Available here, in addition to a statement of degree requirerments, is the reading list for the degree and a supplementary reading list for historical background.

Requirements

The M. A. in Classics requires ten courses (thirty credits) in Greek and Latin at the graduate level, completion of an independent reading list, demonstration of proficiency in a modern foreign language (usually French or German), and comprehensive written and oral examinations.

Course work. Six to eight courses a year are normally available to graduate students. A thesis or independent paper option is also available, for three or six credits, but requires departmental permission.

Modern Language. Proficiency is demonstrated by a one-hour translation test, in which the use of a dictionary is allowed.  This test does not form part of the comprehensive exams.  It may be taken at a student's earliest convenience, the sooner the better.

Comprehensive exams. These include a two-hour exam in Greek literature, a two-hour exam in Latin literature, and a one-hour oral exam.

Each written exam requires the translation of three passages and the composition of an essay about one of them; the essay asks a student to identify the passage in its literary context and the author in his historical context. Written exams are based on the reading list and on a student's course work. Use of a dictionary is not allowed.

The oral exam is open-ended, testing whether a student can keep a conversaton going for an hour on the topic of classical literature in its historical context. A supplementary reading list suggests books on political, social, and literary history.

Summary of requirements.

30 credits of coursework (may include 3 or 6 credit thesis)
Proficiency test in a modern foreign language
Two-hour written examination on Greek literature
Two-hour written examination on Latin literature
One-hour oral examination

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Reading List

The list contains options as well as requirements. Each student will be expected, before taking comprehensive exams, to submit an individualized list.

Readings in Greek

Homer

• Iliad 1, 6, 9, 16, 22, 24
• Odyssey 1, 9-12
• The whole of both poems in English
  

Hesiod, or Lyric

• EITHER Hesiod, Works & Days 1-201 and Theogony 1-210
• OR David Campbell, ed., Greek Lyric Poetry, selections of:
  • Archilochus (including Cologne fragment (Appendix))
  • Mimnermus
  • Sappho (1, 16, 31, 55, 104a, 105a, 105c, 130)
  • Anacreon (357, 358, 395, 417)
  • Solon

Drama

• In GREEK, one play from each dramatist:
  • Aeschylus, Agamemnon or Prometheus Bound
  • Sophocles, Oedipus Rex or Antigone
  • Euripides, Medea or Bacchae
  • Aristophanes, Clouds or Frogs
    
• In ENGLISH, at least six plays from among:
  • Aeschylus, Oresteia
  • Sophocles, Ajax and Oedipus at Colonus
  • Euripides, Alcestis, Hecuba, Helen, and Hippolytus
  • Aristophanes, Arachnians, Lysistrata, and Birds

Herodotus, Histories 1 or 6

Thucydides, History 6 or 7; the whole History in English

Plato

• EITHER Republic 10
• OR Apology and Crito
• The whole Republic in English

Hellenistic Poetry, from Neil Hopkinson, A Hellenistic Anthology:

• Theocritus, Idyll 11 (= HA ix)
• Aratus, Phaenomena 1-18, 96-136 (= HA vi-vii)
• Callimachus, Hymn 5 (= HA iii)
• Funerary and Amatory Epigrams (= HA xxvi.1-24)

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Readings in Latin

Comedy

• In LATIN, two plays from among:
  • Plautus, Aulularia, Mostellaria, and Pseudolus
  • Terence, Adelphoe, and Phormio
• In ENGLISH, three other plays

Catullus, Poems 1-16, 31-42, 44-6, 49-51, 58, 64, 76, 101

Lucretius, De rerum natura 1.1-58 (Proem), 5.925-1420 (Anthropology)

Cicero. Choose two from among:

• Pro Caelio
• Somnium Scipionis
• David Stockton, Thirty-five Letters of Cicero

Caesar, Gallic War 1

Virgil, Aeneid 2, 4, 6, 8, 12; the whole Aeneid in English.

Horace, selected poems:

• Odes 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.9, 1.15, 1.22, 1.37
• Odes 2.3, 2.13, 2.14, 2.16
• Odes 3.5, 3.11, 3.13, 3.21, 3.30
• Odes 4.7
• Satires 2.6

Elegy, selected poems:

• Propertius 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.10, 3.1, 3.3, 4.1, 4.7
• Tibullus 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.10, 2.5
• Ovid, Amores 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.9, 1.13, 2.19, 3.2

Ovid, selections from Metamorphoses:

• 1.452-567 (Apollo and Daphne)
• 3.138-253 (Actaeon)
• 3.339-510 (Echo and Narcissus)
• 4.55-166 (Pyramus and Thisbe)
• 6.1-145 (Arachne)
• 8.153-235 (Daedalus and Icarus)
• 10.243-97 (Pygmalion)
• 10.298-502 (Myrrha)
• 11.410-748 (Ceyx and Alcyone)

Livy, Histories 1 or 21

Tacitus, Annals 15

Novel

• EITHER Petronius, Satyricon 26-78 (Trimalchio)
• OR Apuleius, Metamorphoses 4.28-6.24 (Cupid and Psyche)

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Supplementary Reading List

As general background for the study of classical literature a student should read several books on Greek and Roman history. Many are available. This list contains suggestions, but feel free to make substitutions.

For Greece

A. Andrewes, Greek Society
A. R. Burns, Pelican History of Greece
J. B. Bury & R. Meiggs, A History of Greece
Oswyn Murray, Early Greece
J. K. Davies, Democracy and Classical Greece

For Rome

Thomas Africa, The Immense Majesty
Geza Alfoldy, The Social History of Rome
D. R. Dudley, The Civilization of Rome
Michael Grant, History of Rome
C. G. Starr, The Roman Empire, 27 BC-AD 476
R. Syme, The Roman Revolution

For literary history, the standard reference work is now the Cambridge History of Classical Literature, (Vol. I = Greece, Vol. II = Rome). The articles on individual authors are, in general, state of the art and the bibliographies are ample (up-to-date to 1982). Copies are available in the reference section in O'Neill Library.

For shorter articles and bibliography (to c. 1996) on authors, genres, historical figures, mythology, etc., see the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd edition, available in the Classics Department office and in O'Neill Library.

Affordable in paperback and still useful for reference are H. J. Rose's histories of Greek and Latin literature; for mythological references the most convenient guide is Edward Tripp, The Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology.

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