Classics Honours (B.A.) (54 credits)
Offered by: History and Classical Studies (Faculty of Arts)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts
Program credit weight: 54
Program Description
The Honours Classics program is designed for students who plan to pursue graduate studies in Classics or related discipline. The program is highly interdisciplinary. It emphasizes the study of ancient Greek and Latin, requiring proficiency in both languages and advanced coursework in at least one, combined with a strong foundation in ancient history, literature and material cultural studies. Honours students are encouraged to begin coursework in both Greek and Latin as soon as possible, and to meet with the classics program adviser to map out their courses and program.
According to Faculty regulations, Honours students must maintain a minimum CGPA of 3.00 and maintain a minimum program GPA of 3.00.
Degree Requirements — B.A. students
To be eligible for a B.A. degree, a student must fulfil all Faculty and program requirements as indicated in Degree Requirements for the Faculty of Arts.
We recommend that students consult an Arts OASIS advisor for degree planning.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Courses (24 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CLAS 201 | Greece and Rome. | 3 |
Greece and Rome. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to ancient Greek and Roman civilization, focusing on key themes, problems, and methods of the discipline of classical studies. | ||
| CLAS 301 | Ancient Greek Literature and Society. | 3 |
Ancient Greek Literature and Society. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Survey of ancient Greek literature in translation, covering the key genres and texts in their social and historical contexts. The material to be discussed includes Archaic epic, lyric, and elegy; Classical tragedy, comedy, and historiography; Hellenistic poetry, and literature of the Roman Imperial period. | ||
| CLAS 302 | Roman Literature and Society. | 3 |
Roman Literature and Society. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An exploration of Roman texts written during the Republican and Imperial periods (200 BCE-400 CE) and the study of social contexts in which they were written. | ||
| CLAS 310 | Intermediate Latin 1. | 3 |
Intermediate Latin 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Review of Latin grammar, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary while introducing students to techniques and strategies for reading Latin poetry and prose. | ||
| CLAS 312 | Intermediate Latin 2. | 3 |
Intermediate Latin 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Continued mastery of the language, with emphasis on translation of Latin texts. | ||
| CLAS 320 | Intermediate Ancient Greek 1. | 3 |
Intermediate Ancient Greek 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Review of grammar, vocabulary, and syntax of Ancient Greek through translation of selected ancient texts. | ||
| CLAS 322 | Intermediate Ancient Greek 2. | 3 |
Intermediate Ancient Greek 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Continued mastery of the language, with emphasis on translation of ancient Greek texts. | ||
| CLAS 500 | Classics Seminar. | 3 |
Classics Seminar. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Seminar on a topic in ancient Greek or Roman literature and society. Topic varies by year. | ||
Complementary Courses (30 credits)
30 credits classics (CLAS) or related courses according to the following stipulations:
Minimum 6 credits advanced ancient Greek and/or Latin.
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CLAS 410 | Advanced Latin: Authors. | 3 |
Advanced Latin: Authors. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Translation and discussion of selections from ancient Latin literature written by a single author or several authors closely linked by genre or historical period. Emphasis on developing reading proficiency. Texts change from year to year. Course may be taken more than once. | ||
| CLAS 412 | Advanced Latin: Themes. | 3 |
Advanced Latin: Themes. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examination of a theme or problem in Roman literature, culture or history through the translation and discussion of ancient Latin texts. Emphasis on close reading and analysis of ancient Latin. Texts change from year to year. Course may be taken more than once. | ||
| CLAS 419 | Advanced Latin: Post-Classical. | 3 |
Advanced Latin: Post-Classical. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Translation and examination of Latin text(s) from the Late Antique, Medieval or Renaissance period. | ||
| CLAS 420 | Advanced Ancient Greek: Authors. | 3 |
Advanced Ancient Greek: Authors. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Translation and discussion of selections from ancient Greek literature written by a single author or several authors closely linked by genre or historical period. Emphasis on developing reading proficiency. Texts change from year to year. Course may be taken more than once. | ||
| CLAS 422 | Advanced Ancient Greek: Themes. | 3 |
Advanced Ancient Greek: Themes. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examination of a theme or problem in ancient Greek literature, culture or history through the translation and discussion of ancient Greek texts. Emphasis on close reading and analysis of ancient Greek. Texts change from year to year. Course may be taken more than once. | ||
