classics

University of Portsmouth Student Rep

By classics, do you mean Classical Civ, Latin, Ancient Greek?

Ask your teacher/school what textbooks you’ll use and if you will need to buy them. Normally you just get given your books in class on day 1 and then have to return them at the end of the course, so you don’t need to worry about it now :smile:

Reply 2

rxyaltyx

21

if you're doing latin/ancient greek get the gcse to latin/ancient greek. they're really good

Reply 3

Official Rep

16

Original post by xe.abi

Hi, I'm studying classics next year for my gcses but I don't know what books to get, is it possible if I could get a list please. That would really help.

Hi @xe.abi!

I studied classics and this really depends on what your exam board is with and whether your course is latin/classical civilisation etc. It really does vary so I recommend asking your GCSE teachers and researching which exam board you are with and what your GCSE will include. For example, I did the Cambridge latin course so I got the Cambridge latin textbooks.

I hope this helps!

Erin - Official Student Rep :smile:

Reply 4

OP

Original post by becausethenight

By classics, do you mean Classical Civ, Latin, Ancient Greek?

Ask your teacher/school what textbooks you’ll use and if you will need to buy them. Normally you just get given your books in class on day 1 and then have to return them at the end of the course, so you don’t need to worry about it now :smile:

I'm doing classical civilisation

Reply 5

Original post by xe.abi

I'm doing classical civilisation

Ah ok! If you want to know about your required textbooks, you’ll need to ask your school, but if you’d like some further reading do say and the TSR hive mind will have a few suggestions :smile:

Reply 6

OP

I would like to do some further reading

Original post by becausethenight

Ah ok! If you want to know about your required textbooks, you’ll need to ask your school, but if you’d like some further reading do say and the TSR hive mind will have a few suggestions

Reply 7

Original post by xe.abi

I would like to do some further reading

That's amazing when you haven't started GCSE yet, wow! I'm going to reference quite a few books, but no one will be expecting you to do further reading until A level really, so just pick anything you find interesting and don't give up or assume you'll do badly if it's difficult.

One of the obvious places to start would be to read some texts in translation - literature-wise, the Iliad, Odyssey (note: if you want to read Homeric epic, get a character list, ideally one that includes patronymics) and Aeneid are obvious choices, but some Greek tragedy (say Medea or the Oresteia) might be more accessible. History-wise, it's Livy and Tacitus. More realistically, you might enjoy some fictionalised history - I, Claudius or the Imperium plays. Mary Beard also writes amazing and thoughtful texts on the Classical world; SPQR is a bit intimidating, but Confronting the Classics is an essay collection and more fun! Eidolon (https://eidolon.pub/) is an online Classics magazine discussing Classical texts and discourse in Classical education, which is really interesting too.

Good luck and enjoy :smile:

Reply 8

OP

Original post by becausethenight

That's amazing when you haven't started GCSE yet, wow! I'm going to reference quite a few books, but no one will be expecting you to do further reading until A level really, so just pick anything you find interesting and don't give up or assume you'll do badly if it's difficult.

One of the obvious places to start would be to read some texts in translation - literature-wise, the Iliad, Odyssey (note: if you want to read Homeric epic, get a character list, ideally one that includes patronymics) and Aeneid are obvious choices, but some Greek tragedy (say Medea or the Oresteia) might be more accessible. History-wise, it's Livy and Tacitus. More realistically, you might enjoy some fictionalised history - I, Claudius or the Imperium plays. Mary Beard also writes amazing and thoughtful texts on the Classical world; SPQR is a bit intimidating, but Confronting the Classics is an essay collection and more fun! Eidolon (https://eidolon.pub/) is an online Classics magazine discussing Classical texts and discourse in Classical education, which is really interesting too.

Good luck and enjoy :smile:

Thanks, but because my school is doing women in the ancient world and the Homeric world, so do I read the odyssey, Homeric epic and that it.

Reply 9

Original post by xe.abi

Thanks, but because my school is doing women in the ancient world and the Homeric world, so do I read the odyssey, Homeric epic and that it.

If you want to get a head start on your topics, it might be best to ask your school/teacher? Reading the Odyssey and Iliad would definitely be good background reading, but they're bloody hard to access as a beginner on your own, imo, so you might also want to look into a study guide or a well-annotated/footnoted edition. Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls is a really good fictional retelling of the Iliad from a female perspective as well (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/22/silence-of-the-girls-pat-barker-book-review-iliad). Feminist reworkings of Classical texts are quite a Thing at the moment (Madeleine Miller, Natalie Hayes) so do check that sub-genre out.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 10

OP

To further add, I'm studying women in the ancient world as my thematic study as my exam board is OCR

Reply 11

Trinculo

21

If you want to just do whatever lefty nonsense the teacher has lined up - then by all means read a bits and bobs of Odyssey and Iliad in translation and dissect a few lines here and there about Briseis and Penelope - nod your head and get a good grade.

If you actually want to read about women in classical literature, I would start with Antigone. It's not very long, is accessible, but needs a bit of thinking.

It's GCSE though, so the former would probably be the wiser choice.

Reply 12

alevelss.101

12

Original post by xe.abi

To further add, I'm studying women in the ancient world as my thematic study as my exam board is OCR

since it's women, i really recommend this book, which while not fully accurate, is amazing and got recommended to us, Pandora's Jar. It looks at the ancient myths from the point of view of women. Have a look into it!

Reply 13

OP