Classics and Ancient History Program
Bachelor of Classical Studies - Majors - Honours - Classics Museum - Friends of the ANU Classics Museum - Friends of the AAIA - Classics Reading Groups - Brynrefail Awards - Lectures & Events
What is Classics?
Classics is the study of the civilisation of ancient Greece and Rome. At the ANU it is offered in three streams, the two languages, Ancient Greek and Latin, and a non-language stream, Classics. While there is no language requirement for the last, there is the option of including some language courses in the major. Relevant courses in the History, Archaeology and Art History Programs are normally included in this major, for which a recommended first-year sequence might be HIST1019 Rome: Republic to Empire followed by ANCH1013 5th Century Athens.
Ancient Greek and Latin are introduced in a semester course CLAS1001 (or CLAS2001) Traditional Grammar , after which students may proceed in either or both languages or other Classics courses. Those with previous study in either language may enter courses at a more advanced level.
The three streams are available to students for degrees and diplomas through to PhD level.
The Classics staff and Classics Students' Centre are located on the ground floor of the A.D. Hope Building. Contact: Classics@anu.edu.au
Classics is multi-disciplinary, providing a perspective on the modern as well as the ancient world. It offers critical and analytical approaches to literature, history, language and material culture. Source analysis, research and documentation, oral and writing skills are developed in a context which includes working in small groups.
Classics graduates are employed in a great variety of areas, for example as university teachers and administrators, theatre producers, museum curators, company secretaries, teachers, members of the clergy, journalists, and human rights advocates. Others come to Classics later because of a long-standing interest in the ancient world.
MAJORS
CLASSICS MAJOR
ANCIENT HISTORY MAJOR
ANCIENT GREEK MAJOR
LATIN MAJOR
CLASSICS SEMINARS:
CLASSICS SEMINARS 09
EVENTS:
HONOURS
Honours
Classics Museum
One of the strengths of the Classics Program is its Museum. The Classics Museum provides a study resource for the general public, school and college students, as well as students from Classics, Art History, Archaeology and Anthropology, the Canberra School of Art and the University of Canberra's National Centre for Cultural Heritage Science Studies.
As the Museum is adjacent to the principal teaching rooms of the Program, teachers and students have ready access to the collection. This collection, established in 1962, now comprises some 600 objects from Cyprus, Asia Minor, Greece, and the Roman world. Some of the items are on loan to the Museum from the National Gallery of Australia, from the Parliament House Collection, and from private collectors. The larger part of the collection, however, has been built up over the years as a teaching resource. The items in the collection are used in various ways in the courses taught by the Classics Program, and by other programs, such as Art History. For example, in a course for later-year students, Artefacts and Society in the Greco-Roman World, students work with a broad selection of items from the Roman world - terracotta dishes, bowls and plates, glassware, metalware, and materials associated with early writing - in an attempt to reconstruct aspects of daily life in this era.
An informative leaflet is available in the Museum. This serves as a guide to the collection as a whole. Copies of Antiquities (1981), the catalogue of the collection, are available in the Museum for consultation.
Friends of the ANU Classics Museum
The Classics Museum at the ANU was established in 1962. Amongst its first acquisitions was an Attic wine bowl, a gold lion's head earring, and some coins. The collection was established for teaching purposes. For this reason it has always been accessible to ANU's own students and to the wider community. From its earliest years the Museum has developed steadily with the support of the University, loans from University House, the National Gallery, and former students and others in Canberra who have acquired classical antiquities.
The collection has been published as an illustrated catalogue Antiquities, by J.R. Green and Beryl Rawson (Canberra, 1981). A new edition is in preparation.
The group of the Friends of the ANU Classics Museum was established in 1985. The aim of the Friends is to encourage and promote the interests of the Museum by raising funds for the purchase of items for the collection, encouraging donations, and organizing public lectures on a wide range of classical subjects. Click here for Recent Lectures and Program
We invite you to join the Friends and so support the Museum.