| CLAS 429 | Medieval Greek. | 3 |
Medieval Greek. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Readings by Greek authors writing during the Late Imperial through Byzantine periods | ||
Minimum 3 credits advanced classical literature courses:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CLAS 400 | Ancient Drama and Theatre. | 3 |
Ancient Drama and Theatre. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A synchronic study of ancient Drama from Greece to Rome with a focus on historical and performance context in addition to literary interpretation. | ||
| CLAS 401 | Ancient Comedy. | 3 |
Ancient Comedy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of ancient Greek and Roman comedy, including authors such as Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, and Terence. Issues connected to performance, textual interpretation and the social role of comedy will be explored. | ||
| CLAS 402 | Hellenistic Literature and Society. | 3 |
Hellenistic Literature and Society. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The cultural legacy of Hellenistic Alexandria, with focus on scientific, mathematical, literary, philological, philosophical, and religious developments and innovations. | ||
| CLAS 403 | The Greek and Roman Novel. | 3 |
The Greek and Roman Novel. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of the ancient novel, including Petronius, The Satyricon, Apuleius, The Golden Ass and Longus, Daphnis and Chloe. Issues connected to the novel's development and generic formations, its social and historical contexts, and influence will be discussed. | ||
| CLAS 405 | The Epic Tradition. | 3 |
The Epic Tradition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course covers major epics of the Mediterranean world such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Apollonius' Argonautica, Vergil's Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Lucan's Bellum Civile, and Statius' Thebaid. Issues connected to social and cultural context, performance, literary theory, and interpretation will be discussed. | ||
| CLAS 406 | Greek and Roman Historiography. | 3 |
Greek and Roman Historiography. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Seminar on the works of the Greek and Roman historians (in translation) who founded a new literary genre for the exploration of past and present events; interpretation of their approaches towards history and theories for their study. | ||
| CLAS 407 | Ancient Lyric and Elegy. | 3 |
Ancient Lyric and Elegy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course examines the Lyric and Elegiac genres from Greece (700 BCE) to Imperial Rome (100 CE). Authors such as Archilochus, Sappho, Alcaeus, Callimachus, Catullus, Propertius and Ovid will be situated in their social and historical contexts as the class addresses issues of poetics, politics, sexuality, and culture. | ||
| CLAS 408 | Greek and Roman Oratory. | 3 |
Greek and Roman Oratory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Greek and Roman Oratory situates the works of authors such as Plato, Demosthenes, Aeschines, Cicero and Tacitus in their social and historical contexts, in addition to examining ancient oratorical theory, education, political science, and culture. | ||
| CLAS 409 | Ancient Didactic Poetry. | 3 |
Ancient Didactic Poetry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Ancient Didactic Poetry examines the works of authors such as Hesiod, Empedocles, Aratus, Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid and Manilius. The works are set in their original historical and social contexts while issues related to intellectual history, ancient cosmology, poetry and culture are considered. | ||
| CLAS 461 | Greco-Roman Religious Literature. | 3 |
Greco-Roman Religious Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examination of works of Greek and Roman literature that either deal extensively with theology and religion as themes or were implicated directly in religious practice. Authors or texts such as Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, Plato, the Derveni Papyrus, Varro, Cicero, Philo and Augustine will be considered. | ||
Minimum 3 credits courses in ancient history or classical civilization:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CLAS 303 | Ancient Greek Religion. | 3 |
Ancient Greek Religion. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Focus on the history of Greek religion in the Classical Period. Particular attention will be paid to the Greek concept of divinity, local pantheons, civic festival calendars, the topography of myth and ritual, ideas concerning the afterlife, mystery cults, oracles and games and the literary representations of religion. | ||
| CLAS 304 | Ancient Greek Democracy. | 3 |
Ancient Greek Democracy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examines the conceptual history of popular government in the context of Greek political culture, from the 6th century BCE to the Roman conquest of Greece. | ||
| CLAS 305 | Roman Religion. | 3 |
Roman Religion. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Approaches to and problems of Roman religion. The formation of religious topography, problems of religion and empire, the religious interaction between Rome and other Mediterranean peoples, the complex discourse between religion and philosophy, the reformulation of Roman religion during the imperial period, and the rise of Christianity within a pagan Roman world. | ||
