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ScotlandClassical Studies

Classical Literature

3 dot points across 3 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you analyse a prescribed classical text and answer the classical literature question paper for full marks?

Analysing classical literature for the question paper: handling a printed extract, commenting on the writer's techniques, discussing themes and values, and structuring the extended response.
An SQA Higher Classical Studies answer on the skills the Classical Literature paper tests, covering how to handle a printed extract, comment on the writer's techniques, discuss themes and values, evaluate to what extent a text succeeds, and structure the extended response for full marks.
12 min answer →

How does Virgil use the figure of Aeneas to explore duty, fate, sacrifice and the cost of founding Rome?

Virgil's Aeneid as a prescribed epic text: the theme of pietas and duty, the conflict between fate and personal desire (Dido), the values of Roman heroism, and Virgil's epic technique.
An SQA Higher Classical Studies answer on Virgil's Aeneid as a prescribed epic text for the Classical Literature paper, covering pietas and duty, fate against personal desire in the Dido episode, Roman heroic values, and Virgil's epic technique such as similes and divine machinery.
13 min answer →

How does Sophocles use the conflict between Antigone and Creon to explore divine law, the authority of the state and the place of the individual?

Sophocles' Antigone as a prescribed text: the tragic conflict between divine and state law, the characters of Antigone and Creon, the role of the chorus, and the values the play promotes.
An SQA Higher Classical Studies answer on Sophocles' Antigone as a prescribed text for the Classical Literature paper, covering the conflict between divine and human law, the characters of Antigone and Creon, the chorus, dramatic technique, and the classical values the play raises.
14 min answer →