PhD Reading Lists and Exam Format

Classics MA Requirements | Classics PhD Requirements | Classics Advising and Reviews | Appeals Procedures

The Common Lists

Effective as of Spring 2008

1. Greek

Homer: Iliad 1, 6, 9, 16-24; Odyssey 6-13, 16-17, 19, 23
Homeric Hymns: To Demeter, To Aphrodite
Hesiod: Theogony 1-210, 453-616; Works and Days 1-380
Pindar: Olympian 1, 7; Pythian 1, 10, 11; Nemean 5; Isthmian 6
Archaic Lyric: As in Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry (Revised ed., 2002, including appendix)
Aeschylus: Oresteia
Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus, Antigone, Philoctetes
Euripides: Medea, Hippolytus, Bacchae
Aristophanes: Clouds, Lysistrata, Frogs
Herodotus: 1, 3.27-66, 3.76-138, 7
Thucydides: 1, 2.1-24, 2.34-65, 3.36-68, 3.81-85, 5.84-116, 6.15-19, 6.26-32, 7.46-50, 7.69-87, 8.1-2, 8.64-77, 8.81-82, 8.86-97
Lysias: Against Eratosthenes, On the Murder of Eratosthenes
Plato: Gorgias, Symposium, Republic 5
Isocrates: Helen, Panegyricus
Xenophon: Hiero, Spartan Constitution, Hellenica 2
Demosthenes: De Corona
Ps.-Demosthenes [=Apollodorus]: Against Neaera
Aeschines: Against Ctesiphon
Aristotle: Ethica Nicomachea 1.1-5, 1.7-13, 2, 3. 1-5, Rhetoric 1, Poetics
Menander: Dyscolus
Apollonius Rhodius: Book 3
Callimachus: Hymns 2, 5, 6; Aetia fr. 1-2, Iambus 1
Theocritus: 1-3, 7, 11, 13, 15
Hero(n)das: 1, 6
Polybius: 6
Plutarch: Moralia 1-17 (On the Education of Children), Life of Theseus, Life of Antony
New Testament: Gospel according to John, First Epistle to the Corinthians, Epistle to the Hebrews
Lucian: The Death of Peregrinus, True History
Longus: Daphnis and Chloe 1
Epigrams: As in Hopkinson, A Hellenistic Anthology (1988), pp.68-79
Heliodorus: 1
Musaeus, Hero and Leander

2. Latin

Ennius: Annales
Plautus: Miles, Menaechmi
Terence: Eunuchus
Lucretius: 1.1-482, 1.921-950; 2.1-380; 3; 4.1037-1287; 5.783-1457; 6.1138-1286
Catullus: Carmina
Caesar: De bello civili 1
Sallust: Catilina
Cicero: Pro Caelio, Philippics 2, Brutus, Selected Letters (Shackleton Bailey), De officiis 3
Vergil: Eclogues; Georgics 1; 2.1-176, 2.458-542; 3.1-48; 4; Aeneid 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12.791-952
Horace: Odes, Satires 1, Satires 2.6-8, Epistles 1
Tibullus: 1
Propertius: 1, 3.1-5, 4
Augustus: Res Gestae
Ovid: Amores 1, Metamorphoses 1, 6, 13.623-14.157, 15.745-879, Tristia 1
Livy: 1, 5, 21, 22
Seneca Major: Contr. 2.2, Suas. 6
Seneca Junior: Thyestes, De Ira 1, Epist. Mor. 1-12, 77, 88
Lucan: 7
Petronius: 26.7-78
Statius: Thebaid 1, Silvae 2.2, 2.7, 4.3
Martial: Epigrams 1
Quintilian: Institutio Oratoria10.1
Pliny Junior: As in Sherwin-WhiteFifty Letters
Tacitus: Annals 1, 4; Histories 1, Dialogus
Juvenal: 1, 3, 10
Suetonius: Augustus
Apuleius: Met. 1.1-20 and 4.28-6.24
Gellius: Noctes Atticae 3.1-6
Claudian: De raptu Proserpinae, Praef. and Book 1
Jerome: Letter 14
Augustine: Confessions 1

Format of Examinations

Go to Common List

The M.A. translation examinations will have the following format: two passages of verse, each of 20-25 lines, and two passages of prose, an average of 180 words each in length.

The Ph. D. translation examinations will have the following format:

1) Unseens: two passages, one each of prose and verse. The prose passage will be approximately 270-300 words in length; the verse passage will be 30-35 lines in length.

2) Prescribed texts: six passages (or their equivalent), evenly divided between prose and verse. Verse passages will be approximately 20 lines in length, and prose passages will have an average of about 180 words each. These passages will be drawn from the Common List.

The Greek and Latin Prose Composition Exams (for which most students substitute course work) will use English passages of 275-325 words.

Classics MA Requirements | Classics PhD Requirements | Classics Advising and Reviews | Appeals Procedures