Classics and English

Honour Moderations in Classics and English | Honour School of Classics and English

Honour Moderations in Classics and English 

There are two courses, Course I, for those who have learnt either Latin or Greek (or both) to A-level or the equivalent standard at entrance, and Course II, in which one classical language is learnt during the first year of the course.

Candidates on Course I take Honour Moderations in Classics and English, the First Public Examination, at the end of their first year. Those on Course II must first pass a qualifying examination in Greek and/or Latin Language and Literature at the end of their first year, before proceeding to Honour Moderations at the end of the second year.

(N.B. The course outline for Final Honour School given below is for 2010-2012. Course II candidates starting in 2009 will commence Final Honour School in 2010, for which the prescriptions may change slightly. You will receive the Classics and English Finals handbook appropriate to your course dates at the start of your course.)

Course II: Qualifying Examination

At the end of the first year for course II only. This examination is also taken by those going on to take the Modern Languages Preliminary in their second year of study.

1: Greek or Latin Texts. Candidates must offer EITHER
(a) Homer, Iliad 24; Lysias 1 and 3; Euripides, Bacchae 1-63, 180-369, 434-518.
OR
(b) Virgil, Aeneid 6; Seneca, Epistles 54, 57, 79, 104 and 122; Catullus 1-16, 31-4.

For a list of prescribed texts, see the Classics and English handbook.

2 (a): Greek or Latin Language.
The paper will consist of passages for unseen translation out of Latin or Greek and of sentences to be translated from English into Latin or Greek.
2 (b): during the second year of study, to offer papers as for Course 1.

Courses I & II: Honour Moderations in Classics and English

All students must offer three English papers and three Classics papers from the list below.

A.1-3: English Papers

Candidates must offer three papers:
1. English Literature 1509-1600 (excluding the plays of Shakespeare)
2. English Literature 1600-1660 (excluding the plays of Shakespeare)
3.Critical Commentary: passages for comment for the period 1509-1660

B.4: Unseen translation from Greek or Latin

• : Unseen Translation from Greek and/or Latin

B.5,6: Greek and Latin Literature

5. Essays
6. Translation and Commentary

These papers are based on the following four sets of ancient texts, studied in the original, from which candidates must offer TWO, including ONE of either (a) or (b) .
Both papers will relate to all the texts, with three essay questions in paper 5 (including one compulsory general essay) and three translation and commentary questions in Paper 6.

• a: Greek and Latin Literature: Homer
• b: Greek and Latin Literature: Virgil
• c: Greek an Latin Literature : Euripides, Aristophanes, Herodotus
• d: Greek and Latin Literature: Cicero, Catullus, Propertius, Ovid

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Honour School of Classics and English 

Candidates are required to cover seven papers in the six terms (which are in effect five terms, the last term normally being occupied with revision). These seven comprise two papers in Classics, two in English, and three Link papers which combine both subjects. In addition, you may take an eighth paper in either English or Classical Literature (subject to restrictions), or offer a thesis in one literature or both. There are various restrictions over which literature paper combinations you may offer in relation to the Link paper. These restrictions are detailed in the Classics and English Finals handbook which you will receive on arrival.

A.1,2: English Papers

Two English Literature papers:
A.1 - Period Paper
A.2 - Topic Paper

For more information on these papers please consult the finals handbook on the English Faculty website.

B.3: Papers

One of the following "core papers":

• a: Greek Literature of the 5th Century BC
• b: Latin Literature of the 1st Century BC

B.4: Papers

One of the following options, or two if offering an eighth paper (see below).
NB There are various restrictions over which paper combinations you may offer in relation to the link paper (below). These restrictions are detailed in the Classics and English Finals handbook which you will receive on arrival.
Candidates offering any of the Ancient History papers must also offer an associated translation paper of the set texts

• 1 (a): Greek Literature of the 5th Century BC
• 1 (b): Latin Literature of the 1st Century BC
• 2: Historiography
• 3: Lyric Poetry
• 4: Early Greek Hexameter Poetry
• 5: Greek Tragedy
• 6: Comedy
• 7: Hellenistic Poetry
• 8: Cicero
• 9: Catullus: manuscripts, text, interpretation
• 10: Latin Didactic
• 11: Neronian Literature
• 12: Euripides, Orestes: papyri, manuscripts, text
• 13 (a): Seneca, Agamemnon: manuscripts, text, interpretation
• 13 (b): Catullus: manuscripts, text, interpretation
• 14: The Conversion of Augustine
• 15: Byzantine Literature
• 16: Modern Greek Poetry
• 17: Thesis in Literature
• 18: Greek Historical Linguistics
• 19: Latin Historical Linguistics
• 20: General Linguistics and Comparative Philology
• 21: Comparative Philology: Indo-European, Greek and Latin
• 1: Medieval Philosophy: Aquinas
• 2: Medieval Philosophy: Duns Scotus and Ockham
• 3: Plato: Republic (in translation)
• 4: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics (in translation)
• 5: Plato: Republic (in Greek)
• 6: Plato: Theaetetus and Sophist (in Greek)
• 8: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics (in Greek)
• 9: Aristotle: Physics (in Greek)
• 10: Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Pyrrhonism (in Greek)
• 11: Latin Philosophy (in Latin)
• 1: The Early Greek World and Herodotus' Histories: 650 to 479 BC
• 2: Thucydides and the Greek World: 479 BC to 403 BC
• 3: The End of the Peloponnesian War to the Death of Philip II of Macedon: 403 BC to 336 BC
• 4: Polybius, Rome and the Mediterranean: 241 BC to 146 BC
• 5: Republic in Crisis: 146 BC to 46 BC
• 6: Rome, Italy and Empire from Caesar to Claudius: 46 BC to AD 54
• 7: Athenian Democracy in the Classical Age
• 8: Alexander the Great and his early Successors
• 9: The Hellenistic World: societies and cultures, ca. 300 B.C. -100 B.C.
• 10: Cicero: Politics and Thought in the Late Republic
• 11: Politics, Society and Culture from Nero to Hadrian
• 12: Religions in the Greek and Roman World from c.31 BC to AD 312
• 13: Sexuality and Gender in Greece and Rome

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C.5,6,7: Link Papers

Of the Link papers listed below, you must take paper 5, Epic; you must then choose two further Link papers from papers 6,7 (a)-(g).

• 5: Epic
• 6, 7.a: Tragedy
• 6, 7.b: Comedy
• 6, 7.c: Satire
• 6, 7.d: Pastoral
• 6, 7.e: Late Latin : Medieval and Renaissance Latin Hexameter Poetry
• 6, 7.f: Rhetoric and Literary Theory in Ancient and Modern Times
• 6, 7.g: The Reception of Classical Literature in Poetry in English since 1900

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D.8: Eighth paper

Candidates wishing to offer an optional eighth paper may offer only another paper from A.2 (Second English Paper) or B.4 (Second Classics Paper); no candidate may offer more than one option from either A.2(d) [English Special Authors] or A.2(e) [English Special Topics].

E: Thesis

Please see the course handbook for more details

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Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles', Oxford, OX1 3LU.