The Sound Of Ancient Greek In 'The Iliad'
NPR
Thursday, August 25, 2016
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The classic Greek epic poem The Iliad attributed to Homer regales the listener with tales of the siege of ancient Troy. "The World According to Sound" podcast reads the poem how it was intended — aloud and in ancient Greek.
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The classic Greek epic poem The Iliad attributed to Homer regales the listener with tales of the siege of Troy. The World According to Sound podcast reads it as intended — aloud and in ancient Greek.
Transcript
KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:
Some of the languages of the world are lost. No one speaks them, so no one's heard them, and their existence is hardly ever talked about. But one of those dead languages lives on in its incredible literature. That's, of course, ancient Greek. From the podcast World According to Sound, here is a quick taste of what ancient Greek might have sounded like.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STEPHEN DAITZ: (Speaking ancient Greek).
SAM HARNETT: No one really knows what ancient Greek sounded like. Here's classics professor Stephen Dates (ph) giving it a shot. He's reading the opening lines of Homer's "Iliad."
DAITZ: (Speaking ancient Greek).
HARNETT: One thing we do know is that, unlike English, ancient Greek is tonal like modern-day Chinese. That's why the pitch rises and falls like a song, although exactly how that song goes is still up to interpretation.
DAITZ: (Speaking ancient Greek).
MCEVERS: So that Sam Harnett, who, with Chris Hoff, creates the podcast World According To Sound. This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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