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Classical Subjects
Creatively Taught
Dr. Christopher Perrin
Pennsylvania
Classical Academic Press • Camp Hill,
www.ClassicalAcademicPress.com
Greek Alphabet Code Cracker
© 2008 by Classical Academic Press
Version 1.0
ISBN: 1-60051-035-3
EAN: 9781600510359
All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission, in writing, of Classical Academic Press.
Cover art by Rob Baddorf
Interior design by David Gustafson
Classical Academic Press
2151 Market Street
Camp Hill, PA 17011
www.ClassicalAcademicPress.com
Table of Contents
Introduction to Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Unit 1: The Greek Alphabet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Introduction to the Greek alphabet, including pronunciation guide.
Unit 2: The First Six Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Covers: A,a B,b G,g D,d E,e Z,z
Unit 3: The Next Six Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Covers: H,h Q,q I,i K,k L,l M,m
Unit 4: The Next Six Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Covers: N,n X,x O,o P,p R,r S,s,V
Unit 5: The Last Six Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Covers: T,t U,u F,f C,c Y,y W,w
Unit 6: Consonant Blends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Special sounds consonants make when used together.
Unit 7: Vowels and Diphthongs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Review of vowels and the special sounds they make when used together.
Unit 8: Putting It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Review and reinforcement of all that you’ve learned.
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3
Introduction to Teachers:
You have made a bold decision to teach your students Greek. We congratulate you!
Greek is a beautiful and fascinating language that has enriched the minds of countless people over
the centuries. It is the basis for much of the technical terminology in both science and medicine and is
responsible for about twenty percent of the words in our English vocabulary. Learning Greek is also the
gateway to reading and studying the New Testament as well as the writings of scores of classic Greek
authors, from Homer
to Aristotle.
Amazingly, children are not the least bit afraid of Greek and its intriguing sounds and curious letters.
While adults tend to be intimidated by learning a novel alphabet, and a line of Greek words can look to
them like an undecipherable code, that is not so with children. They will be happy, indeed, to “crack the
code” of the Greek alphabet.
Knowing that children like adventure stories and secret codes, in this book we have cast the students
in the role of detectives who, by learning to decipher Greek-rendered clues, will solve a dastardly crime.
Students will love learning the Greek alphabet, even as they enjoy working as sleuths. If you are new to
Greek as well, you will be able to learn right along with your students.
The book is divided into eight chapters and can be reasonably completed in eight weeks if you spend
three to four periods per week using the text. Some teachers may want to slow the pace down or speed it
up, depending on the age and ability of their students. It is better to do a little bit regularly than to schedule
rare but long classes. In other words, four sessions a week at twenty minutes per session is far better than
one class of eighty minutes!
The book proceeds gradually, adding six new Greek letters at a time. Students may need more help with
assignments (especially with the Robbery Witness reports) during the first three chapters than they will need
as they progress into later chapters. Therefore, it would be wise to plan to give more time to the first three
chapters of the book. Also, it will help students immensely if you regularly sing and chant through the Greek
alphabet, having the students look at each letter as they sing. An audio file of the Greek Alphabet Song has
been provided on our website to help you and your students sing through the alphabet. We recommend that
you begin and end each session with this song.
Please be sure to consult the other online resources that are available at www.classicalacademicpress.
com/greekcode. You will find other audio recordings for use with the text, along with additional exercises
and worksheets.
We think that your students will greatly enjoy this journey through the Greek alphabet, so be prepared
for them to soon be clamoring to study Song School Greek or Greek for Children.
Sincerely,
Christopher A. Perrin, Ph.D.
Greek Detective
4
e
m
o
c
l
e
W
Mission Briefing:
The Greek Urn Caper
Welcome, Detective. You have quite
a tough job ahead of you. Yesterday, the
Grecian Urn of Achilles was stolen from the
Cityburg Museum, and we need you to get
it back. There are several suspects in custody
(see page 6), but they aren’t talking, so you
must use the clues given to us by witnesses to
discover the identity of the thief and recover
the stolen urn.
In order to crack the case, however, you’ll
need to learn the Greek alphabet, which
we use to encode important information.
Urn of Achilles
This book will teach you all that you need
to know to crack the Greek alphabet code
(or cypher) and solve the crime. Along
the way, you’ll find lots of fun exercises and challenging puzzles to help you sharpen
your skills and increase your knowledge. In no time you’ll become a full-fledged Greek
Alphabet Code Cracker, ready to solve this case. Once you have discovered the name of
the criminal and where he or she has taken the urn, you can go on to use your skills in
all sorts of exciting ways, including sending secret messages to your friends!
Well, you better get started—there’s a lot to do, and I’m sure you’re eager to begin.
Good luck!
Sincerely,
John Q Hoover
John Q. Hoover
Senior Code Cracker
5
Mr. Mini
Has stolen over $1 million
in European rubies.
Ruby-Red Rebecca
Attempting to clone his own army of lab
rabbits to take over the world.
Dr. Petri Diche
Prints counterfeit money to support her
expensive tastes. Sought after by Interpol.
Florence the Forger
ts
uspec
nal S
Crimi
Fish-Lips Louie
Runs an illegal gambling Robs banks by holding a stick of
outfit across state borders. dynamite. Wanted in nine states.
