I am studying for an exam in October in Ancient Greek. It is an Open University exam and it consists of comprehension and a little translation from set passages of Plato’s Symposium, an unseen translation of unadapted text (probably Xenophon) and a section of grammar questions covering pretty well any tenses moods, cases, declensions etc. If you think you can help, I would be really pleased to arrange a session with you.
Thanks.

I can’t help but I wish you luck with your exam, Mair.

I’m with Jacquie (though not biblically!) and wish you the best of luck.

Marco – That would get the neighbours talking! :o)

I’m going to need all the luck I can get – keep wandering round forums when I should be studying!

i used to be very good at classic Greek, but unfortunately i forgot all and gave my attention to other modern languages, but lots of luck to you.
panta rei kai kata keneitai kai ouden menai totoπαντα ρει και κατα κενειται οὐδεν μεναι τοτο

παντα ρει και κατα κενειται οὐδεν μεναι τοτο

is that how it should look? things are worse than I thought, I can only make proper sense of a few of these words :(((

παντα = all – neuter plural – could mean ‘all things’
ρει = is this from ρεω ~ to flow or pass away? third person singular but that’s ok with a neuter plural subject, I think.
και = and / also / too
κατα = downward / down (adverb) or prepostion +acc down, among, along ….
κενειται = something to do with κενοω = empty or pour away, passive third person singular perhaps?
οὐδεν = nothing
μεναι = from μενω ~ to stay? is it optative indicating a wish? or infinitive? or should it be μενει?
τοτο = don’t know really – should it be τοτε meaning ‘then’ or ‘sometimes’ or ‘at that time’? or is it a contraction of το οὐτο?

So taking a wild guess

All things flow and are poured away and nothing stays the same.

Could it be a biblical or philosophical quotation which I will be embarrassed not to have recognised?

Thanks for corrections and any help :)

παντα ρει και κατα κενειται οὐδεν μεναι τοτο
Mair , you are quite right, that is excellent, i do not have the Greek alphabet installed on my computer and if i have them, it will take me centuries to learn how to type them.
yes it is a philosophical famous phrase meaning that nothing stays the same, every thing is constantly changing including ourselves
toutou means the same

Ancient Greek, huh? This may be a good subject. :)

Hi Mair! :) I’m afraid I can’t help you with (my Ancient Greek learning stopped with the second declension blushes), but just wanted to wish you GOOD LUCK with your exam! I hope you were able to find a good tutor, either on- or off-line! :)

Hi Sandra! It is so good to see you again :-) I didn’t find a tutor, but I am struggling on – stopping at the second declension looks to have been a good idea from where I am standing ;-) They don’t get any easier :-O

good luck Mair, i was in your shoes one day, but that was long ago. wait me Mair, i might review my Greek and Latin books and start to re-teach them again like years ago, if i do , i will let you know.

my grandfather did a beautiful translation of the Symposium, but unfortunaltely he’s no more and my ancient Greek dates back to school days…. anyway best of luck, I have a friend who is an ancient Greek tutor but he can only speak French and Italian and not English and he works in person, but if you know French I can still try and tell him about you if you need.

Thanks for the good wishes Marged – I do speak French a bit but I think it would be too much for my old brain to work between the two languages, though I might enjoy the challenge if I had more time (exam 12th October). You must be very proud of your grandfather – a translation on that scale takes some doing. I would be very interested to see it, if it is available electronically.