Classics Department

Classics Society

• The Classics Society is open to all members of the school and care is taken to vary activities so as to ensure that it caters for all age groups. It meets every Thursday lunch-time, and there are regular excursions.Lunch-time meetings have included talks, both by members of the Department and outside visitors, on topics such as Roman women, the ancient Olympic Games, Mycenae, the island of Thera, the Elgin marbles, gladiatorial games and spectacles in the ancient world. There have also been screenings of a wide range of videos.
• Excursions have included visits to Bignor Roman Villa, the Museum of London, Aquae Sulis (Bath), Corinium (Cirencester), the British Museum, Verulamium (St Albans), Fishbourne Palace, Lullingstone Roman Villa. Trips have also been made to Rome and Pompeii and Greece.
• Newspaper and other articles of interest to Classicists are regularly posted on the Classics Society noticeboard in the department corridor. Details of courses and summer schools can also be found there.

Hampton boys in the Forum Romanum

Classics Society Report 2008-9

The Classics Society has once again had an exciting year, with a broad range of activities put on for all years. 

First and Second Year students have met at Friday lunchtimes to join in activities expanding our appreciation of the ancient world.  Some of the highlights involved investigating the story of the siege of Troy, and making our own mosaics – some based on real Roman mosaics, some original works of art!

First and Second Years also competed in the annual Latin Reading Competition, as boys tried their hands at imitating the Roman spoken word.  Both year group competitions were well attended, and were hotly contested by some hugely confident Latin speakers. 

Second Year athletics became, in the last week of the Summer term, an Ancient Olympics re-enactment, and boys were able to conclude their project work on the ancient games by putting their knowledge into practice.  Boys competed in the long jump and discus events, using Greek techniques, a relay race in which the final member of each team ran in full ‘armour’, and finally in the most important event of all, the ‘stade’ race, which was won by Laurence Dunn of 2L, who was crowned ceremonially with an olive wreath.

In October, boys from all years from the Third to Fifth Years were invited to see the spectacular Hadrian: Empire and Conflict exhibition at the British Museum, which brought together some of the finest extant examples of statuary of the famous Roman Emperor.

Two other societies were put on for interested boys.  The Hellenic Reading Society focused on the Iliad this year, and some Platonic Philosophy discussion groups were held with members of the Lower Sixth Latin class.  Both societies found their dedicated members.

The department has continued to arrange for outside speakers to come in and introduce the boys to new aspects of the Classical World, and Lady Eleanor Holles School was also kind enough to invite our boys to similar events.  Topics have included the Greek religious experience of the common man in the street, Euripides’ Medea, and the nature of Odysseus’ homeland in Homer’s Odyssey, Ithaca.  We were also privileged to have Professor Roland Mayer visit us from King’s College London to judge the annual Page Prize competition, and to speak to our Lower Sixth Latin class about the Roman poet, Propertius.

Finally, we have been able to invite boys from across the school to see a wide range of Greek plays, from tragedies like Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, and Euripides’ Hippolytus to comedies like Aristophanes’ Frogs and Clouds.