A Level Year 13 Classical Civilization

Classical Civilisation at DLD involves the close textual analysis of works belonging to three literary genres. These are epic poetry, comedy and tragedy. In epic poetry the works under study are Homer s The Odyssey and Virgil s The Aeneid. In comedy, we study three plays by Aristophanes and in tragedy two works by Sophocles and two by Euripides. Literary analysis of these works is accompanied by a thorough introduction to history, politics and society in classical Greece and Rome. All texts are read and analysed line by line in the classroom. This keeps students constantly involved and makes lessons lively, particularly in comedy and tragedy, where students share amongst them different parts of the plays.