What do secondary school teachers think about teaching Sophocles, Shakespeare and Homer?

[Fraidylady]

I found a quote from Sophocles' Ascension of Oedipus. It looks riveting:

Thy question hits the marvel of the tale. How he moved hence, you saw him and must know; Without a friend to lead the way, himself Guiding us all. So having reached the abrupt Earth-rooted Threshold with its brazen stairs, He paused at one of the converging paths, Hard by the rocky basin which records The pact of Theseus and Peirithous. Betwixt that rift and the Thorician rock, The hollow pear-tree and the marble tomb, Midway he sat and loosed his beggar's weeds; Then calling to his daughters bade them fetch Of running water, both to wash withal And make libation; so they clomb the steep; And in brief space brought what their father bade, Then laved and dressed him with observance due.

!!!

I did greek lit in translation (o level) and loved Homer and aristophenes (sp?). Sophocles was a tad too heavy. Aristophenes was filthy if I remember rightly.
I wasn't much of a geek - honest!

Can't see it working with your average GCSE class though!

I teach Shakespeare to every Year group except Yr13.
I have taught lots of Greek/Roman mythology to Yr 7 (in translation obviously); have read Beowulf (again in translation, but have shown them what bits look like in Old English) and Chaucer (see comments on Beowulf).

Kids generally maon a bit at the idea, but love the work once we get going.

not a teacher but come from a family of teachers... my mother loved teaching romeo and juliet - all of it, not just excerpts - to her fairly deprived kids - it's all about gang warfare, pre marital sex, parental pressure, teenage angst and suicide - they really got it. It made them think a lot. ok, some of the jokes are now pretty boring, but the rest isn;t. And I took DS to an open air production when he was about 9 or 10, where we sat on the grass and had to lower our heads when the swords flashed above them - he was enthralled. All the kids I know who've been to the Comedy of Errors recently have found it v funny - lots of slapstick - much better than some of more modern stuff they've seen eg lord of the flies.

sounds like the translation dire

"Midway he sat and loosed his beggar's weeds"?

I am sure that if you have a ferret round, you can find a translation which is better more accessible than that!!