are completely manageable given that this volume is POD and well-priced.I can only hope that Steadman continues with making these books. This is exactly what is needed for Greek studies.

I used this text for my third semester of Greek and found it very helpful. If you're more advanced the sheer quantity of notes might seem obtrusive to you -- though it's a bit more work than simply Loebing it, the book does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Herodotus isn't too tough, which makes him a good prose author to start with... as opposed to the other big Greek historian Thucydides, who had me tearing out my hair.

This is the best approach I have seen yet. Geoffrey provides the intermediate Greek student with all of the resources that he or she could possibly need to successfully tackle this work. I love the approach and the presentation of vocabulary. This would be an outstanding resource to allow 2nd-year Greek students to successfully get into Herodotus as early as possible. I highly recommend this work, both for private reading, and as a text to use in the classroom.

Steadman's layout & notes are great, and I along with many would welcome a volume for book two. The occasional errors in the glossary & notes have no doubt been found and fixed by now. Highly recommended!

I used this text for a 3/5th semester Greek class. For the students reading their first text after using Shelmerdine's Beginning Greek, this was a great start. The more experienced students caught a fair number of mistakes. Those mistakes did distract, but overall the text was useful enough that I'm going to order his Odyssey 9-12 for next semester.

I am so excited! The book just arrived. I have looked it over and it is offering all the information I needed to return to reading Herodotus in Greek.All my frustrations have been answered! Thank you so much for notifying me about this book.

Awesome resource for teachers of Ancient Greek!!

Well-constructed approach to a student text, vocabulary for text on each page, plus a separate section on the frequency of words used by Herodotus. Enables student to concentrate on using their language skills on Herodotus' text and learn key vocabulary. Students enjoy using this version of the Histories.

Up to Steadman's usual standard.

If you're at all interested in getting the full meaning from Herodotus (which is, in my opinion, a large part of the reason to read ancient texts) you will need to consult an additional commentary quite often. (I recommend Asheri, Lloyd and Corcella on books I-IV). This is problematic for those without resources to a good library where they could pick up another commentary.The true value is in the way Steadman is able to provide all vocabulary on the same page. This means that by picking up this book you are much more easily able to pick up on Herodotus' vocabulary which will prove helpful if reading other books in this text by him. Herodotus' vocabulary is also, while slightly different than Attic Greek, still common outside of Herodotus, which makes this a good text for someone wanting to build their vocabulary and solidfy their grammar.I would only recommend this to someone currently at the undergraduate level or lower. And would think twice about whether you need it if you have completed your degree in Classical Greek. If you have any formal experience at at least the undergraduate level with Herodotus, I would certainly stay away from this book, otherwise it might be worth it.

Vocabulary support at beginning of book, end of book and grammar analysis points on every page

Great for beginning the reading of Greek and provides same-page vocabulary and commentary as well as offering the commonest words so that you do not need to consult glossaries or dictionaries frequently.