Classics
Classics offers a student the opportunity to study an entire culture, one that is complete, magnificent, and fundamentally important in the evolution of our civilization. Those who wish to gain perspective on the shifting kaleidoscope of modern life and cultural artifacts would do well to focus on the classics, to study the cultures of Greece and Rome comprehensively and in satisfying detail, through their languages, literature, history, art, and philosophy. Classics become "classics" because they set the standard at which artists, thinkers, and statesmen still aim, and by which we measure new work that claims a place beside them.
Study of the classical languages enhances a student's ability to master any foreign language, as well as to control her or his own, through an increased vocabulary and deeper understanding of the mechanism of language itself. Moreover, the art, literature, and philosophy of the ancients not only provide us vital models to inform and clarify our critical perspective, but they also continue to excite our thought and our admiration for their freshness of vision and beauty of form.
Courses regularly offered in classics include the Greek and Latin languages at all levels, Greek and Roman literature surveys, Classical Mythology, Greek and Roman Drama, Ancient Epic, The Ancient Novel, Late Antiquity, and Love and Sex in the Ancient World; other special topics will be offered less frequently.