| CLAS 306 | Classics in Modern Media. | 3 |
Classics in Modern Media. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Receptions of the classical paradigm of Ancient Greece and Rome in modern media, the classical tradition, and current scholarship. | ||
| CLAS 308 | Gender in the Ancient World. | 3 |
Gender in the Ancient World. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An exploration of gender roles in the Ancient Mediterranean world. | ||
| CLAS 404 | Classical Tradition. | 3 |
Classical Tradition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examines the evolution of Classical Antiquity's social and cultural status from the 17th c. to the present day. Particular consideration is given to the processes of the ongoing professionalization of history and archeology as academic disciplines, the emergence of new political usages of the past, the transformation of cultural practices from the Grand Tour to the modern museum and tourism. | ||
| HIST 205 | Ancient Mediterranean History. | 3 |
Ancient Mediterranean History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the history of the ancient Mediterranean world, focusing on Greek and Roman civilization. | ||
| HIST 275 | Ancient Roman History. | 3 |
Ancient Roman History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of Roman history from the foundation of Rome to the fall of the Roman Empire. | ||
| HIST 368 | Greek History: Classical Period. | 3 |
Greek History: Classical Period. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The Classical period of Greek history, from the end of the Persian wars to the death of Alexandra the Great (479-323 BC). | ||
| HIST 369 | Greek History: Early Greece. | 3 |
Greek History: Early Greece. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Historical study of the period from the Mycenean Age to the end of the Archaic Age. | ||
| HIST 375 | Rome: Republic to Empire. | 3 |
Rome: Republic to Empire. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Roman history from the Gracchi to the death of the emperor Nero, 133 BCE to 68 CE. The collapse of the Roman republic, the reorganization of the Roman state under Augustus, and the Roman empire and society under the early emperors. | ||
| HIST 376 | Fall of the Roman Empire. | 3 |
Fall of the Roman Empire. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Transformation of the Roman world, 1st-7th CE. Considers various perspectives and narratives of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire based on historical and material evidence. | ||
| HIST 391 | Rise of Rome. | 3 |
Rise of Rome. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Rome's rise from city-state to world power, 338 - 133 BCE, the nature Roman conquest, and the impact of empire on Roman society. | ||
| HIST 400 | Ancient Greece, Rome and China. | 3 |
Ancient Greece, Rome and China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A comparative analysis of the political cultures of ancient Greece, Rome and China, c. 500 BCE to 500 CE, exploring societal distinctions through topics such as the role of historical traditions, power configurations, public oratory, elite representation, funerary rites and political spaces. | ||
| HIST 407 | Topics in Ancient History. | 3 |
Topics in Ancient History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An in-depth look at various topics in ancient history. | ||
| HIST 450 | Ancient History Methods. | 3 |
Ancient History Methods. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Different methods and strategies employed by Ancient historians, including numismatics, epigraphy, and papyrology. | ||
| HIST 469 | Alexander and Hellenistic World. | 3 |
Alexander and Hellenistic World. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The history and culture of the Hellenistic period, from the Age of Alexander to the rise of the successor kingdoms and their interactions with Rome; discusses the development of a new sense of globality and its impact on the local horizon of cities across the Mediterranean and beyond. | ||
| HIST 475 | Topics: Roman History. | 3 |
Topics: Roman History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. In-depth examination of a selected topic, theme, or period of ancient Roman history. | ||
| PHIL 345 | Greek Political Theory. | 3 |
Greek Political Theory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of the ethical and political theories of ancient Greece, especially those of Plato and Aristotle. | ||
| PHIL 350 | History and Philosophy of Ancient Science. | 3 |
History and Philosophy of Ancient Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Topics in ancient pure mathematics (geometry and number theory), "mixed mathematics" (astronomy, music theory, optics, mechanics), and/or natural science (including medicine), studied with a view to philosophical issues raised by the content of ancient science and/or by the logic of scientific argument. | ||
| PHIL 353 | The Presocratic Philosophers. | 3 |
The Presocratic Philosophers. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of the surviving fragments of the presocratic philosophers and schools of philosophy, as well as later reports of their views. | ||
| PHIL 354 | Plato. | 3 |
Plato. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of some of the philosophical problems (those in logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics, e.g.) found in a selection of Plato's dialogues. | ||
| PHIL 355 | Aristotle. | 3 |
