Unit rationale, description and aim

In this unit, students will engage with a range of texts from Classical antiquity that each hold a foundational status in the western literary canon, including works by Homer, Sophocles, Virgil and Ovid. They will consider each work in its distinctive political and intellectual context. Students will become familiar with a selection of the strongly delineated literary genres, from epic to lyric poetry, that were newly developed in antiquity, and that have imparted shape and meaning to western literary production. They will gain a knowledge of core elements in Classical mythology, and they will consider, across a variety of texts, universal concerns such as: the nature of and limits to human agency, human achievement and human rationality; the roles and responsibilities held by the individual in relation to the state and in the family; and the nature and complications of the heroic ideal. The aim of the unit is to develop a critical appreciation of the nature of the Classical legacy and the complexities of our long engagement with the texts of the Greek and Roman world.  

2026 10

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  • Term Mode
  • Semester 2Campus Attendance

Prerequisites

Nil

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Identify key aspects of works from Classical antiq...

Learning Outcome 01

Identify key aspects of works from Classical antiquity
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC3, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11, GC12

Discuss literary, social, historical, philosophica...

Learning Outcome 02

Discuss literary, social, historical, philosophical, political, aesthetic and ethical ideas and movements in texts drawn from Classical antiquity
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC3, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11, GC12

Evaluate and synthesise knowledge from diverse sou...

Learning Outcome 03

Evaluate and synthesise knowledge from diverse sources and communicate ideas and findings to a range of audiences
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC3, GC8, GC9, GC11, GC12

Locate, use and appropriately reference a variety ...

Learning Outcome 04

Locate, use and appropriately reference a variety of secondary scholarly sources relevant to developing a coherent argument about the literature of Greece and Rome
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC3, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11, GC12

Analyse key aspects of the legacy of Classical lit...

Learning Outcome 05

Analyse key aspects of the legacy of Classical literature
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC3, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11, GC12

Content

Topics may include: 

  • The complex legacy of the Classical literary tradition in western life and culture 
  • Literary, social, historical, philosophical, political, aesthetic and ethical ideas and movements in texts drawn from Classical antiquity 
  • The distinctive features of the Classical literary culture, including the importance of genre, and the role of ‘imitation’ and ‘competition’ (imitatio and aemulatio) 
  • The ‘translation’ of the Greek literary heritage to Rome 
  • Key thematic concerns such as the nature of and limits to human agency, human achievement and human rationality; the roles and responsibilities held by the individual in relation to the state and in the family; and the nature and complications of the heroic ideal 
  • The nature and content of Greek and Roman mythology


Key authors, texts, and genres will include a selection of the following:

  • Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey
  • Aeschylus (e.g. Prometheus Bound; Philoctetes)
  • Sophocles(e.g. Oedipus Rex, Antigone)
  • Euripides (e.g.Medea; Bacchae)
  • Aristophanes (e.g.Clouds, The Frogs)
  • Aristotle, Poetics
  • Plautus (e.g. Menaechmi)
  • Terence (e.g. Adelphi)
  • Lucretius, De rerum natura
  • Virgil, Aeneid
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses
  • Selections from Greek and Roman lyric and elegiac poetry (e.g. Sappho, Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, Horace, Ovid)
  • Pastoral (e.g Theocritus’ Idylls; Virgil’s Eclogues)
  • Roman Satire (e.g. Martial and/or Juvenal)

Assessment strategy and rationale

Assessment tasks are designed to build knowledge and skills relevant to the learning outcomes. The first task develops students’ skills in textual analysis of ancient texts, while also incorporating their developing knowledge of the political, intellectual, and literary contexts in which the texts were written.

The major research essay promotes students' understanding of the unit content by focusing on one or more Greek or Roman Classical texts and developing a researched argument in relation to those texts and the wider themes of the unit.

The final summative assessment task gives students the opportunity to demonstrate that they can synthesise and apply the knowledge and skills they have gained throughout the unit.

The assessment tasks for this unit have been designed to contribute to high-quality student learning by both helping students learn (assessment for learning) and by measuring explicit evidence of their learning (assessment of learning). Assessments have been developed to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with the University's assessment requirements. These have been designed so that they use a variety of tasks to measure the different learning outcomes at a level suitable for first-year studies in this subject area.

Overview of assessments

Assessment 1: Close reading task   This task...

Assessment 1: Close reading task 

This task tests students’ ability to locate works from the Classical period within their cultural contexts and produce analyses that take this context as well as the specific genre or style into account.

Weighting

20%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11, GC12

Assessment 2: Research Essay   This essay re...

Assessment 2: Research Essay 

This essay requires students to interpret one or more literary works from the Classical period with reference to some of the wider concerns of the unit.

Weighting

40%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11, GC12

Assessment 3: Summative Task/Exam   This ass...

Assessment 3: Summative Task/Exam 

This assessment requires students to demonstrate detailed knowledge and synthetic understanding of the key texts, genres, themes, and concerns of the unit.

Weighting

40%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO5
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11, GC12

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit will be taught to students in a small group setting, in which the texts and thematic concerns of the unit can be discussed and debated in a supportive and inclusive manner. The small group setting will facilitate the use of the ‘Socratic’ method, in which analytical discussion and dialogue is stimulated through the use of an engaging question and answer format to consider texts and ideas from the Classical period. 

This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit. The learning and teaching and assessment strategies include a range of approaches to support students’ learning such as reading, reflection, discussion, webinars, podcasts, video etc.

Representative texts and references

Representative texts and references

Boys-Stones, George, Barbara Graziosi, and Phiroze Vasunia, eds, The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) 

Howatson, M. C., ed., The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) 

Conte, G. The Poetry of Pathos: Studies in Virgilian Epic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. 

Dobrov, G., ed. Brill's Companion to the Study of Greek Comedy. Leiden: Bril, 2010. 

Foley, J. M., ed., A Companion to Ancient Epic. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005). 

Gregory, Justina., ed., A Companion to Greek Tragedy. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005). 

Griffin, Jasper,. Homer on Life and Death .( Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980). 

Hall, Edith,. Greek Tragedy: Suffering under the Sun . (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). 

Hardie, Philip., ed.,  The Cambridge Companion to Ovid (. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). 

Hornblower, Simon, Antony Spawforth, and Esther Eidinow, eds, The Oxford Classical Dictionary The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012). 

Jenkyns, Richard, ed., The Legacy of Rome: A New Appraisal (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992) 

Zeiltin, Froma. (1995). Playing the Other: Gender and Society in Classical Greek Literature. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). 

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