MA Reading List and Exams

McGill MA Reading List

Greek

• Homer
  • Iliad 1, 16, 22, 24
  • Odyssey 1, 9, 11, 24
  • Hymn to Demeter and Hymn to Apollo
• Sophocles
  • Antigone and Trachiniae
• Plato
  • Symposium and Phaedrus 

Latin

• Vergil
  • Eclogues: 1, 6
  • Georgics 4
  • Aeneid: 1, 4, 6, 12
• Ovid
  • Amores: 1
  • Ars Amatoria: 1
  • Metamorphoses: 1, 7, 10, 13
• Cicero
  • In Catilinam 1 and 2
  • pro Milone
  • Philippics 2

Note: MA (non-thesis) students who enter the program in the Accelerated Track may, in consultation with the MA program advisor, request to be tested only on Homer and Plato, Vergil and Cicero.

In Translation (texts are to be read in the Loeb, Penguin, and/or Oxford World Classics editions)

1-23 reflect the authors and texts which are to be read for the Greek Literature portion of the test. 24-44 reflect the authors and texts which are to be read for the Roman Literature portion of the test.

1. Aeschylus: Oresteia, Persians
2. Apollonius: Argonautica
3. Aristophanes: Lysistrata, Frogs, Clouds
4. Aristotle: Poetics, Rhetoric, Nicomachean Ethics 1
5. Callimachus: Hymn to Pallas, Hymn to Delos, Aetia
6. Demosthenes: Or. 9 (Third Philippic), On the Crown
7. Euripides: Hippolytus, Medea, Alcestis, Cyclops
8. Herodotus: all
9. Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days
10. Homer: Iliad, Odyssey, Homeric Hymns to Apollo, Demeter, Aphrodite
11. Isocrates: Panegyricus, Antidosis
12. Longus: Daphnis and Chloe
13. Lucian: Vera Historia, De Historia Scribenda
14. Lyric: All
15. Lysias: On the Murder of Eratosthenes
16. Menander: Dyscolus
17. Pindar: Olympian 1, 6, 7, 14; Pythian 1, 2, 4, 6, 8; Nemean 7
18. Plato: Phaedrus, Symposium, Republic,Apology, Phaedo, Republic
19. Plutarch: Life of Alexander and Life of Caesar
20. Sophocles: all
21. Theocritus: all
22. Thucydides: all
23. Xenophon: Hellenica, Anabasis, Apology
24. Apuleius: Metamorphoses
25. Augustine: Confessions
26. Caesar: Bellum Civile and Bellum Gallicum
27. Catullus: all
28. Cicero: Pro Archia; Pro Caelio; Philippic 2,In Catilinam, De Oratore, De Republica.
29. Horace: all Odes, Satires andArs Poetica
30. Juvenal: all
31. Livy: Books 1-5, 21-30
32. Lucan: all
33. Lucretius: all
34. Ovid: Amores 1, Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris, Metamorphoses, Fasti
35. Petronius: all
36. Plautus: Menaechmi, Aulularia, Pseudolus
37. Propertius: all
38. Quintilian: Book 10
39. Sallust: Bellum Catilinae
40. Seneca: Thyestes, Medea, Phaedra.
41. Statius: Thebaid all.
42. Tacitus: Annals all, Histories 1-2
43. Terence: Adelphoe, Heautontimoroumenos, Phormio
44. Virgil: all

General Scholarship

Students will read the relevant portions of the following texts in order to contextualize their readings of the primary sources:

• Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 1, Greek Literature. Edited by P. Easterling and BMW. Knox. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
• Cambridge History of Classical Literature volume 2, Latin Literature. Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
• Dover, K. J., ed. Ancient Greek Literature, 2nd ed, with contributions by M.L. West, J. Griffin, E.L. Bowie. Oxford University Press, 1997.
• Conte, G. B. Latin Literature. A History. Translated by Joseph B. Solodow. Revised by Don Fowler and Glenn W. Most. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.

MA Examinations

Greek and Latin Translation and Literature Exams

The Greek and Latin Exams will each take 3.5 hours to complete. Students will translate multiple passages into clear and precise English. There will be a degree of choice over which passages a student may translate. For the literature portion of the exam students will answer quote identifications and three essays on the primary sources (there will be choice). The answers should be broadly conceived and take into account the relevant information from the secondary readings. It is advisable that students prepare for the exam according to generic developments of Greek and Latin literature, in addition to exhibiting an awareness of cultural and historical contexts of the primary sources. Specific examples from the primary sources should be cited and discussed in the answers. In addition to the essay questions there will be 10 identification passages, chosen from the primary sources. Students will Identify the author, the text and write a short response contextualizing the text and discussing its broader significance in terms of Greek and Latin literary history.

Tests will be given on the second Friday of September, January, and May each academic year. Students will relay to the graduate advisor which test they are planning to take and the advisor will set each test. Each test will be three hours in length and will be taken pass/fail. If a student fails a test, then the student must retake the test within 8 weeks. Under exceptional circumstances students can request another date of examination.​ All tests are double graded​.

Note: MA (non-thesis) students who enter the program in the Accelerated Track may, in consultation with the MA program advisor, request to be tested only on Homer and Plato, Vergil and Cicero. They will be expected to write the Greek and Latin Literature Exam.