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Essay / My interest in the study of classic literature
“Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do, is what you become. » This quote from Heraclitus made around the 4th century BCE remains true today and sums up my hopes in studying the Classics. I believe that learning classic literature and history through language will allow me to become an analytical and evaluative thinker as well as a well-rounded individual. Heraclitus is especially important to me, living as he did during the reign of the Persian Empire. My heritage is Persian. My father's family is Persian and I am named after Darius the Great. It was the stories of the Greco-Persian wars that sparked my interest in the classics. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay History, with its emphasis on analysis, interpretation of information, research skills, and decision-making, is very closely aligned with the study of the classics. Evaluating sources in the body of the course and controlled assessment is a technique that will apply directly to a classics degree. It is also possible to make comparisons across the centuries, for example: in studying the repeal of the Corn Laws, it occurred to me that Peel's actions were in line with Cicero's advice to rulers in his text “De Officiis”. Peel acted to help the lower classes in the midst of famine despite significant risks to his own position. Compare this to modern-day politicians, especially classics scholar Boris Johnson, who, unlike Peel, appears to have put his own ambitions ahead of the good of the people. My logical thinking has always lent itself to mathematics. During my GCSE Latin course, I realized that the problem-solving and analytical skills I used in mathematics helped me with translation in general and Pliny's letters in particular. Similarly, chemistry also helps develop analytical skills, but one of the unique benefits of studying chemistry is that it taught me objectivity. Detached neutrality is essential in scientific research but also beneficial in any field of knowledge. Objectivity can also provide the circumstances in which connections and observations can be made between seemingly unrelated ideas or events; it could be called a special type of creativity. So, while studying the "entropy principle" in chemistry, which proposes that everything in the universe naturally moves from order to disorder, I was struck by the clarity with which ancient and modern ideas seemed to reflect each other, with the idea of “chaos”. , which I read in “Myth” by Stephen Fry, that everything came from disorder and will eventually return to that state. After enjoying the mythology of “Myth”, I decided to turn to a primary source and chose “The Iliad”. While reading the “Iliad,” I was intrigued to learn that it was written in dactylic hexameter. This seemed strange at first, however, further research showed that it was as common in ancient Greek and Roman writing as iambic pentameter is in more modern works. My knowledge of meter in literature came from the study of speech and drama outside of school; covering disciplines such as drama, poetry and public speaking. This led me to look at the work of Euripides, specifically Medea and Electra, and I noticed similarities between these plays and the works of Shakespeare such as the use of two siblings separated at birth and the case 4000