Jason Murray Jr.: Ancient Greek Language Immersion in Greece
As the capstone for our program in Selianitika, we preformed the text we've been studying for the past two weeks, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. I was tasked to play Homer and narrate the story for the first part in Ancient Greek as depicted here.
Through the generous funding provided by the Classics Department, I undertook a transformative three-week journey to Greece focused on experiencing ancient Greek as a living linguistic tradition. This immersive experience fundamentally enhanced my understanding of the language's continuity from antiquity to the present day.
Mount Athos: Living Ancient Greek
My journey began with four days on Mount Athos, an autonomous monastic republic where Greek serves as the lingua franca among monks from diverse international backgrounds. The monasteries preserve an archaicized form of Greek through worship services unchanged since the 11th century. At Vatopedi and Gregoriou monasteries, I participated in liturgical services where chanted texts maintain older pronunciation, prosody, and vocabulary that bridge ancient and modern Greek. Having memorized the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in English, I could map ancient Greek vocabulary to familiar content, creating natural learning reinforcement. This multisensory ritual context sharpened my ear for syntax, idiom, and rhetorical cadence while revealing linguistic continuity throughpatristic, psalmic, and biblical Greek sources. I also participated in Koine and Byzantine Greek chant alongside the monastic community, gaining practical experience with spoken ancient Greek in its preserved liturgical form.
Academic Program in Selianitika
Following my monastic experience and brief exploration of Athens' archaeological sites, I joined an intensive two-week program with twenty international students reading Homer's Hymn to Apollo. All instruction and discussion occurred entirely in ancient Greek, providing both significant challenges and
profound rewards in developing active language skills. The program's experiential component included a guided visit to Delphi's ancient ruins and museums, where our instructors continued teaching in ancient Greek, contextualizing our textual studies within their original geographical setting. The program culminated in a dramatic reenactment of the complete hymn, with my group performing first and myself taking the role of Homer.
Intellectual and Academic Development
This funding enabled several key advances in my classical studies. Extended exposure to spoken ancient Greek in liturgical contexts significantly improved my auditory comprehension and ability to recognize phonetic patterns, stress, and rhythm. Understanding Greek as a living tradition rather than merely an academic exercise transformed my approach to classical texts, revealing continuities often overlooked in traditional classroom settings. The immersive environment necessitated active use of ancient Greek for communication, moving beyond passive reading comprehension to genuine linguistic engagement. The combination of religious, archaeological, and literary contexts provided a holistic understanding of Greek culture that continues to enrich my ongoing classical studies.
Conclusion
This three-week immersion experience fundamentally altered my relationship with ancient Greek language and culture. The integration of monastic tradition, archaeological exploration, and intensive academic instruction created a comprehensive educational experience impossible to replicate in traditional classroom settings. This experience has strengthened my commitment to classical studies and provided invaluable preparation for advanced research, demonstrating the ongoing relevance of ancient Greek as both a scholarly tool and a living cultural tradition.
