Classical Civilisation

Course summary

The classical world of the Greeks and the Romans is the bedrock of our civilisation today. They have provided us with everything from plays and philosophy to art and aqueducts. Like our immediate predecessors, we find it hard not to look back upon their times without a sense of awe at what they achieved. We bear the fruits of the Greeks’ enquiries into the world around us in the names of the subjects we study today, such as mathematics, history, and physics. We have the Romans to thank for the urban and social infrastructure we take for granted, such as our streets, sanitation and law courts. By studying Classical Civilisation at A level, you will become familiar with many aspects of the ancient world. You will look at them as they saw themselves, through epic poems, tragedies and comedies. In studying them, you will come to understand the historical, political and social context in which they are set. Even though you will not be working in Latin or Greek, you will also come to appreciate the beauty of the language in which they wrote. In the first year, you will study two components. In Component 1 (The World of the Hero), you will study Homer’s Iliad, one of the foundational texts of Greek culture. You will examine the concept of a hero through the values and behaviour displayed by the Iliad’s characters. You will look at the wider social, cultural and religious context and the relationships between gods, men, women and slaves. In Component 2 (Culture and the Arts), you will learn about Greek theatre: you will read the tragedies Oedipus the King by Sophocles and Euripides’ Bacchae, along with Aristophanes’ satirical comedy, Frogs. In the second year, you will study two more components. You will study a second text in Component 1 (The World of the Hero): Virgil’s Aeneid. Drawing upon your knowledge of Homer, you will consider the influence of the Greek epic on the Roman epic. In Component 3 (Beliefs and Ideas), you will study love and relationships in the ancient world. You will learn about a wide range of attitudes to sexuality and gender in ancient Greece and Rome.