Hope College | Department of Modern and Classical Languages

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WHAT IS CLASSICS?

No, it's not the study of vintage cars or 1960s rock 'n roll or even Shakespeare & Jane Austen.

Classics is the study of the ancient civilizations situated along the Mediterranean Sea, with special emphasis on Greece and Rome.

It's an interdisciplinary approach: we classicists want to know as much as we can about the ancient Greeks and Romans, and so we try to understand their language, literature, history, philosophy, religion, social habits, artwork, etc.

This wide range of material makes Classics the original Liberal Arts Education. And, in fact, Classics was the foundation on which Hope College was built: Latin and Greek were required courses in every year of the life of the first Hope students. That's a lot more than we ask even of our majors today!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Does Classics require knowledge of Greek or Latin?

Not if you just want to take a f ew courses like Mythology

or Women in Antiquity. But, yes, all of our majors & minors take at least one year of one of the ancient languages. Since language study is the one discipline that links all classicists together, we sometimes borrow for ourselves the label philologist. This is actually Greek for "lover of language," and professors of languages like Spanish rightly get mad at us when we use it informally as another word for classicist. But we don't let Spanish professors stop us.

Why the focus on the Greeks and Romans?

Part of the answer is that these are the two ancient civilizations which have most heavily influenced modern American culture. Our alphabet comes from Rome via Greece. Latin & Greek together have given English something like 70% of its words -- especially the vocabulary of technology and science. Our government is a democratic republic, with democracy coming to us from ancient Athens, and the idea of a republic from the political system which the Founding Fathers believed was the greatest accomplishment of the Romans.

Another part of the answer is that it's hard enough to learn everything about two countries: where's the time to learn about more? But, in fact, other ancient civilizations also receive attention from classicists, especially because places like Egypt & the Holy Land were ruled by Greeks for hundreds of years, and by Romans after that for even more hundreds of years. How the rulers and ruled learned from each other is one of the most interesting features of Classics. Classics truly is the first "multicultural" discipline!

Are any other ancient languages taught at Hope College?

Only occasionally. You should never count on getting a chance to take these other languages, but, yes, sometimes Professor Quinn teaches Coptic (Egyptian), and, from the Religion Department, Professor Bandstra may teach Hebrew and Professor Wilson, Sanskrit.

Will I have a job if I graduate with a Classics major or minor?

If you apply for one. Only a few of our students go on to become Classics teachers. Instead, most see Classics as the most prestigious of all the Liberal Arts -- and are confident that employers & graduate schools will realize that they are smart, articulate, and well-rounded individuals capable of tackling anything.