VCE Classical Studies

Classical Works Lists 2010-2011

The newly accredited Classical Studies will commence in 2010 and the study design is available on the VCAA website at: www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/futuresd.html

Classical works for study in Units 3 and 4 from 2010 have been chosen according to the following guidelines:

  • List 1 will consist of individual works and List 2 will consist of pairs of works
  • the Lists will remain current for two years
  • the Lists will be reviewed every two years on the basis of retaining at least 50% of the prescribed works.

List 1 applies to Area of Study 1 in Units 3 and 4

It comprises:

  • eight individual classical works: four Greek works and four Roman works
  • works from a range of forms.

Teachers must select two works from List 1, one to be studied in Unit 3 Area of Study 1 and one to be studied in Unit 4 Area of Study 1.

List 2 applies to Area of Study 2 in Units 3 and 4

It comprises:

  • seven pairs of classical works: three pairs of Greek works, three pairs of Roman works and one Greek/Roman pair
  • works able to be compared in terms of ideas and techniques.

Teachers must select two pairs of works from List 2, one pair to be studied in Unit 3 Area of Study 2 and one pair to be studied in Unit 4 Area of Study 2.

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List 1: Individual works

Greece: Individual Works

Homer, Iliad Book 6
Translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1998

Sophocles, Oedipus the King from The Three Theban Plays
Translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1984*
*Teachers should be aware that there is a similarly named translation of these plays by E F Watling. Please take care to ensure you are using the translation by Robert Fagles.

Plato, The Apology from The Last Days of Socrates
Translated by Hugo Tredennick and revised by Harold Tarrant, Penguin Classics, 2003

The Parthenon: the building, the Panathenaic frieze, and the southern metopes (Centauromarchy)
From Gisela Richter, A Handbook of Greek Art, Phaidon, 1994
Additional illustrations in John Griffiths Pedley, Greek Art and Archaeology, Prentice Hall, 2007

Rome: Individual Works

Virgil, The Aeneid Book 6
Translated by David West, Penguin Classics, Revised Edition, 2003

Cicero, In Defence of Marcus Caelius Rufus from Selected Political Speeches
Translated by Michael Grant, Penguin Classics Revised Edition, 1973

Sallust, Catiline’s War from Catiline’s War, The Jugurthine War, Histories
Translated by A J Woodman, Penguin Classics, 2007

Mosaics

The Battle of Issus, Theatre players, Death and the wheel of necessity, Marine fauna, Street musicians (all in Naples museum), Small hunt, Ladies in bikinis, Odysseus and Polyphemus (all from Piazza Armerina), Nilotic scene from Praeneste, Theatre masks from the Capitoline Museum, Neptune from Ostia, The Academy of Plato from Naples Museum.

The Mosaics will be available on the Classical Studies page on the VCAA website:
www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/classical/classicalindex.html

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List 2: Paired works

Greece: Pairs

Herodotus, The Histories
Translated by Aubrey de Selincourt and Revised by John Marincola, Penguin Classics, 2003
p. 340; pp. 394–402; pp. 413–431; pp. 448–450; pp. 487–500; pp. 537–540; pp. 548–553
AND
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Translated by Rex Warner, Penguin Classics, 1963
pp. 414–429; pp. 516–537

Aeschylus, Agamemnon from The Oresteia
Translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1977
AND
Euripides, Medea from Medea and Other Plays
Translated by Philip Vellacott, Penguin Classics, 1963

Homer, The Odyssey Book 11
Translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1998
AND
Aristophanes, Frogs from The Frogs and Other Plays
Translated by Shomit Dutta, Penguin Classics, 2007

Rome: Pairs

Cicero, First Phillippic from Selected Political Speeches
Translated by Michael Grant, Penguin Classics, 1973
AND
Plutarch, Mark Antony from The Makers of Rome
Translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert, Penguin Classics, 1975

Livy, The Rise of Rome
Translated by T J Luce, Oxford World’s Classics, 1998
pp. 54–87
AND
Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome
Translated by Michael Grant, Penguin Classics, 1996
pp. 31–34; pp. 245–251; pp. 336–344

Trajan’s Column
AND
Ara Pacis
Ramage and Ramage, Roman Art: Romulus to Constantine, Laurence King Publishing, 1995
AND
the reprinting in 1996 Prentice Hall edition

Greek and Roman Pair

Homer, Iliad Book 22
Translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1998
AND
Virgil, The Aeneid Book 12
Translated by David West, Penguin Classics, Revised Edition, 2003

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