Why Apply For Classics at University in 2024?: A Classics Oxford Graduate’s View
Why I love Classics, and why I think you should too. By Jessica (Classics, Trinity College, University of Oxford)
Everyone has read at least some of the Greek myths; we all have childhood memories of learning about Theseus slaying the Minotaur, Hera trying to kill baby Heracles, and Zeus turning himself into various animals in order to impregnate beautiful women. Many of us then went on to read the Percy Jackson books, and watched the numerous television adaptations of the Iliad like Troy. I have experienced an air of ‘popular science’ surrounding the Greek myths in relation to the more ‘serious’ side of Classics: everyone seems to know something about them and has very much enjoyed what little contact they might have had with Classics, and yet I am invariably asked why on Earth I would want to study such a subject at University. Despite the popularity of the easily accessible parts of the subject (myths and history as opposed to Latin and Greek language), I was the only person in my sixth form for a number of years who seriously wanted to continue their classical studies into higher education. Not every school offers Latin all the way through to A-Level, and barely any schools outside of London offer Ancient Greek at all; I think this plays a big part in the perception of Classics as niche and inaccessible. The study of Classics at University almost always requires a knowledge of Latin and Ancient Greek, and although there is the option at Oxford to study Classics without ever having studied the languages, this is not a particularly common thing to do and the majority of Classics students do know the languages well.
Contemporary Relevance of Classics
My personal A-Level Classics experience was wonderful; I had an incredible standard of teaching given that I was one of only four Latin students, and indeed the only Ancient Greek student in my year. In my last year at school we studied Sophocles’ Antigone in Greek, and if I’d ever had doubts about studying Classics at University, these were the classes which assuaged them.
Antigone is about a stubborn young girl who rebels against her uncle, King Creon, by burying her brother who has been branded a traitor after a civil war. Fundamentally the play is about conflict resolution and how not to go about it; both Antigone and Creon display distinctly undesirable character traits and are totally unwilling to compromise. This is where the tragedy lies, in their mutual inability to stray even a little from what they believe to be right and proper. Creon believes that the laws of the city are the absolute priority, and that Antigone has broken them by burying her brother. Antigone wishes to honour the laws of the gods, which she believes are unwritten and eternal, by granting every member of her family a proper burial. In the end Antigone is put to death for breaking the laws of the city, and as a result most of the other characters in the play die. Creon loses everything: his son (Antigone’s fiancé) and his wife both kill themselves. It’s a desperately sad play, and as a teenage girl with the typical aversion to despotic authority, I immediately sympathised with and related to Antigone. It seemed to me that all she wanted was justice and honour for her dead brother, and that her uncle was clearly evil, malicious, and vindictive.
I allowed myself to be far too influenced by my own politics and ideology when reading this play which was written over two millennia ago: surely, my non-classical peers told me, there can be no relation between my Ancient Greek A-Level set text and the world today. On the contrary, I would always reply, the conflict of state law and moral law is an ever-present issue, and one which we will surely begin to tackle in our everyday lives once we leave school. Perhaps this was hyperbole, but I really have had experience of relating my education in Classics to modern life. Take the current situation at the US border: immigrant families are being separated, children torn from their parents, but these devastating events are happening apparently in accordance with the law. Here it appears that legality does not necessarily correspond to morality, and I am constantly reminded of my year 13 Greek classes, in which this exact topic was hotly debated: is Antigone’s illegal activity excusable because of her clear moral driving force? Or is Creon’s refusal to be compassionate understandable given his role in the city as lawmaker and king? It has fascinated me in recent years that the Greeks and Romans wished to consider the exact issues which still face us today.
Language and Grammar
Many people who study Latin (and, to a certain extent, Ancient Greek) will tell you that studying language and grammar is the most useful part of the course because it has an almost direct application in learning modern languages. Having an in-depth understanding of Latin and Greek grammar does not only significantly improve one’s ability to learn a new foreign language, but it can also aid comprehension of English grammar which we naturally already know. My creative writing skills have drastically improved now that I am conscious of English grammar and syntax; it’s a lot easier to vary writing style and sentence structure now that there is a list of rules in the back of my mind. For example, Latin authors make very frequent use of a construction called the ablative absolute: it is formed (usually) by a noun and a participle which are both in the ablative case, and sets up a situation in which the rest of the action occurs. We tend to translate them with words like ‘when’, ‘after’, or ‘since’: ‘when the soldiers were stationed’, ‘after the storm was over’, ‘since Caesar was general’. This construction is incredibly common in the type of Latin we studied at school, and spotting the famed ablative absolute was always an exciting moment because we knew that in the exam this would secure a good few marks. Now that I’m not so worried about mark schemes, I realise that being constantly on the lookout for certain constructions actually increases the use of them in my own writing. I am also far more aware when other people structure their sentences in a certain way, and am always subconsciously analysing their use of language. Knowing how Latin clauses fit together to form coherent narrative is something I absolutely would have expected from my Classics degree, but its constant relevance to my life has come as a surprise, as has the excitement I feel upon noticing my favourite constructions in the real world.
Fundamentally the study of Classics is a reflection of what we hope generations in the far future will do for us; in 2,500 years it would be rather nice if people wanted to remember and study us, our behaviour, and our literature. Classicists want to study the western world as it was two millennia ago, and hopefully there will be people in the future who will want to do that for our time. Additionally, as cliché as it sounds, keeping our history in mind is important, because despite all the cultural and technological differences between us and the Greeks and Romans, they were humans just like us, and understanding their mistakes can help to reduce ours; in the same way we can build on their victories and successes. It doesn’t make any sense at all to live exclusively in the present and forget or ignore our past, and an education in Classics can give all of us the perspective we truly need. So I would urge anyone who used to love the Greek myths, or was intrigued by Troy, or even gave up Latin in year 8 in favour of a more ‘useful’ subject, to give it another go.
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