Rethinking the teaching of ancient Greek: a vertical–horizontal architecture of reception and meaning-making

Abstract This article advances a conceptual model of meaning-making in ancient Greek texts by describing the cognitive and textual architecture through which such texts are approached and studied as historically distant, written discourse. Against dominant educational orientations that prioritize speed, communicative effectiveness, and fragmentary information processing, it argues that ancient texts require forms of analytic and interpretive engagement that cannot be reduced to basic or functional comprehension. The model is organized along two interrelated axes: a vertical sequence of textual approach and study (analysis, processing, understanding, interpretation) and a horizontal structuring of textual domains (linguistic, referential, aesthetic). By distinguishing ‘literature’ from literariness, the article foregrounds discourse organization, stylistic choice, and form–content articulation as mechanisms of meaning production. Rather than proposing a method or curriculum template, it offers a theoretical framework for understanding how ancient Greek texts are studied and interpreted, and why their engagement can cultivate cognitive and interpretive capacities.