25 years ago I was reasonably good in modern Greek, could read Popeye comic books and have a basic conversation with a taxi driver. I was thinking it would be a fun and challenging project to try to learn enough ancient Greek to read Homer. I assume this would take several years of pretty intensive part-time study. I'm worried/uncomfortable about interference between my remaining modern Greek and Homeric Greek.
For pronunciation, is anything likely to go wrong if I just mentally pronounce Homer using modern pronunciation? Pronouncing βλέπω as "blepo" rather than "vlepo" actually gives me an involuntary feeling of ridiculousness. It just sounds extremely silly to my ear. I don't even know if Homer rhymes or has meter, but if so, will this get messed up? For example, οίκος is two syllables in modern Greek, but I assume it's three in ancient Greek.
I'm reluctant to put a lot of effort into programming the ancient language into my brain if that then means I'll be stumbling and unable to speak if I ever go back to Greece.