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Led by Homer Simulacrum
One of the three Literature and Culture options of OCR GCSE Classical Civilisation (J199/21), taught by Homer himself for the Odyssey and by Heinrich Schliemann for the Mycenaean archaeology. The Culture half studies the sites, palaces, daily life and Linear B tablets of the Mycenaean age; the Literature half studies the Odyssey as oral epic — its composition, techniques, themes and characters.
Led by Heinrich Schliemann Simulacrum
The question
Homer says there was a city; Schliemann dug, and the city was there. The student visits the places — Hisarlık that is Troy, the lion gate of Mycenae, the great walls of Tiryns — and learns to read a site as material evidence: the dating of the Mycenaean age, the location, importance, layout and structures of the key sites. Then the central method, learned from Schliemann's own mistake of digging too fast and calling the wrong level Homer's: establish the stratigraphy first, and only then weigh the evidence for and against Troy VI and Troy VIIa as Homer's Troy. The text is a map — but it must be tested against the ground, not allowed to dictate the dig.
Outcome
The student can explain the dating and importance of the Mycenaean age and the key sites, describe the structures of Mycenae and Tiryns, and weigh the evidence for Troy VI and Troy VIIa as Homer's Troy while distinguishing literary from geographic reality.
Sub-units
Led by Heinrich Schliemann Simulacrum
The question
A city is not only its walls but how its people lived. The student studies the Mycenaean palace built around the megaron — the great hall with its central hearth where the king ruled — and everyday life from the material evidence: hunting, armour and weapons, chariots, clothing, trade. Then the strangest evidence of all: the Linear B tablets, baked hard by the very fires that destroyed the palaces, which are not poems but inventories — so many chariots, so much oil to the gods. The student learns how they survived, what they record, and how the administrative reality they reveal contrasts with the heroic golden age of Homer's song.
Outcome
The student can describe the Mycenaean palace and megaron and everyday life from material evidence, explain how the Linear B tablets were preserved and what they record, and contrast the world of the tablets with the world of the poems.
Sub-units
Led by Homer Simulacrum
The question
Sing, Muse — not write, not author. The student must first unlearn what a poem is, for Homer did not write the Odyssey at a desk but composed it aloud, before an audience that knew the story and listened for the telling. His tools were the formula ("rosy-fingered dawn," "the wine-dark sea") shaped to fill the line; the type-scene — the arming, the feast, the arrival — repeated with meaning in the variation; and ring composition, which lets a singer digress and find his way home. The student studies how the song is made across the prescribed books (9, 10, 19, 21, 22) and learns that the repetition one might call lazy is the technology of oral memory — the art is in the variation within the pattern.
Outcome
The student can explain how the Odyssey was composed and performed and what makes it an epic, identify and explain simile, epithet and formula, and explain the type-scene and ring composition and how the oral technique shapes how the poem is read.
Sub-units
Led by Homer Simulacrum
The question
Now the heart of it — what the song is about, and who walks through it. The student studies the great themes: xenia, the sacred guest-friendship that Polyphemus and the suitors both violate; nostos, the ache to come home that drives the whole poem; deceit and disguise, for Odysseus is the man of many turns who is nobody until he chooses to be someone; revenge, justice, fate and the gods. And the characters: Odysseus as leader, husband, liar and hero; the gods who help and hinder; the suitors who earn their end; the loyal and disloyal of the household; Polyphemus. Reading books 9, 10, 19, 21 and 22, the student watches theme and character become one thing, considering the responses of ancient and modern audiences.
Outcome
The student can explain the major themes of the Odyssey with reference to the prescribed books, analyse the character of Odysseus and the portrayal of the gods, the suitors, the crew and Polyphemus, and bring theme and character together to interpret the poem.
Sub-units