Why Study Classics? Because it is fascinating, that is why. Elsewhere we will discuss why Classics is useful and beneficial for your learning and future prospects, but the real reason to study Classics is because it is fun.

In what other subject can you learn about topics as diverse Greek mythology, Roman emperors and Gladiators, warfare, poetry, art and science, religion and politics? Where else can you follow the lives of great historical women and men such as Sappho, Socrates, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar?

(Left to right), so-called 'Sappho' fresco, Pompeii; marble bust of Socrates, the Louvre, Paris; detail of head of Alexander the Great from floor mosaic, House of the Faun, Pomepii; head of Clepatra VI of Egypt, 40-30BC, Altes Museum, Berlin; the Chiaramonti Caesar, 30-20BC, Vatican Museum.

Here at Warwick we have put together a little video about some of the various reasons to study Classics and why Classics matters.

As proof of the entertaining and exciting nature of the Classical world, its stories - both legendary and historical - are still as popular today as they ever were, inspiring artists, authors, and writers for the big and small screen, such as just a handful illustrated below.

(Left) A Lekythos from the island of Delos shows Achilles dragging the body of Hector behind his chariot (image source); (Right) BBCs 2017 small screen epic, Troy Fall of a CIty.

(Left) 2nd Century AD mosaic from Zlitern in Leptis Magna, now Libya (image source); (Right) Ridley Scott's year 2000 film Gladiator.

(Left) Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini (ca.1545-1554), Florence; (Middle) Perseus beheads the Medusa, Red Figure Attic Hydria (water jug) ca.460BC (Source British Museum); (Right) the 2010 remake of the (much better) 1981 film, Clash of the Titans, proving that CGI is no match for stop-motion Medusas and mechanical owls.