Aristotle. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of selected works by Aristotle. The course considers issues in moral philosophy as well as those found in the logical treatises, the Physics and Metaphysics, and in the philosophy of mind. | ||
| PHIL 452 | Later Greek Philosophy. | 3 |
Later Greek Philosophy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of some of the major post-Aristotelian schools of philosophy. Texts from the Peripatetic, Stoic, Epicurean, Sceptical, Platonic, and medical traditions may be considered. Problems in logic, ethics, physics, epistemology, and metaphysics will be addressed. | ||
| PHIL 453 | Ancient Metaphysics and Natural Philosophy. | 3 |
Ancient Metaphysics and Natural Philosophy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of central themes of ancient metaphysics and/or natural philosophy as treated by two or more contrasting philosophers or philosophical traditions - probably including Plato and/or Aristotle, and possibly including some Hellenistic or post-Hellenistic schools. | ||
| PHIL 454 | Ancient Moral Theory. | 3 |
Ancient Moral Theory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of central themes of ancient moral theory as treated by two or more contrasting philosophers or philosophical traditions - probably including Plato and/or Aristotle, and possibly some Hellenistic or post-Hellenistic schools. | ||
| RELG 210 | Jesus of Nazareth. | 3 |
Jesus of Nazareth. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A critical study of selected ancient and modern accounts of the aims and person of Jesus. Attention will be given also to the question of the historical sources and to the relationship between faith and history. | ||
| RELG 311 | Formation of the New Testament. | 3 |
Formation of the New Testament. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the formation and interpretation of the New Testament, excluding the Gospels. | ||
| RELG 312 | The Gospels. | 3 |
The Gospels. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the critical study of the Gospels. | ||
| RELG 326 | Christians in the Roman World. | 3 |
Christians in the Roman World. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A social-historical examination of Christians within the complex cultural, political, ethnic and religious contexts of later Greco-Roman antiquity, focusing on changing relations among different varieties of Christian, as well as on interactions and conflicts among Christians, Jews and polytheists. Other topics to be considered include martyrdom, orthodoxy and heresy, and Gnosticism. | ||
Other courses may be counted towards this requirement with the approval of the program adviser.
Minimum 3 credits in classical art or archaeology:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ARTH 209 | Introduction to Ancient Art and Architecture. | 3 |
Introduction to Ancient Art and Architecture. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Survey of ancient art and architecture: pre-historic Europe, ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Focus is on issues of political power, gender, sexuality, race, the formation of individual and group identities, and the relation between the body and social space. | ||
| CLAS 240 | Introduction to Classical Archaeology. | 3 |
Introduction to Classical Archaeology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to the archaeology of the ancient Greek and Roman Mediterranean through a survey of major sites, artifacts and monuments. Emphasis on archaeological theory and methodology. | ||
| CLAS 341 | Life in the Ancient Greek and Roman City | 3 |
Life in the Ancient Greek and Roman City Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The impact of cities and urban living in the development of Greek and Roman society. The work of modern urban theorists frames investigation of the urban form and experience, with an emphasis on archaeology. | ||
| CLAS 342 | ||
Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. | ||
| CLAS 345 | Study Tour: Greece. | 3 |
Study Tour: Greece. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of Greek history and culture through the sites and monuments of ancient Greece. Includes preparatory meetings, site and museum visits, and specialized lectures on site. A fee is charged of $2400 to cover certain travel expenses within Greece, accommodation including breakfast and entrance fees to all sites visited throughout the tour. | ||
| CLAS 348 | Topics: Classical Archaeology. | 3 |
Topics: Classical Archaeology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Study of a theme, subject, or question, concentrating on selected physical sites, monuments, artifacts, or other case studies in classical archaeology. | ||
| CLAS 349 | Archaeology Fieldwork: Italy. | 3 |
Archaeology Fieldwork: Italy. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Field course offering an introduction to archaeological field methods and laboratory work, and discussion of theoretical interpretation of archaeological data in the context of an Italian archaeological site potentially across multiple time periods (prehistoric, pre-Roman, Roman, late antique and medieval). Taught in Italy. | ||
Other courses may be counted towards this requirement with the approval of the program adviser.
NOTE: Maximum 18 credits of complementary courses at the 200 level.
Note: a maximum total of 18 credits of non-CLAS McGill courses and/or classics courses not taken at McGill (transfer credits) may be counted toward the program.