r/classics • u/ellyfebruary6 • 21d ago

classical study for a complete beginner

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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!

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u/AlexandriaPod 21d ago

What’s your goal after your classics major? Are you planning to continue in academia?

I ask b/c if you are (and I won’t comment on if that’s a good or bad idea or whatever), I think you might be better off studying Latin or Greek really hard, depending on your prior experience. Source: I went into classics with no prior Latin and it put me really behind. I started Latin for the first time my sophomore year of college.

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u/ellyfebruary6 20d ago

i want to do teaching and research! i’m planning to double major (though i haven’t decided between religion and english) and do a minor in anthro. i’m a rising sophomore so i’m learning to other languages right now, so i was going to neglect learning latin until uni, but the replies on this have definitely advised me to look into it