Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning the Archaic (c.

9th–6th

centuries BC), Classical (c. 5th–4th centuries BC), and Hellenistic (c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD) periods

of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek. Its Hellenistic

phase is known as Koine ("common") or Biblical Greek, and its late period mutates imperceptibly into Medieval

Greek.Koine is regarded as a separate historical stage of its own, although in its earlier form it closely resembles

Classical Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects.

The Ancient Greek language is one of the most prominent in human cultural history, as it was the language of the

works of Homer and of the historians, playwrights and philosophers during the Athenian Golden Age. It has made a

large contribution to the vocabulary of English and was a standard subject of study in Western educational institutions

from the Renaissance to the early 20th century. The New Latin used in the scientific binomial classificationsystem

continues today to draw vigorously from Ancient Greek vocabulary.

This article treats primarily the Archaic and Classical phases of the language – see also the articles on Mycenaean

Greek and on Koine Greek.

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning

their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices.

They were a part of religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to the myths and study them in an attempt to

throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece, its civilization, and to gain understanding of the

nature of myth-making itself.[1]

Greek mythology is embodied explicitly in a large collection of narratives and implicitly in Greek representational arts,

such as vase-paintings and votive gifts. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world and details the lives

and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, andmythological creatures. These accounts

initially were disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; today the Greek myths are known primarily from Greek

literature.

The oldest known Greek literary sources, the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on events surrounding the Trojan

War. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts

of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes,

and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths also are preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of

the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians of the fifth century BC, in writings of scholars and poets

of the Hellenistic Age and in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias.

Archaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured

prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes

from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeedingArchaic, Classical,

and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary

evidence.[2]

Greek mythology has exerted an extensive influence on the culture, the arts, and the literature of Western

civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present

have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in

these mythological themes.[3]

verbal is a noun or adjective formed from a verb. Writers sometimes make mistakes by using a verbal in
place of a verb, and in very formal writing, by confusing different types of verbals. This section covers three
different verbals: the participle (which acts as an adjective), the gerund (which acts as a noun), and
the infinitive (which also acts as a noun).

The fundamental difference between verbals and other nouns and adjectives is that verbals can take their
own objects, even though they are no longer verbs:

Gerund
Building a house is complicated.

In this example, the noun phrase "a house" is the direct object of the verbal "building", even though
"building" is a noun rather than a verb.

The Participle
A participle is an adjective formed from a verb. To make a present participle, you add "-ing" to the verb,
sometimes doubling the final consonant:

"think" becomes "thinking"

"fall" becomes "falling"
"run" becomes "running"

The second type of participle, the past participle, is a little more complicated, since not all verbs form
the past tense regularly. The following are all past participles:

the sunken ship

a ruined city
a misspelled word

Note that only transitive verbs can use their past participles as adjectives, and that unlike other verbals,
past participles do not take objects (unless they are part of a compound verb).

The Gerund
A gerund is a noun formed from a verb. To make a gerund, you add "-ing" to the verb, just as with a
present participle. The fundamental difference is that a gerund is a noun, while a participle is an adjective:

gerund
I enjoy running. ("Running" is a noun acting as the direct object of the verb "enjoy.")
participle
Stay away from running water. ("Running" is an adjective modifying the noun "water.")

Gerunds
First and foremost, a gerund is the form of a verb, but it is not a verb.

Second, it is a noun.

And finally, it ends in "ing."