Portal talk:Classics

I would greatly appreciate feedback one way or the other, critisisms (constructive ones), suggestions or anything else.

Hey, I'm over in the School of Creative Writing and Literature Studies and I think you've done a great job so far! I think you've included some great stuff. I'm not sure what direction you want to go, but the suggestion I have is to orient what you want people to do. Are you just giving a place for stuff to be read or do you want discussions, etc.? If you want to make it class like, I would suggest more structure (courses with questions are excellent). Keep up the good work and please check out what I've done and let me know what you think! Thanks --Atrivedi 18:46, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I agree with Atrivedi - it would be excellent to have some kind of "course outline" for people to follow.

One suggestion for content would be Greek Tragedy - I know that Project Gutenberg has a some texts available.

Abmyers 12:01, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Beginning
Greetings - acting director Basejumper123 has vanished, so I am taking over in his place in a similar capacity. Ninquelosse 17:23, 12 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Hello, to all whom it may concern, i have begun work on the cources for the Wikiversity School of classics. I have listed myself as "acting director" of the school until such a time as a I am granted the position as director by the community or another leader is appointed. I have started with basic cources focusing on the intricacies of the early Greek poets, and I plan to move the school into the suceeding eras of classical literature in due course. Any questions regarding the school or my work within it may be directed to my talk page, which i update regularly Thank You. Basejumper123 19:47, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

What do you mean by Classics?

 * 1. Languages (Greek, Latin, Chaucer)
 * 2. Stories/ Poetry
 * 3. Artwork (of the ancients)
 * 4. All 3 mentioned, or more than this

Wikisquared 12:51, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

What is Classics?
Points of reference: Sample Classics courses:
 * Classics
 * Western canon
 * Literae Humaniores (Oxford)
 * Adelaide Uni?

My conclusion is, just because it's classical, doesn't mean it's part of the Classics. It's not obvious from the Wikipedia page, but as an owner of Great Books of the Western World, that series (which is supposed to be a complete "Liberal Arts" degree in the 1920s, so basically a Classics degree) is divided up as follows:
 * One volume, "The Great Conversation", as an introduction
 * Two volumes of ideas (the Syntopicon, IIRC) -- this is like the "Classical Ideas" section of the Classics Directory
 * 58 other volumes, divided between (again IIRC):
 * Philosophy and Religion
 * Social Science
 * Science
 * Literature

So there you have your Classics. Now, to narrow it down further, both the sample classics courses listed above (but not the Great Books) limit themselves to the ancient era. Whichever example you're following, though, you probably want to move the Architecture stuff out to a glossary or something -- it doesn't seem to be a big component of the degrees listed above.

Based on looking at the course outlines elsewhere, I'd say what you want is something like the following subjects: Ancient History I & II (just refer people to the History dept. for these) Ancient Languages: Greek and Latin (there doesn't seem to be a languages department, so you'll have to develop these)

I was hoping when I started writing this comment that Classics was going to be a Great Books-style thing, but obviously not.

TimNelson 14:03, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

European History
Just a head's up: there is now a department of European History in the School of History. This school should cooperate with them for the greater good, and to avoid redundancy of effort. Also, please inform someone in the Department of European History any time a History-related Classics course is offered; it will then be listed on the History page as well as here. Thanks! Jade Knight 20:37, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

New courses
I think this should have the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid. I don't know a lot about these, so I can't teach 'em, but it's a good idea.

I know a fair amount about Chaucer's Cantebury Tales, but I don't know if that's in the public domain.

Is it? Verin Sedai 00:00, 9 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes, at least in the Middle English. Translations may or may not be (depending on when they were published).  You may be more interested in the School of Language and Literature.  If you know a fair deal about Middle English, we could come up with a course on that at Topic:English Language.  The Jade Knight 00:51, 4 March 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree, however these should be created under the relevant departments - Illiad in Greeek, Aeneid under Latin. Cantebury Tales does not really fall under the remit of Classics, which concerns the ancient world - Chaucer is, like Jade Knight says, English. Ninquelosse 17:23, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Re: Latin language texts I just completed my second semester of introductory Latin so I am certainly not an authority on the language. The circumstances of my study, however, may have served to prepare me to contribute to this page. My professor's unpublished "textbook" was little more than a set of handouts and exercises in an OfficeMax binding, and unfortunately it was pure drek. (I truly think the old fellow could not grasp the idea that anyone might not possess a complete understanding of the language as a matter of intuition.) This sent me to the web in a search of alternatives. In the process I collected quite a resource list (and developed an understanding of what goes wrong in Latin language education that dwarfs my understanding of Latin itself.)

More important than resources, however, is that I want to ask the community about the goal of this page:
 * 1) is it to write afresh our own textbook?
 * or, to cobble one together from resources already extant?
 * 1) And finally, what is the ethos regarding integration with sister projects?

This last question, perhaps a Meta-Wiki issue, is particularly relevant since there are already Latin texts and resources within the Wikiverse:

By no means a comprehensive list, I’m sure :

Wikibooks Latin Text - [] "...an elementary Latin course accompanied by a detailed grammar based upon Kennedy's Public School Latin Grammar..." . I don’t think this project has achieved the level of quality and utility found, for example, in the public domain text Latin for Beginners (D’ooge 1909), but it uses an interesting approach. Should Wikiversity link to (and join in) this project?

The page also links to another Wikibook, Spoken Latin  and provides some good information in its:

External links

The Wikipedia Latin page [] - a great overview page. Contains links to Latin textbooks (among its enormous pile of links) _______

I don't know what direction to take. Feedback? --Matthew1958 00:43, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Eurocentrism
Currently, this section is very eurocentric. It should accomodate space for other cultures, and for that purpose, the name might be changed. I suggest "Ancient cultures". There should be space for ancient cultures from all arround the world (Aboriginal Australian, Sanskrit, Chinese, Ethiopian etc. etc.). Wikiversity is a place for people from every part of the world!Nannus 22:09, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Alternatively, The School of classics could be moved down a level. It should not be directly under the Humanities portal. 84.143.93.10 06:36, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I have started including non-european cultures. I have also included oral literature. To single out European classics as something special and give them a special school directly under "Humanities" wihle leaving out all other cultures is no longer up to date. A name change of the school should also be considered.Nannus 23:31, 5 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Even though this isn't part of what the traditional "classics" studies, I love this idea. Wikiversity should be more mature than 19th century European tourists, and sufficiently ancient "classics" of other eras should have a place here :) Ninquelosse 17:23, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Consolation of Schools
May I suggest in the Written Literature - European department, as things are currently limited to Greek, Latin, and Icelandic, to incorporate Icelandic into a greater Germanic heading, covering everything from the East/West/North Germanic traditions--or go further, calling it "North European" to add Slavic and Finno-Ugric material. Perhaps also turn Middle East/Africa to Middle East/North Africa (and add Persian classics). Who knows--maybe a shuffling into "Northern Europe", "Mediterranean/Levant", "India", and "East Asia" -anon 1:03pm 4/20/07

Why Is Marx in the classics?
Come on, people. If it happens after the 1500, it's not classical. -anon 1:03pm 4/20/07