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 “Lycurgus,” “Solon”
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 “On the Equilibrium of Planes,” “On Floating Bodies”
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 “Caesar,” “Cato the Younger,” “Antony,” “Brutus”
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.
Family is an inexhaustible source of conflict for dramatists, novelists, and filmmakers—perhaps more inexhaustible than war. From Greek dramatists Aeschylus and Sophocles to Confucius, Vyasa, and Ozu, family is a problem, a question, and a source of both self-destruction and self-actualization.
Lee’s most important teacher at St. John’s College might have been the ancient playwright Aristophanes, whose works like "The Frogs" helped her to understand jokes outside her cultural context.
Ronan McKague (SF26) and Travis Skabo (SF25) were among the first St. John’s College interns to work with the local government, and they won’t be the last.
Connor Hocking (A17) is working for a start-up company that administers a new college admissions test based on classical learning.
Patrick and Tianlu Redmon bonded over The Odyssey and are now on a journey together.
Claudia Hauer of St. John’s College and the Air Force Academy talks about her book Strategic Humanism with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Topics discussed include war, rage, terrorism, and what a modern warrior might learn from Homer.
Sophy Ma (A17) won the senior essay prize at St. John’s College in Annapolis for her work.
David Bolotin talks his translation of Aristotle's De Anima.
The 25-foot Thetis, a sailboat named after the Greek goddess of water and mother of Achilles, was donated to St. John’s College.
Jakub Piven (A17) and Jermaine Brown (A17), captains of the Greenwaves, talk playing sports and reading great books.
The power and beauty of Homer’s imagery in the Iliad is undeniable, and his scenes of battle often prompt vexing questions about ancient and modern virtues. Can killing and dying in war be beautiful?
Alumni Paul Wilford (A07) and Kate Havard (A12) edited and contributed to a new book of essays dedicated to longtime tutor Mera Flaumenhaft.
Garrett Phelps (A18) fell in love with translation at St. John's. Now, he serves as the poetry editor at an international literary journal.
Abdullah Mirza (SF20) has been supplementing his extensive studies at St. John’s with constant practice in his favorite sport: archery.
For Bramble, pursuing a new field didn't mean abandoning her academic roots. In fact, St. John’s ended up providing the attorney with an intellectual and scholarly framework she relies upon today.
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’s campuses and twice served as dean.
St. John’s College alumna Mary Townsend (A04) recently completed her first book, The Woman Question in Plato’s Republic.
Over the years, St. John’s College has become a popular choice for students from homeschooling backgrounds.
Santa Fe tutor Patricia Greer developed a passion for Sanskrit vocabulary “ages and ages ago,” born of her interest in Indian texts.
From January 4–8, 2021, Annapolis tutors David Townsend and Brendan Boyle taught Virgil’s 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.
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.
Luis Melgar (SF20) is leading a CrossFit-inspired fitness course for Johnnies wanting to power up.
St. John’s College graduate Erin Milnes (A88) is the creative director at Catchword Branding in Oakland, California.
Tutors Talk Books is a series of interviews with St. John’s College tutors. In this interview, we caught up with Marsaura Shukla, a tutor at St. John’s 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.
The St. John’s 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.
Students at Dalton Academy in China were introduced to the St. John’s way of learning.
