Classical Civilisation

Years 10 and 11 - optional GCSE
Sixth Form - optional AS and A2

GCSE (OCR) prescribes four topics for study.  We offer Homer's Odyssey, Greek Theatre, Greek Festivals, including the Olympic Games, Ovid's Metamorphoses.

AS and A2 (OCR). This syllabus offers the detailed study of four modules, two at AS and two at A2.  For AS we offer Homer's Odyssey, one of the formative works of Western literature, full of exciting, fantastic stories, rich in character and action, and still among the best sellers of the modern world. Women in Greece and Rome forms the second module: through study of different type of written sources, we explore the lives of and attitudes to women in both these ancient cultures.

Virgil's Aeneid, prescribed for the A2 course, tells one of Rome's foundation myths, the settlement of Trojans in Italy under the leadership of Aeneas. Tragic love, violent war and the wrath of gods make this an heroic struggle. In A2 Greek Tragedy, we study Euripides and Sophocles. The prescribed plays deal with human emotions in extremis: the murder of children, husbands and parents, false accusations of rape, unwitting incest and parricide, defiance of state power in obedience to divine laws and much more. These plays have had a huge influence on western culture.