Literae Humaniores

Literae Humaniores is the name given to the study of Classics at Oxford and some other universities.

Lit. Hum. at Oxford

The Oxford University classics course – also known as "Greats" – is divided into two parts that last four terms and seven terms respectively, the whole lasting four years in total.

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The course is normally taken as a first degree and leads to a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) qualification.

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In the first part (Honour Moderations or Mods) students concentrate on Latin and Greek language; in the second part students choose two main subjects from Classical Literature, Greek and Roman History, and Philosophy. Throughout the course there is a strong emphasis on first hand study of primary sources in the original Greek or Latin.

Related Topics:
Honour Moderations - Latin - Greek - Classical Literature - Greek and Roman History - Philosophy

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The teaching style is very traditional and consists of weekly tutorials in each subject, supplemented by a wide variety of lectures. The examinations at the end of the course are also very traditional with 11 or 12 three-hour papers set across seven consecutive days.

Related Topics:
Tutorial - Lecture

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Mods

During the four terms of the Mods course the students develop their ability to read Latin and Greek fluently. Students are expected to read widely including all of Virgil and Homer.

Related Topics:
Virgil - Homer

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Since 1980 candidates with strong Latin but little or no Greek have been able to apply for the Mods B course: in this variation they learn Greek from scratch during their first four terms. Since 2000 it has also been possible to do a Mods C course in which students learn both Latin and Greek from scratch. This has become necessary because Latin and Greek no longer feature in the British National Curriculum and the number of university applicants who have studied enough Latin or Greek to cope with traditional Mods has fallen sharply.

Related Topics:
1980 - 2000 - National Curriculum

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All students who successfully pass Mods then go on to study the full Greats course in their remaining seven terms.

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Greats

In the main part of the classics course students choose two subject groups from:

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• Roman and Greek Literature
• Roman and Greek History (divided into several periods)
• Philosophy, both ancient (Plato and Aristotle) and modern

The main teaching mechanism is the weekly essay, one on each of the two chosen subjects, typically written to be read out at a one-to-one tutorial; this affords all students plenty of practice at writing short, clear, and well-researched papers.

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There is a strong emphasis on study of the original texts (in Latin and Greek), which are examined by prepared translation and by gobbets. In a typical "set books" paper candidates will be expected first to translate into English three or four long passages selected at random from the set books; and secondly to comment on each of an extended set of short paragraphs or sentences from the same set texts; marks are awarded for recognising the context and the significance of each excerpt.

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Even in the final examinations, students must also offer the unseen translation papers (Latin and Greek into English), and they may offer the prose and poetry composition papers (English into Latin and Greek) for extra credit.

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