Classics

CLA710  Ancient Greek I
major elective | grades: 9, 10, 11, 12
This course provides an introduction to ancient Greek, beginning with learning the alphabet, a parent of our own alphabet. From this, students study vocabulary, syntax, and grammar with a goal of completing about half of the foundational grammar. Students also read short selections from ancient authors and explore the cultural context of the language in myth, history, and art. Along with the other Greek classes, students put on a performance for Classics Day.

CLA720  Ancient Greek II
major elective | grades: 9, 10, 11, 12 | prerequisite: Ancient Greek I
In this course, students complete their study of basic ancient Greek grammar. By the end of the year, students transition to translating original ancient Greek in preparation for reading Greek literature in the following year, whether heroic epic, myth, history, or drama. Students also continue to study the cultural context of the language. Along with the other Greek classes, students put on a performance for Classics Day.

CLA730  Ancient Greek III
major elective | grades: 10, 11, 12 | prerequisite: Ancient Greek II
Starting in the third year, students begin to translate and explore actual ancient literature. Topics and genres will vary year to year, and may include Greek history (e.g., Herodotus or Xenophon), legal oratory (Lysias), tragedy (Euripides), or epic (Homer). We will explore the social and historical context of the works as well as their literary aspects and later influences. Students will undertake related projects individually or in small groups.

CLA740  Ancient Greek IV: Advanced
major elective | grades: 11, 12 | prerequisite: Ancient Greek III
Topics and genres will vary year by year, and may include Greek history (e.g., Herodotus or Xenophon), legal oratory (Lysias), tragedy (Euripides), or epic (Homer). We will explore the social and historical context of the works as well as their literary aspects and later influences. Students will undertake related projects individually or in small groups.

CLA750  Ancient Greek V: Advanced
major elective | grade: 12 | prerequisite: Ancient Greek IV
Topics and genres will vary year by year, and may include Greek history (e.g., Herodotus or Xenophon), legal oratory (Lysias), tragedy (Euripides), or epic (Homer). We will explore the social and historical context of the works as well as their literary aspects and later influences. Students will undertake related projects individually or in small groups.

CLA310  Latin I
major elective | grades: 9, 10, 11
Latin I is an introduction to the basic forms, vocabulary, and grammar of Latin. Latin I is taught through English, with a strong emphasis on mastering grammar and forms in sentences. Students begin exploring the vocabulary and examining cognates that bring life to words in English, French, Spanish, and other languages. Alongside this, students study various aspects of the history, culture, and everyday life in Ancient Rome and Greece.

CLA320  Latin II
major elective | grades: 9, 10, 11, 12 | prerequisite: Latin I
This second-year course completes the study of Latin grammar, continues the building of essential vocabulary, and provides increasing emphasis on reading longer Latin passages about history, mythology, and life in the ancient world. Students develop the skills necessary to read Latin as the Romans wrote it, and to consider the historical and cultural implications of their language and literature.

CLA410  Latin III (History)
major elective | grades: 10, 11, 12 | prerequisite: Latin II
Students who love history will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in an interdisciplinary study of Latin and history. The centerpiece of the course concerns the immediate events that brought the Roman Republic to an end. By reading excerpts from Caesar’s narrative accounts, Cicero’s letters and speeches, as well as other authors, students will become intimately familiar with the primary documents that have survived from this time — documents which every historian of this period must rely upon and know. Alongside learning new grammatical constructions, rhetorical devices, and storytelling techniques, students will explore the political, historical, and social context of the period and consider how our readings live today through the lenses of democratic philosophy and current events.

CLA420  Latin III (Poetry)
major elective | grades: 10, 11, 12 | prerequisite: Latin II
Students who love myths and legends will have the opportunity to examine human nature through the windows and mirrors offered by mythological mortals and gods. Latin III Poetry focuses on Ovid’s works: The Metamorphoses, The Amores, and The Heroides. Ovid appeared at an important juncture in Roman literary history, flourishing after Horace, Vergil and Catullus had died, and just as the Roman empire was taking form. Ovid’s magnum opus, The Metamorphoses, will lead students through Greek myths and ancient legends in the epic meter of dactylic hexameter. In Ovid’s Amores, his shorter poems written in elegiac couplets, his persona is struggling with various aspects of love, including rivals and rejection. The Heroides is a series of imagined letters by women characters from mythology to the men who rejected them. At each stage, students will examine the nature of language, the deeper meaning of words, and the nuance of the poetic. Alongside learning new grammatical constructions, literary devices, and storytelling techniques, students will explore the history and social context of the period and consider how our readings live today in the world of art, music, poetry, and current events.

CLA510  Latin IV: Advanced
major elective | grades: 10, 11, 12 | prerequisite: Latin III – History or Literature
In this course, we will focus on Vergil’s Aeneid as a literary, historical, and philosophical text, and will discuss such topics as the nature of epic and the use of symbolism in poetry. While continuing to refine their skills in translation, use of meter and knowledge of literary devices, students will also consider the Aeneid’s place in the broader, inter-cultural literary tradition, both as inheritor of the earlier epics and as influencer on later works. Students will also produce a film for Classics Day.

CLA610  Latin V: Advanced
major elective | grade: 11, 12 | prerequisite: Latin IV
Students will read, discuss, and write on a variety of Roman authors and topics, chosen in consultation between the students and the teacher. Readings chosen will allow for continuing exploration of issues vital to both the Roman and contemporary worlds and will be explored with a lens that focuses upon social contexts, historical and cultural background, and literary interpretation. On Classics Day, Latin V students stage a Roman triumph, having first read about triumphs in ancient prose and poetry. Other projects will be developed in consultations between teacher and students.