What is Ancient Greek?
{{Infobox language | name = Ancient Greek | image = Account of the construction of Athena Parthenos by Phidias.jpg | imagecaption = Inscription about the construction of the statue of [[Athena Parthenos]] in the [[Parthenon]], 440/439 BC | nativename = {{br-separated entries |{{lang|grc|Ἑλληνική}} |''{{transl|grc|ISO|Hellēnikḗ}}''}} | region = eastern [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] | era = 9th century BC to the 4th century AD | familycolor = Indo-European | fam2 = [[Hellenic languages|Hellenic]] | script = [[Greek alphabet]] | map = Homeric Greece-en.svg | mapcaption = {{center|Map of [[Ancient Greece|Ancient (Homeric) Greece]]}} | iso2 = grc | iso3 = grc | iso3comment = (includes all pre-modern stages) | glotto = anci1242 | glottorefname = Ancient Greek (to 1453) | notice = IPAs }} '''Ancient Greek''' was an [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language]] spoken in [[Ancient Greece]] from about 1500 [[BC]] to about 300 [[BC]]. Ancient Greek and [[Latin]] are very important languages. Although they are no longer spoken, they influenced almost all modern European languages. Greek had many different [[dialects]].<ref>Woodard, Roger D. 2008. Greek dialects, in: ''The Ancient Languages of Europe''. R.D. Woodard (ed) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 51.</ref> Attic Greek was spoken in [[Athens]], the largest city, and the rest of the region of [[Attica]]. It was thought to be the purest form of Greek. Later, in the educated [[Ancient Rome|Roman world]], children were taught Greek as a [[second language]], just as many people now learn [[English language|English]] as their second language. '''Koine Greek''' was the common language of Greeks. It was Attic Greek mixed with several other dialects. [[Homer]] spoke and wrote in an old dialect that was somewhat different from Attic Greek. The ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]'' are long poems that tell