ANNUAL DONATION
$20 Ordinary (one person)
$30 Family (two adult partners)
$5 Pensioner (social security only – proof required)
$5 Full-time student (proof required)
$300 Life
$500 Corporate
Note: All donations to the ANU are tax-deductible. You may forward your donation with details of your home address, your phone number, and your email address to:
Friends of the ANU Classics Museum
Classics Program
School of Language Studies
ANU Canberra 0200
The current (2007) committee of the Friends of the ANU Classics Museum is as follows:
President Ros Jackson
Secretary Jill Greenwell
Treasurer Mineke Peerboom
Committee members:
Jill Downer Felicity Fullagar Olive Thompson Elizabeth Minchin (Curator) Anthea Bundock Jane Hyden
The ANU (Canberra) Friends of the Australian Archeological Institute at Athens
The ANU is one of ten universities which are members of the Institute (the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens: AAIA). Founded in 1981, the Institute aims to promote the study of ancient, mediaeval, and modern Greece in both Greece and Australia. Like the other national institutes located in Athens, the Institute has an office in Athens, as well as a hostel. The AAIA is the focal point for Australian research and excavations in Greece. Visitors to Greece may take advantage of the Institute's office and hostel. They may be assisted by the staff in Athens and may stay at the hostel, a modern apartment situated below the acropolis with a magnificent view of the Parthenon. The Institute's office in Australia is at the University of Sydney.
The Friends groups around the country support the Institute and offer scholarships for students to spend a period of time in Greece either pursuing their research projects or taking part in the Institute's excavations.
In Canberra the Friends each year hold a series of illustrated lectures on archaeology and culture and an end-of-year fund-raising dinner to support their local biennial scholarship. For several years now the lecture series and scholarship have been generously supported by the Hellenic Club of Canberra. Lectures, which are free and open to the public, and the dinner, are usually held there.
Suggested donations to the ANU (Canberra) Friends of the AAIA are currently $30 ($40 for families) and $10 for students and pensioners. A suggested corporate donation is $250.
Donation forms (for contact details) and notices of forthcoming lectures are available in the Classics Museum—and on the Classics webpage (follow the FAAIA link).
Enquiries : classics@anu.edu.au or tel. 6125 5106
Program of Lectures and Events
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Classics Reading Groups
The Classics Program at the ANU supports three reading groups: two Greek groups (one Homer group and one Greek drama group) and a Latin group.
WHAT HAPPENS AT EACH MEETING?
Members of each group come from Classics staff, staff from other areas on the campus, current students, former students, and a substantial number of people from the wider community who are interested in reading the great classical texts in the original languages. At each meeting about 100 lines of text are read in the original, translated, and discussed. Members of the group are allocated short passages, which they will prepare in advance and read and translate at the meeting.
WHEN DO THE GROUPS MEET?
Each group meets once a fortnight for one hour in the Classics Centre, on the ANU campus. The meeting times are as follows:
1. The Homer reading group: alternate Fridays at 12.30
2. The Latin reading group: alternate Fridays at 12.00
3. The Greek drama reading group: alternate Tuesdays (the same week as Homer) at 4.00.
WHAT ARE THE GROUPS READING AT THE MOMENT?
1. The Homer Reading Group is currently reading the Homeric hymn to Demeter .
2. The Latin Reading Group is reading Book 3 of Virgil's Georgics .
3. The Drama Reading Group is reading Aristophanes' Birds .
Would you like to join one of these groups? You would be most welcome! You may wish to come and listen and observe before you play an active role. Or you may wish to plunge right in.
Contact details: for a contact within the Classics Program email Elizabeth.Minchin@anu.edu.au (ph. 6125 5106).
Otherwise, contact Felicity Fullagar for information regarding the Homer and Latin groups: Felicity@alphalink.com.au; and Mineke Peerboom for information regarding the drama group ( Peerboom@grapevine.net.au ).
