Ancient Greek Ancient Greek The Ancient Greek language includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BCE to the 6th century CE. It is often roughly divided into the Archaic period (9th to 6th centuries BCE), Classical period (5th and 4th centuries BCE), and Hellenistic period (Koine Greek, 3rd century BCE to the 4th century CE). It is antedated in the second millennium BCE by Mycenaean Greek and succeeded by medieval Greek. Koine is regarded as a separate historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic
Ancient Greek left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of Ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks, interword spacing, modern punctuation, and sometimes mixed case, but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer's Iliad exemplifies the Archaic period of Ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): <poem style="margin-left: 2em"></poem> The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from the Classical period of Ancient Greek: Using the IPA: Transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme: Translated into English: The study of Ancient Greek in European countries in