Our Stories

The photo on the right was taken in Athens, May 2019. On this day I ticked off one of the items on my long and wishful bucket list - to visit and stand upon the Acropolis, where famous figures such as Socrates would have once stood more than 2000 years ago. I don’t remember the exact moment when I was introduced to the ancient world, since it was so long ago in my life, but I am pretty sure that Ancient Greek and Roman mythology played a large role in kindling my passion for all things classical - stories such as Echo and Narcissus and Romulus and Remus have fascinated people ever since they first originated, and I imagine that they will continue to do so in the future. I was fortunate enough to be able to learn Latin starting from year 7 (age 11), with Classical Greek being an option from year 10 (age 14) onwards. I chose to study both, mainly because of my interest in ancient history and mythology, but I was a little sceptical as to what use studying dead languages would have for me. However, 7 years later, having studied both Latin and Classical Greek at A Level, I have come to realise how valuable they are. Working with languages such as Latin and Greek not only helps my other foreign language studies, such as French, but it also gives me a deeper understanding of English grammar and vocabulary. Translating a piece of Latin is like solving a puzzle - it tests all parts of your brain and can be incredibly frustrating, but once you have the finished result, it is oh so satisfying. Of course, language is only one aspect of ancient studies, and this is why I find the ancient world so interesting! Within ancient studies, there is so much to explore, whether it’s philosophy or art, history or theatre. As an undergraduate with an offer to study at Cambridge, I am so excited to continue my journey of learning, and I am especially looking forward to discovering more about the near east, since I have just recently discovered the fascinating history of Ancient Persia (Iran), and I feel that this side of ancient culture is a little under-represented in today’s society. Having achieved my dream of visiting Athens, my next goal is to go to Rome, and then Egypt...my list of destinations is endless to be honest! Overall, I am so honoured to be working with SASA to promote ancient studies, since it is something that I resonate with so strongly. I think that there is something for everyone to enjoy within the ancient world, and it is so important that we promote this study so that we never lose such a rich and vibrant part of our universal history and culture.

I study the ancient world because I love learning about people, their lives, their stories, and their struggles. Studying the ancient world not only reminds us of human struggles we share with people who lived and died on this planet before us, but it also teaches us about human resilience. Despite collapse and oppression, humans survive. They find solutions and rebuild civilizations. There are lessons to be learned from ruins, broken pottery, and fragments of texts. The buildings built on destruction levels we excavate, walls made of spolia ⬇️ we study, destroyed statues we uncover, origin myths based on survival stories we translate, are all testaments to how resilient ancient people were, and how they stood against oppression, war, destruction, and catastrophes. They are testaments to our own resilience, creativity, and potential. Spolia: repurposed stones reused in new monuments Image (public domain) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:THES-Heptapyrgion_spolia_2.jpg

When I was growing up, I remember being absolutely fascinated by historical literature (AKA loved Percy Jackson). My school encouraged us all to study the past and from the ages of around 5 - 10, I studied the Aztecs, Celts, Romans, Egyptians and Greeks. We were able to try out arts, crafts, literature and I even remember we learnt how to write instructions by teaching someone how to carry out the mummification process. Between the reading, family visits to museums and a lot of school projects - it was safe to say that I loved the Ancient World from a very young age! When I started the UK equivalent of middle school, I started studying Latin. I enjoyed it but I definitely wouldn't have called it my favourite subject - with that title belonging to Chemistry one year, Drama the next, then English etc. That being said, when given the opportunity, I decided to drop Drama and a few other subjects and decided to take up Ancient Greek for the first time. To be completely honest, after the first lesson, I almost gave up. I found the new alphabet, the small class size, and the scale of work to cover, all very intimidating. It was then that I turned to the internet and began to teach myself basic Greek grammar and vocabulary until a favourite game of Greek class was 'Can we catch Katy out?'. The three other students would put together lists of tricky vocab and try to challenge me. I loved it. Since then, I have pushed and pushed myself within Classics to gain as much experience as possible. I travel as much as possible to ancient sites, write blog posts and even started a meme page dedicated to Classics. Some of the stand out experiences along the way include my first archaeological dig, tutoring Greek and Latin online in quarantine, and finally meeting other people who share my love for the Ancient World. However, by far, the best moment was finding out I had an offer to study Classics at Cambridge University. I cannot wait to follow this path further as part of SASA, knowing both that I still have a long journey ahead of me and also that I will never grow out of dressing up!