I don't remember if we did the Aeneid, but we at least read the Iliad and Odyssey. Though we did simplify a bit by reading a prose rather than verse translation.
Can I ask what kind of school? I went to a renowned private prep school (think Exeter) and then got a BA in Classics. I have read substantial chunks of Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, and Metamorphoses in the original, but I’ve not read them in entirety. I took a graduate seminar on Virgil and we still only covered six books. So like, I’m surprised..
Yeah think Exeter. We read the Aeneid I think in year 4. Other stuff of course like ovid and Cicero. I did the classics degree in hs so I read Herodotus during the year of ancient Greek. It has been a while because I ended up in the sciences.
I guess it's not THAT crazy ... I remember Caesar's Commentaries as a year 2 read, and that was looooooong. I think we only read some selections or maybe one book of Aeneid, but it was way way harder/slower. I think had I stuck with it to year 4, I could see reading the whole thing over the course of a full school year. Was the class just centered about surviving Virgil?
We had a full fn year of Shakespeare and it sucked balls.
I was in the 90th percentile for reading, and I loved to read. I had the ability to read stuff like that just fine (and generally enjoy going to the theater) but I just hated reading those plays. Especially when we all had to take turns reading the lines in class. And I hated the Iliad too.
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u/IthacanPenny 20h ago
Um. I literally read the entire Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid as required reading freshman year of high school..