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# The Road to Latin, Greekified
- URL: https://thepatrologist.com/the-road-to-latin-greekified/
- Published: 2022-04-29T04:25:21.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-15T22:57:10.000Z
- Author: Seumas Macdonald
- Tags: Uncategorized, #Migrated-1784156034836, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-15 22:54

Recently the twitterverse was aptly reminded by [Dr. Marchella Ward](https://twitter.com/LuxMea/status/1519210926125240320?ref=thepatrologist.com) of the existence of "[The Road to Latin](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nHcNAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Helen+Maria+Chestnutt&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks%5Fredir=0&source=gb%5Fmobile%5Fsearch&sa=X&redir%5Fesc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false)", a *very* fine Latin introductory textbook from 1932, not least because it was authored by a Black Woman, [Helen Maria Chestnutt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen%5FMaria%5FChesnutt?ref=thepatrologist.com).

On the whole, it makes excellent reading material for any beginning (or advanced) Latin student, but I wondered if I couldn't also adopt/adapt it to Greek. Here is a pdf with the first chapter rendered into Greek, for anyone interested, and I'll make an effort to work on more chapters. If nothing else, it provides me with a pleasant diversion and you with a new source of easy, readable Greek.

[The road to Latin Greekified](https://thepatrologist.com/content/files/2026/07/the-road-to-latin-greekified.pdf)

A google-docs version is [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1%5F%5FwejmL-JcbeA%5FZq%5FdJAq-d%5F4Kf-dVLG/?ref=thepatrologist.com): you can leave comments on it freely. This will enable you to keep up to date with any progress I make (I'm not promising any though)

While I'm here, I might as well make a couple of observations. Even in the very first reading, you have to make translation choices. The Latin sticks to first declension nouns ending in -a entirely. To keep the same vocab in Greek, I had to introduce other endings. Similarly, to express 'stand', 'open', and 'closed', required a perfect verb and two perfect participles. Thirdly, to keep Greek style from the very beginning, I introduced a few particles. Fourthly, Greek necessitates introducing the article here. Finally, I made the choice to keep the names and context of the original. All of which make this considerably harder for a student starting from scratch. This is (one set of reasons) why Greek ab initio books can't simply ape Latin ones, let alone translate them. That said, I mostly intend to keep on in the same vein - a close rendering of the Latin, with whatever Greek seems apt or best. I think that's the best way to honour the original work here.