News Two winning entries from Godolphin students in Classics essay competitions 29.04.2021

We were delighted with the news that Year 10 student Asia and Upper Sixth student Susanna were awarded first-placed finishes in separate Classics essay competitions this term.

Year 10 student Asia’s essay on Achilles gained first prize in the GCSE category of the Cambridge Classical Association Essay Competition. The title required entrants to discuss the most memorable character in Classical Civilisation.  Asia made a powerful and persuasive case for Achilles, highlighting the importance of his fallibility as well as his strengths.

The judge, Dr Rosanna Omitowoju, of Cambridge University, noted that the entrants for this competition showed an impressive amount of knowledge and enthusiasm for Classical reading and were creative in their engagement with their characters – considering visual as well as literary representations, and modern interpretations of their myths – and this was certainly the case in Asia’s excellent essay.

And we had even further cause for celebration with Upper Sixth student Susanna’s entry in the Classical Association South West 2020-2021 school essay competition.  Susanna was judged the winner for her probing response to the question:  “The study of women in ancient literature is the study of men’s views of women and cannot become anything else.” (Sarah Pomeroy). Do you think this is true?

Susanna, who is studying Classical Greek at IB and as part of the literature genre study, has been examining women in ancient Greece and their portrayal in Classical literature.