Oxford is in danger of making an epic mistake

Sparks are flying across Oxford quads: an alarming proposal is afoot to make the study of Homer and Virgil, the two most influential poets of the ancient world, optional for Classics students. So why has it become national news for one university course to stop treating two ancient authors as compulsory set texts?

Most of the noise is easy to understand. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey stand alongside Virgil’s Aeneid as the dominant texts of the classical tradition. Western literature literally begins with the complex melting pot of ‘Homer’. And, for many, the subsequent evolution of ancient literature reaches its zenith with Virgil, whose epic follows a troubled prince on his rocky journey from defeat at Troy to the hostile shores of Italy. It is unquestionably the most famous poem written in Latin, and the one most read over the last 2000 years. Without Homer, there would be no Virgil; without Virgil, no Dante, no Milton.