Classical Studies

Terry Rist

Hey! I'm studying Classical Studies for my Leaving Cert (2008). However my school does'nt do the subject, so I'm just wondering what, if any, text books I need?

Cousin it

depends on your tastes and ability.

From personal experience choosing Alexander the Great, Greek drama, Ancient Epic and Roman art and architecture would be a safe and solid bet. There is choice within each of those as well.

Alex - Alexander the great by ....Arrian (I think) and The Age of Alexander by Plutarch.

Greek Drama - Medea, Prometheus Bound, The Frogs, Oedipus Rex are all fine. Prometheus would be my fav, short and class, waffle question though so eloquence is required to get the required 2 & 1/2 pages as there is kind of a lack of content. Hard to explain. You answer on two plays so do as many as you feel like, they're relatively easy.

Ancient Epic - The Odyssey by Homer, The Aeneid by Virgil are musts, and then you can choose to do An Táin if you like.

Roman A & A - A book called Roman art and architecture by Mortimer Wheeler.

That'd be what I covered for my lc, I might be missing one or two though.
Besides that you can study the Roman emperors, Philosophy (very easy apparently, no idea myself).

Also my advice would be to read them all asap and frequently as well, if you get comfy with everything early on prevents a huge burden of reading near exams, if you dig?

Hope that helps in some way best of luck.

Selphie

I did Roman emperors for Latin.... if you feel like doing that. I always thought it was pretty simple. I did from Augustus to Trajan, don't know if they're the right parameters (sp?) or anything, but I've good notes on all of them. If you wanted them, you could pm me. I also have a copy of Virgil's Aeneid.... we studied 520 lines, its pretty easy. However, all thats a lot to cover in a year??

Cousin it

Ah latin, the old rivalry continues.....

We did the emperors as well but with all areas covered in the exam I made classics my nap time while emperors was going on. Given what we had behind us I reckoned it'd be safer to focus on that than have yet another topic to cover.

I have essays and stuff on Alex the Great and Oedipus Rex if you want them.

Selphie, How did you find the unseens in the exam? A few mates in a school up the road had studied one of them in its entirety after the mocks and nailed it. Jerks.

Selphie

Aw, lucky!!! We didn't do those ones exactly but we did the surrounding stories, so I kind of knew what was going on. I thought Livy and Catullus were pretty straightforward, Catullus even easy. The other two I thought were of equal difficulty, so I screwed up in that part cause I did them both.
They could have been worse, I guess.
Yourself?

Cousin it

Nah I'm a classical studies man only. Did latin for the JC though.

Allt eh lads were pretty happy with it straight after but when they heard about that other school were pretty pissed off. Ah well, it's long gone at this stage.

Terry, I'm off for a month in a few days, if you want those essays before then get back to me pronto!:)

failsafe

It's a pretty big course to cover in a year! I did very similar to Cousin it....
# Alexander the Great - Arrian and Plutarch
# Greek Drama - Oidepus rex, Prometheus bound
# Ancient Epic - Oddessy by Homer and Virgil's Aneid
# Roman Art and Architecture - Used the wheeler book for pics but mainly relied on my teacher's notes (wheeler was a bit of a waffler)

Looking back on Cousin it's choices I wouldn't be surprised if we were in the same school!!

If you're looking for notes throughout the year, or a sample of what's to come, I'm working on putting my Classical Notes online at the moment. Have a look at http://www.zulunotes.com/wiki/index.php/Classical_Studies if you want, or if anyone else wants to contribute!

lilmissprincess

I'm doing :
Alexander The Great( Arrian and Plutarch),
Greek Drama(Medea and Oedipus Rex),
Ancient Epic(Oddysey, Aenaid, Tain) and
Philospher in Society( Plato and Plutarch)

Am starting in September but have sort of started course over TY...mainly the Plato stuff, also some medea...am scared by Oddysey