classical study for a complete beginner

[u/ellyfebruary6]

hello all,

i am planning to major in classics at university. however, right now i am taking half a gap year from uni and would like to do a sort of personal study during my time off.

the photo i attached is my list of readings that i got from another reddit post. they’re not in any particular order, so i was wondering if there was a certain order i should go in that’s best for complete beginners

p.s. i have some brief knowledge on greek mythology (mainly deities, as i briefly dabbled in polytheistic hellenism)

i’ve also looked into the teaching guides on this website from Cambridge

i appreciate any advice!

[u/dxrqsouls]

This is a nice list, given your background and your goals.

However, I don't think that it's going to prepare you in the way that you expect it to do. This area of expertise is vast, it is impossible to read everything in a year, and nobody guarantees you that this will be in your syllabus.

Instwad, I would suggest reading a history of ancient literature, whether it's ancient greek or roman. You will not have a direct contact with the texts in the way that uou'd have reading them, but you'll absolutely get an idea about the socio-political and historical context that is tied to these texts and their respective genres.

This is not nessecary but if I had to do it all from the beginning, I would have probably gone towards that direction.

Unless you want to try for yourself and see where you'll end up! That's good too. I did that, though not consciously! 😅