Kephalos Challenge

Language Learning
,
1

A few months ago, Luke Ranieri posted a video of a Challenge/Experiment/Method for learning classical languages: memorize a significant chunk of poetry in the target language, setting it to music as a mnemonic aid (see the videos, especially the first, for more specifics). The challenge aspect was to memorize 100 lines in 100 days, as a way to commit oneself to the project

I’ve wanted to commit some of Sophocles’ Antigone to memory since before I started studying Ancient Greek, and after a fair amount of planning and reading up on Ancient Greek musical practice over the course of the past month, I’m ready to take a stab at it

My goal will be to memorize the first 99 lines of Antigone by the end of 2024. I’ll try to post updates here, so if I stop posting, it’s likely that I quit the Challenge :cry:

If this is successful, I’ll likely do lines 441-581 from Antigone at some point also, though maybe not right after. While not both poetry and in an ancient language and thus not technically a Kephalos Challenge, I think, The Gospel According to Matthew in Ancient Greek (probably Robinson-Pierpont) and Psalms and Proverbs in English (probably the Robert Alter translation) would be similar texts I might consider memorizing. I would also consider the Hyakunin Issyu in Japanese. In all cases, it will depend a lot on how I feel the first 99 lines of Antigone went

(English subtitles available)

PS: I debated whether to but this in Memory Challenges (because it is not only a method, but also a challenge), Memorizing Poetry, Speeches, Books (because it uses memorization of poetry, though that is not its purpose), or Language Learning (because its purpose is as a language learning method). If someone who has the right permissions to move topics thinks it would better fit in a different category, feel free to move it

PS: If you did, are doing, or plan on doing the Kephalos Challenge, feel free to post here :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes
2

2024-09-16

As of today, officially starting my attempt, I have technically already started: I memorized lines 97-99 yesterday and this morning. The fact that it went smoothly is what encouraged me to pull the trigger on this

Αντ. τοσοῦτον οὔδεν ὥστε μή ὄυ καλῶς θανεῖν

Ισμ. ἀλλ’ ἐῖ δοκεῖ σοι στεῖχε τοῦτο δ’ ἰσθ’ ὁτι
ἄνους μὲν ἔρχει τοῖς φίλοις δ’ ορθῶς φίλη

— Lines 97-99 as near as I can recall them

Αντ. τοσοῦτον οὐδὲν ὥστε μὴ οὐ καλῶς θανεῖν.

Ισμ. ἀλλʼ εἰ δοκεῖ σοι, στεῖχε· τοῦτο δʼ ἴσθʼ ὅτι
ἄνους μὲν ἔρχει, τοῖς φίλοις δʼ ὀρθῶς φίλη.

— Lines 97-99 (the actual text)

Line 97: 3 misplaced accents
Line 98: 3 misplaced accents
Line 99: perfect (the lack of a smooth breathing mark on ορθῶς is fine because there are spaces, so it’s a purely orthographic mistake)
If using the grading system below, that would be Troll: 10.33 / 31.0

Grading

Luke Ranieri recorded himself reciting the first 100 lines of the Iliad at the end of his challenge (see the second video in the OP), and graded himself based on how many mistakes he made. I don’t know if I’ll end up doing something similar or not, I probably won’t, but if I do I decided on a method over work today that would be less boring than most such methods

  1. Determine a system of assigning 0 or more points to each line such that the maximum possible score is known
    • Luke Ranieri took 10 points per line, with varying point penalties for different mistakes
    • Perhaps I might do something like binary numbers and give 2 points for a perfect line, 1 point for a line with one word wrong, and 0 points for a line with more than one word wrong, but that might be too harsh
    • Perhaps I might do a slight variation on that, giving 4 points for a perfect line, -2 points per word wrong, but only -1 point for mistaking an grave accent for an unaccented word or vice versa, or using an acute accent in place of a grave or vice verse
  2. Normalize to out of 31 by multiplying your score by 31.0 / max-possible-score
  3. Derive Harry Potter Grade and thus avoid boringness
    a. >= 30.0: Outstanding
    b. >= 28.0: Exceeds Expectations
    c. >= 25.0: Acceptable
    d. >= 21.0: Poor
    e. >= 16.0: Dreadful
    f. >= 0.0: Troll

This system has the nice properties™ that each grade above Troll covers 1 unit more of the score-space than the next higher grade, that 31 is prime and thus likely to produce non-zero mantissas when normalized to, and that the maximum score is 1 less than twice that necessary to avoid a Troll

2 Likes
3

Following with interest :wink:

3 Likes
4

2024-09-17

Squeezed it in at the end of the day, but I did add another line: 96-99 is now nominally memorized. I’ll continue to review it mentally as I’m headed to bed, and hopefully remember it in the morning

I also added a mention of the Hyakunin Issyu as a potential target for the Kephalos challenge if I enjoy this/find it useful

I also updated the first step of the grading system to include another potential scoring approach which isn’t quite so unforgiving:

1 Like
5

He and I recorded a chat about near when he started. We haven’t been able to do a follow-up yet, but hopefully well before the end of the year.

2 Likes
6

2024-09-18

My computer stopped playing sounds, so now I need to find a new way to get microtones to learn and practice new lines. I tried a bunch of Android apps, but none of them seemed to have the flexibility needed. I suspect restarting my computer would fix it, but that requires writing down everything I want to reopen when I restart it first, which process I don’t want to start this late in the day. I might have to put this on hold until I can figure something out. Maybe if I can get my Arch Linux laptop working I could use that, since I already found several websites which did the trick, one of which I was using

Memory, a Beginner of the Subject is
7

Sorry, dumb question: If there are websites that provide the tones you need, why not just access them via your phone?

1 Like
8

I tried that, but the latency was too bad to feel good :frowning: I’ll try a wider variety of websites to see if my phone can handle one of them if my other solutions don’t pan out