> Well, it seems I need to learn some Greek to progress any farther
> with my IE studies.
> Any suggestions
First clarify your purpose. There are lots of books out there, but they aim
at a totally different target. If you want Greek only for IE purposes, then
you need to know about the language, rather than knowing the language
itself. Sihler's book "New comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin" (which
derives everything in the two languages from the PIE origins) might be ideal
for you. Homeric Greek is not that different from Classical Greek, it just
retains a few more varieties of older forms, and uses different dialect
forms. So use a book on Classical Greek, and move to reading Homer (with a
Greek-English parallel, e.g. the Loeb series) if you wish.
Secondly identify your resources. What languages do you already know,
which you can use to help you see the structure of Greek, or identify the
morphemes? Sanskrit would be a great help! Latin is useful, but beware
the verb - it works in a different way. If you have no languages which are
obvious close relatives, then use grammar books that will give you an
overview, rather than millions of exercises on isolated forms.
Thirdly identify the hurdles, and tackle them one at a time.
(a)You will need to be comfortable with the alphabet. Allow about 6 weeks
for that, if you read a little bit each day. There is a book called "Teach
Yourself the Greek Script" or something like that, but of course this
refers to the modern pronunciation, not the ancient.
(b) Noun endings - don't get lost in the many irregular ones. Learn the
basics only for the 3 declensions.
(c) Verb forms (i) learn how the imperfect, aorist and perfect are actually
used, and the basic ways they are formed. (ii) Tucked away in a corner of
your grammar book will be the -mi verbs. These are very important for your
purposes, although they make up only an aberrant corner even of Homeric
Greek. (iii) Contract verbs - you need to learn the basic contractions of
vowels so that in both verbs and nouns you will understand what the original
must have been.
(d) Dialects. See if you can find something basic about these in a grammar
book. Awareness of them is very important for the linguist, since Classical
Greek is based mostly on Attic, which is a very odd dialect in many ways.
Often other dialects preserve forms important for the linguist, or show the
original form more clearly.
Good luck!
Peter