Greek life has a different meaning at St. John’s. Freshmen begin their classical studies with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, before diving into the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides, the comedies and tragedies of Aristophanes, Sophocles, and the philosophy of Heraclitus, Plato, and Aristotle. Students go from tackling the elements of ancient Greek grammar and exploring the ways it differs from English, to reflecting on the relation of thought to language and translating Plato’s Meno. Attic Greek can be daunting, but tutors and language assistants are ready to help.
Herodotus Histories
Homer Iliad, Odyssey
Plato Meno, Gorgias, Republic, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium, Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist, Timaeus, Phaedrus
Plutarch 鈥淟ycurgus,鈥� 鈥淪olon鈥�
Thucydides The History of the Peloponnesian War
Aeschylus Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides, Prometheus Bound
Aristophanes Clouds
Euripides Hippolytus, Bacchae
Sappho Poems 1 and 31
Sophocles Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, Philoctetes, Ajax
Virginia Woolf On Not Knowing Greek
Archimedes 鈥淥n the Equilibrium of Planes,鈥� 鈥淥n Floating Bodies鈥�
Aristotle Poetics, Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachaen Ethics, On Generation and Corruption, Politics, Parts of Animals, Generation of Animals
Euclid Elements
Lucretius On the Nature of Things
Nicomachus Arithmetic
Ptolemy Almagest
Livy Early History of Rome
Tacitus Annals
Sappho Poems
Virgil Aeneid
Apollonius Conics
Aristotle De Anima, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Categories
Ptolemy Almagest
Augustine Confessions
Epictetus Discourses, Manual
Plotinus The Enneads
Plutarch 鈥淐aesar,鈥� 鈥淐ato the Younger,鈥� 鈥淎ntony,鈥� 鈥淏rutus鈥�
Plato Phaedrus
Edward Gibbon History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
The information presented is for illustration purposes only and may not reflect the current reading list and preceptorial and study group offerings. Works listed are studied at one or both campuses, although not always in their entirety.
From January 4鈥�8, 2021, Annapolis tutors David Townsend and Brendan Boyle taught Virgil鈥檚 Aeneid as part of the first-ever Winter Classics, modeled after the popular Summer Classics program. We spoke with Boyle about the Aeneid, his relationship with the text, and its vital undercurrents of loss and love.
Creig Hoyt (SFGI10) recently commemorated the impact of the Eastern Classics program on his personal and professional life with a gift to the college.
Luis Melgar (SF20) is leading a CrossFit-inspired fitness course for Johnnies wanting to power up.
Garrett Phelps (A18) fell in love with translation at St. John's. Now, he serves as the poetry editor at an international literary journal.
The Class of 2019 is raising money for audiobook versions of the Program texts as their Senior Legacy Gift.
Christine Mooradian (AGI19) had been told by several people that she'd be a good fit for the Graduate Institute, but it wasn't until her son enrolled at St. John's that she knew she needed to go.
David Bolotin talks his translation of Aristotle's De Anima.
Ali Kiziltug (A22) is a Navy veteran, swing dancer, and one of the newest members of the Johnnie community.
Patrick and Tianlu Redmon bonded over The Odyssey and are now on a journey together.
Alumni Paul Wilford (A07) and Kate Havard (A12) edited and contributed to a new book of essays dedicated to longtime tutor Mera Flaumenhaft.
Abdullah Mirza (SF20) has been supplementing his extensive studies at St. John鈥檚 with constant practice in his favorite sport: archery.
St. John鈥檚 College graduate Erin Milnes (A88) is the creative director at Catchword Branding in Oakland, California.
Tutors in Annapolis and Santa Fe have teamed up with alumni for a new podcast and seminar series called Combat and Classics.
Tutor Louis Petrich reflects on Curtis Wilson (1921-2012), who taught on both St. John鈥檚 campuses and twice served as dean.
St. John鈥檚 College alumna Mary Townsend (A04) recently completed her first book, The Woman Question in 笔濒补迟辞鈥檚 Republic.
Over the years, St. John鈥檚 College has become a popular choice for students from homeschooling backgrounds.
Santa Fe tutor Patricia Greer developed a passion for Sanskrit vocabulary 鈥渁ges and ages ago,鈥� born of her interest in Indian texts.
Connor Hocking (A17) is working for a start-up company that administers a new college admissions test based on classical learning.
Tutors Talk Books is a series of interviews with St. John鈥檚 College tutors. In this interview, we caught up with Marsaura Shukla, a tutor at St. John鈥檚 since 2012.
Alumni, students, faculty and friends celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Graduate Institute during Homecoming in Santa Fe.
Michael Grenke, St. John’s College tutor, analyzes Penelope of the Odyssey in an essay written for The College magazine. “The Odyssey’s Penelope is a thinker, a person who is effective in facing her world and its problems by thinking her way out of them,” Grenke writes.
Jakub Piven (A17) and Jermaine Brown (A17), captains of the Greenwaves, talk playing sports and reading great books.
Sophy Ma (A17) won the senior essay prize at St. John鈥檚 College in Annapolis for her work.
Students at Dalton Academy in China were introduced to the St. John鈥檚 way of learning.
The 25-foot Thetis, a sailboat named after the Greek goddess of water and mother of Achilles, was donated to St. John鈥檚 College.
The St. John鈥檚 College Archery Club in Santa Fe recently became the first and only collegiate archery club in New Mexico.
Eleni Bozori (AGI16), who moved from Greece, attends the Graduate Institute.
