There are no words for how amazing the British Museum is. To me it's like a family you've known your whole life, and each room is a different family member that tells you the same old stories that you listen to time and again, not to humour them but out of love and affection. If you're pressed for time then I would suggest hitting up the rooms in the West, that is to say the Assyrian Egyptian Greek and Roman rooms. Especially the Elgin Marbles, what with public opinion swinging towards returning them to Athens. And the Hajj exhibition is very informative...though actually I think that might have just ended. Yes, it has
damn, I wanted to see it again as I was really tired the first time around!
In other news, hello everyone! *waves* I'll be studying some classics in September at Glasgow, though I am faced with a dilemma that maybe you could help me with: how important would you say Greek and Latin are for studying Classics? I've actually applied for History even though the classical era is my favourite period (at least, according to my personal statement
) and so I'll be taking Classical Civilisation too (for those that are unaware you do three subjects in years one and two before your degree in years three and four). The thing that's been keeping me up researching until the early hours of the morning for a month now is what to do for the third subject. I love Philosophy, and the opportunity to study it at Glasgow is one of the main reasons I'm transferring there from where I am at the moment instead of straight into the second year at Leicester (which would be only History and also miles cheaper). But I'm afraid that I'll end up adoring Classics and want to do that as my degree instead of History, in which case I imagine learning Latin and Greek alongside it would be invaluable...at the same time if I don't like Classics I want History to fall back on.
Also one of the Classics lecturers is an undergraduate course convenor and on the visit day he advised against "putting all your Classics eggs in one basket" and not do Classics Latin and Greek. But it seems to me if you really want to get a feel for the subject you need to be able to do it in the language, surely?!
In summary, my question to you all is how important are Latin and Greek in studying Classics, what exactly you learn in Classics (from my research it seems to be Ancient History with some literature and art etc thrown in, but I'm still very vague on the distinction) and to
ArcadiaHouse specifically, how you're finding Glasgow and how the Classics Summer School was last year? If anyone can help me it would be much appreciated, it's been doing my head in for ages ><