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Ancient Greek
Forms of Greek used from around the 16th century BC to the 4th century BC / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ancient Greek (Ἑλληνῐκή, Hellēnikḗ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː])[1] includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (c. 1400–1200 BC), Dark Ages (c. 1200–800 BC), the Archaic or Epic period (c. 800–500 BC), and the Classical period (c. 500–300 BC).[2]
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Ancient Greek | |
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Ἑλληνική Hellēnikḗ | |
![]() An inscription about the construction of the statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon, 440/439 BC | |
Region | Eastern Mediterranean |
Indo-European
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Early form | |
Greek alphabet | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 | grc |
ISO 639-3 | grc (includes all pre-modern stages) |
Glottolog | anci1242 |
![]() Map of Ancient (Homeric) Greece | |
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. |
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Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek.
From the Hellenistic period (c. 300 BC), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek, which is regarded as a separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek, and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek. There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine.