Greek and Hebrew MA (Hons)

Greek - Knowledge of Greek is the key to both a literature of enormous richness and to in-depth understanding of a fascinating culture. Greek will develop your Greek language skills and will also develop skills of literary and cultural analysis which are important for understanding complex texts, arguments and problems in our own culture too. It will require you to engage in depth with a wide range of texts from classical antiquity. The course involves study of the many different genres of ancient Greek literature from tragedy and epic to historiography and philosophy. You will be required to develop skills of reading and understanding these texts in the original language. In the process you will also gain a broad understanding of ancient social, cultural and political history.

Hebrew - At St Andrews, the focus is on Classical or biblical Hebrew, though you have the opportunity to take advanced modules in post-biblical Hebrew – particularly by studying the Dead Sea Scrolls. Modern teaching methods in language study are used to help beginners. And for those with a background in languages, Hebrew makes a fascinating language to study as it belongs to the Semitic, as opposed to the Indo-European, family group.