6
Unit 1
Mission Briefing:
The Greek Alphabet
Just look at the Greek alphabet over there on the
Cypher Card! Doesn’t it seem exciting? It’s curvy and
squiggly, but still friendly. It’s strange in some ways,
but still familiar. If you look carefully, you will see that
nearly half of the Greek alphabet has carried over into
English. That means that if you know your English
alphabet well, then you already know about half of the
Greek alphabet!
Look at the first two letters of the Greek alphabet.
Have you seen them before? What do they look like?
That is right, they look like an a and a b from the English alphabet. These two letters have come from the
Greek alphabet right into the English alphabet. Guess
what the names of these two Greek letters are. The first is
called alpha, and it makes the same sound our a makes.
The second letter is called beta and it makes the same sound our b makes.
Now say alpha and beta together quickly—alpha-beta. What word does that
sound like? Exactly! We get the word alphabet from these two Greek letters.
This book is going to teach you how to “crack the code” of the Greek alphabet.
Soon, you will be able to make the sounds for each of the twenty-four Greek letters
and then make and read words using them. If you learn your Greek letters, you will be
able to write in a code that only students of Greek can read—a secret code. As you go
through this book, you will use this code to solve puzzles and to discover who is behind
the theft of the Grecian Urn of Achilles. You will become a Greek-reading detective!
7
Robbery Witness Reports
Below is the first of several witness reports that will help you to narrow down the
identity of the thief. As you go through the book, be sure to read each of these reports
carefully. In each report you will find several words written using the Greek alphabet
code. On a piece of scrap paper, change the red Greek letters to English letters, using
the Code Cracker Cypher Wheel from the back of the book and any other tools you
may need to help you. Then, using the rest of the report as your guide, determine what
the proper English words are and write them in the spaces provided. We’ve decoded
the first one for you.
Note that when you are translating between Greek and English, the number of letters used may be different. For instance, you’ll notice that the first word we have written in Greek letters is rer, which translates to rare in English.
Once you’ve cracked the code in each report, use the facts provided to eliminate one of
the suspects (you can see the lineup on page 6). Use a pen or marker to cross them out
as you go. Once you have cracked the first four clues, you should have narrowed down
the list of suspects until the real thief is uncovered.
Good luck!
Robbery Witness #1:
Museum Tour Guide
8
ugh the early
“Well, I was leading a tour thro
heard the alarm
Mesopotamia display, when I
. Suddenly,
om
ro
e
ec
re
G
t
en
ci
An
e
th
in
sound
ng what looked
someone rushed by me carryi
n is quite
like the Urn of Achilles. The ur
venth century
rer and dates back to the se
AD 1983
BC. It was donated in the year
erthenmuch.
by the deceased widow, Ms. W
I didn’t get
The thief moved very fast, so
suspect was
a good look, but I noticed the
wearing some sort of hat.
English Words:
#1: r
a
r
e
#2: ___ ___ ___ ___
#3: h ___ ___
012345678901
Unit 1
Here is the Greek alphabet! Sing the Greek Alphabet Song using the audio files
available online (www.classicalacademicpress.com/greekcode), making sure to look at
each letter as you sing it. You may even want to point to it with your pencil or finger
as you sing.
00:03
012345678901
Unit 1
*Sigma has two forms—s and V. The latter is
called a final form and is only used when it is
the final letter in a word.
9
Now try the Greek Alphabet Sound-Off. Your teacher will lead you through this soundoff, or you can follow along with the audio file. Notice that every time you say the letter
you are also making the sound that letter makes!
Greek Alphabet Sound-Off
Ah-, ah-, alpha—ah-, ah-, alpha; b-, b-, beta—b-, b-, beta;
g-, g-, gamma—g-, g-, gamma; d-, d-, delta—d-, d-, delta;
eh-, eh-, epsilon—eh-, eh-, epsilon; dz-, dz-, zeta—dz-, dz-, zeta;
ay-, ay-, eta—ay-, ay-, eta; th-, th-, theta—th-, th-, theta;
ih-, ih-, iota—ih-, ih-, iota; k-, k-, kappa—k-, k-, kappa;
l-, l-, lambda—l-, l-, lambda; m-, m-, mu—m-, m-, mu;
n-, n-, nu—n-, n-, nu; ks-, ks-, xi—ks-, ks-, xi;
aw-, aw-, omicron—aw-, aw-, omicron; p-, p-, pi—p-, p-, pi;
r-, r-, rho—r-, r-, rho; s-, s-, sigma—s-, s-, sigma;
t-, t-, tau—t-, t-, tau; oo-, oo-, upsilon—oo-, oo-, upsilon;
f-, f-, phi—f-, f-, phi; k-, k-, chi—k-, k-, chi;
ps-, ps-, psi—ps-, ps-, psi; oh-, oh-, omega—oh-, oh-, omega.
Robbery Witness #2:
Art Critic
“I was studying intently the use of kolor and
light in the paintings of the great Renaissance
artists, when a most rude individual carrying a
large vase of some sort knocked me down. At
the time, I had assumed the person was simply
a careless museum worker relocating the
item. The piece was rather dull and certainly
not as lovely as the color palettes of the
English Words:
fine fourteenth-century masterpieces. I
had no idea it was of such value. Oh, right, #1: ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
you asked about the qif. I am fairly certain #2: ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
that they were not wearing any glasseV.” #3: ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
10
012345678901
Unit 1
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