Now it’s classic Greek that ‘Harry’ can speak

Harry Potter becomes “Warrior Cup” and his enemy Voldemort “Scaly Death” in a translation of the schoolboy wizard’s adventures into ancient Greek due for publication this summer.

Retired classics teacher Andrew Wilson said he had to stretch his linguistic ingenuity to turn J.K. Rowling’s magic boarding school fantasy into a language not used for 1,500 years.

Wilson, 64, was commissioned in January 2002 by publisher Bloomsbury to translate “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” into the Greek spoken in ancient Athens.

The novel, the first in Rowling’s multimillion-selling series, has already been translated into 60 languages and is available in 200 countries.

Wilson delivered his manuscript last month.

“It was a lot of hard work but the most fun hard work I’ve ever done,” he said about the year he spent reading ancient authors and searching through dictionaries to find the appropriate style and vocabulary.

“I suspect very few people will read it all the way through,” he said. “You will need a degree in ancient Greek to get a great deal out of it.”

But Wilson hopes students studying the ancient language will enjoy reading extracts of the book as a “relaxation.”

Wilson had to be imaginative in translating Rowling’s invented terms -- such as the broomstick game Quidditch and Harry’s school, Hogwarts.

Quidditch becomes Ikarosfairike, or “Ikarus ball” -- in a reference to the mythological boy who flew too high -- while Hogwarts is Huogoetou, deriving from words meaning “hog” and “wizard.” Harry is Hareios Poter. Hareios means “belonging to Ares,” the war god, or “warrior,” and Poter is a “cup” or “goblet.”