How much more so, then, the lan­guage of the ancient Greeks, whether in trans­la­tion or not? A poet could actu­al­ly impro­vise a tale in the six-beat rhythm of Greek verse if he knew the plot of his sto­ry.” Their tech­ni­cal cri­te­ria will con­fuse the non-spe­cial­ist, and none but ancient Greek speak­ers will under­stand the record­ing above. But it brings us a lit­tle clos­er to expe­ri­enc­ing Home­r’s epic poet­ry, “the foun­da­tion stones of Euro­pean Lit­er­a­ture,” as the ancient Greeks might have expe­ri­enced it. Relat­ed Con­tent:What Ancient Greek Music Sound­ed Like: Lis­ten to a Recon­struc­tion That’s “100% Accu­rate”How Ancient Greek Stat­ues Real­ly Looked: Research Reveals their Bold, Bright Col­ors and Pat­ternsLearn Ancient Greek in 118 Free Lessons: A Free Online Course from Bran­deis & Har­vardHear What Shake­speare Sound­ed Like in the Orig­i­nal Pro­nun­ci­a­tionJosh Jones is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC.