Ancient Greek

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This article is about the language. For Ancient Greek culture in general, see Ancient
Greece. For Ancient Greek population groups, see List of ancient Greek tribes.
"Classical Greek" redirects here. For the culture, see Classical Greece.

Ancient Greek

Hellnik

Inscription about the construction of the statue of

Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon, 440/439 BC
Region

eastern Mediterranean
developed into Koin Greek by
the 4th century BC

Era

Indo-European
Language family

Writing system
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3
Glottolog

Hellenic
o Ancient Greek

Greek alphabet
Language codes
grc
grc

(includes all pre-Modern

stages)
anci1242

[1]

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
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Beginning of Homer's Odyssey

Ancient Greek is the form of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world
around the ninth to sixth centuries BC (the Archaic period), around the fifth to fourth
centuries BC (Classical period), and around the third century BC to sixth century AD
(Hellenistic period). It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek.
The language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine (common), while the language
from the late period onward features no considerable differences from Medieval Greek.
Koine is regarded as a separate historical stage of its own, although in its earlier form, it
closely resembled the Classical. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and
earlier periods included several regional dialects.
Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of classical 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 West since the
Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical
phases of the language.