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RevisionRevision / N11UK · A-Levels
Classical Civilisation
A-Level Classical Civilisation is the study of the literature, thought, history and material culture of the classical Greek and Roman worlds - all in translation, so no knowledge of Greek or Latin is required. It is not the memorising of stories and dates but the practised skill of analysing sources: reading an epic or a tragedy for its themes, technique and values; interpreting a temple, a statue, a coin or a vase for what it meant and did; and setting every work in the social, political and religious context that shaped it. Delivered here through the OCR specification (H408) - currently the sole A-Level in the subject - the course rests on prescribed literary sources AND prescribed visual and material sources, and is examined against two assessment objectives: knowledge and understanding (AO1) and analysis, interpretation and evaluation (AO2). It is built from three components. Component 1, The World of the Hero, is compulsory and worth 40%: an in-depth study of one Homeric epic (the Iliad or the Odyssey) together with Virgil's Aeneid. Component 2, Culture and the Arts (30%), offers a choice of one option from Greek Theatre, Imperial Image, Invention of the Barbarian and Greek Art. Component 3, Beliefs and Ideas (30%), offers a choice of one from Greek Religion, Love and Relationships, Politics of the Late Republic and Democracy and the Athenians. Because these notes cannot reproduce the ancient texts, statues and buildings themselves, they teach the works, the analytical method and the historical knowledge of the classical world accurately and by name - how to analyse epic and drama, how visual and material sources carry meaning, how the ancient evidence is read, and the ideas, figures and contexts of every option, so that a student on any route through the specification is fully served.
0/51 Texts10 Chapters~256 min total
OCR H408 Component 1 (The World of the Hero: Homer)DfE GCE Classical Civilisation subject contentOCR H408 Component 1 (Homer: composition and context)OCR H408 Component 1 (Homer: heroic values)OCR H408 Component 1 (the Iliad)OCR H408 Component 1 (the Odyssey)+46 moreFoundationStandardAdvanced
Table of contents · 10 ChaptersT·10
- The World of the Hero and the epics of HomerText L·01 · Recommended start5 min
- Composition and the oral traditionText L·025 min
- The heroic code: kleos, time and areteText L·035 min
- The Iliad: the wrath of AchillesText L·045 min
- The Odyssey: nostos and the hero of many turnsText L·055 min
- Gods, mortals and Homeric societyText L·065 min
- Component 1 - The World of the Hero (H408/11)
- A compulsory written examination worth 100 marks and 40% of the A-Level, sat over 2 hours 20 minutes. Candidates make an in-depth study of ONE Homeric epic - the Iliad OR the Odyssey - AND of Virgil's Aeneid, all read in English translation. The paper combines shorter, passage-based questions that test close analysis of a printed extract with extended essays that require a sustained argument across the whole poem. Both assessment objectives are assessed: AO1 (knowledge and understanding of the epics and their context) and AO2 (analysis, interpretation and evaluation of the literature). The component tests understanding of the poems as literature, of the heroic world they depict, of composition and the oral tradition, and of the historical and cultural context (Homeric/Mycenaean Greece for Homer; Augustan Rome for Virgil).
- Component 2 - Culture and the Arts (one option)
- A written examination worth 75 marks and 30% of the A-Level, sat over 1 hour 45 minutes. Candidates study ONE option chosen from Greek Theatre, Imperial Image, Invention of the Barbarian and Greek Art. Each option rests on a combination of prescribed LITERARY sources and prescribed VISUAL and MATERIAL sources (buildings, sculpture, coins, vases), and requires candidates to analyse and interpret both kinds of evidence and set them in context. The paper mixes stimulus/source questions with extended essays, and assesses AO1 and AO2. These notes cover all four Culture and the Arts options so that any chosen route is fully supported.
- Component 3 - Beliefs and Ideas (one option)
- A written examination worth 75 marks and 30% of the A-Level, sat over 1 hour 45 minutes. Candidates study ONE option chosen from Greek Religion, Love and Relationships, Politics of the Late Republic and Democracy and the Athenians. Each option explores the ideas, values and institutions of the classical world through prescribed literary and documentary sources (for example Plato and Seneca, Sappho and Ovid, Cicero and Caesar, Herodotus and Aristophanes). The paper mixes source-based questions with extended essays, and assesses AO1 and AO2. These notes cover all four Beliefs and Ideas options so that any chosen route is fully supported.
- Assessment objectives, sources and grading
- Two assessment objectives, broadly balanced across the qualification, run through every component. AO1 - demonstrate knowledge and understanding of literature and of visual and material culture, and of the classical world in which they were produced (social, historical, cultural, political and religious contexts). AO2 - analyse, interpret and evaluate literary, visual and material sources, using them to construct and support arguments and to reach substantiated, critical judgements. The whole subject is studied in translation, and it rests on named PRESCRIBED sources, both literary and visual/material; strong answers combine secure knowledge (AO1) with sustained, evidence-based analysis and argument (AO2). The full A-Level (H408) is linear, with all papers sat at the end of the course, and is graded A*-E (U below E); the AS-Level (H008) is a separate qualification covering a reduced range but demanding the same core skills.