The Principal and Fellows of St Hugh’s College, Oxford are pleased to be offering two or more prizes, worth up to £300 each, for the best essays on classical reception or influence by pupils who, at the closing date, have been in the Sixth Form of any school or college for a period of not more than two years. At least one prize will be awarded to a pupil who is studying neither Latin nor Ancient Greek to A-level standard.
Essays may stem from any discipline and should be on a topic relating to the reception or influence of classical antiquity in any period of history, up to and including the present day. Candidates may wish to discuss the reception of Greek and Roman literature, history, political thought, philosophy, or material remains in their chosen period; essays on reception within classical antiquity (for instance, responses to literary or artistic works, or to mythical or historical figures) are also permitted.
Entries should be 2000 – 4000 words in length, including any material in the footnotes which is additional commentary or content related to your essay. References or citations in footnotes, and your bibliography, are not included in this word count. You are welcome to use whichever style of referencing you prefer. Essays must be submitted in PDF format.
Instructions for submitting your entry can be found on the right-hand side of this page. The closing date for entries is 5pm on Friday 26th July 2024. Prize winners will be announced online by the end of September.
Please direct any enquiries to outreach@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk
2023 winners:
Joint First
William Brem, Y12, Winchester College, for their essay entitled: Harnessing Sappho: a battle ground in the Grand Siècle
Abigail Riley, Y12, Sir John Lawes, for their essay entitled: The Sapphic Influence on Sylvia Plath’s ‘Lesbos’
Runners up
Lucia Clark, Y12, Wellington College, for their essay entitled: How Classical conceptions of the Sublime were received in English Romantic poetry
Olivia Redman, Y12, Highgate School, for their essay entitled: “quousque tandem?” An exploration of the Roman world in speeches by modern politicians
Ben Woodward, Y12, King Edward’s School, for their essay entitled: ‘Shipwrecked in the modern world’: The Reception of Sappho by H.D.
The winners and a number of those who had done particularly well were invited to tea in College in September.
How to enter the essay competition:
To enter the competition, please complete the following steps.
Please note that these instructions should be followed in one go; do not complete Step 1 until you are also ready to complete Step 2.
Step 1
Please fill out the form here with your personal details:
Mary Renault Essay Competition 2024 Submission Form
Step 2
Once you have completed Step 1, you will receive an email with a link to submit your essay file (if you do not receive this straightaway, please check your spam folder and double-check that you entered your email into the form correctly). Please follow the instructions on that page, attaching your essay in the format specified.
Please note that any essay submissions received after the deadline of 5pm on Friday 26th July 2024 will not be considered. Therefore, please ensure that you complete both Step 1 and Step 2 ahead of this deadline. Be aware that the submission portal may become very busy around that time, so it is best to avoid attempting submission very close to 5pm.
Classics at St Hugh's
St Hugh’s College
Founded in 1886, St Hugh’s is now one of the largest colleges in Oxford. The College was established to offer an Oxford education to women, and it retains a strong sense of its radical tradition and of the importance of opening Oxford up to all who would do well here. St Hugh’s now accepts men and women, and welcomes students from every country and any kind of background.
St Hugh’s has a beautiful setting just to the north of the city centre, with Edwardian buildings and some of the largest college grounds. The College is known as the ‘island site’ because of its tranquil gardens, and it is a restful place to live and work.
Studying Classics at St Hugh’s College
St Hugh’s College admits between 4 and 6 undergraduates a year to read Single and Joint Honours Classics. We accept students applying for the majority of schools, including: Classics I, Classics II, Classics and English, Classics and Modern Languages and Classics and Oriental Studies.
What we look for in potential applicants is the ability to think independently, a willingness to argue, a real interest in ideas, and a commitment to the subject. We have no preference for particular subjects at A-level, International Baccalaureate or Pre-U, welcoming both pre- and post- qualification applications.
St Hugh’s provides excellent facilities for studying Classics: the 24-hour library has unusually large and up-to-date holdings in all periods, and, as much of an undergraduate student’s academic timetable will be spent in College, the Library becomes invaluable. Our Classics Tutorial Fellow, Professor Tim Rood, has recently been awarded the prestigious Leverhulme Research Grant for a project entitled ‘Anachronism and Antiquity.’
Classics is a wide-ranging degree, devoted to the study of the literature, history, philosophy, languages and archaeology of the Ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Oxford has the largest Classics department in the world, with outstanding teaching, library and museum resources, including the Sackler and Bodleian Libraries, the Ashmolean Museum and designated Classics Centre. The University’s Classics II degree is aimed at encouraging students who have not previously studied Ancient Greek or Latin at school, but are interested in the subject at a Higher Education level.
For further information concerning these choices please see our course pages, or visit the University’s webpages.
This biography below is taken from the St Hugh’s College exhibition, recently on show in the Howard Piper Library.
‘Eileen Mary Challans was born on 4th Sept 1905, the daughter of Frank Challans, a medical practitioner. She attended Romford House School, Forest Gate, and Clifton High School, Bristol before matriculating at St Hugh’s in Oct 1925 to read English Language and Literature, obtaining a BA (III) in 1928.
During her time at St Hugh’s, she developed a love of ancient Greece, Crete and Macedon – a setting which resurfaced in many of her novels. Although she had initially intended to become a teacher, in 1933, after a period of illness, she returned to Oxford and became a nurse at the Radcliffe Infirmary, obtaining a nursing degree in 1936. Here she met her lifelong partner, Julie Mullard.
She published her first novel, a hospital romance called Purposes of Love, in 1939, under the pseudonym Mary Renault, the name by which she became known. She continued to write and publish whilst nursing during WWII and her novels developed overtly homosexual themes, which she treated honestly and sympathetically. Her sixth and last non-historical novel, The Charioteer, was published in 1953. Mary moved on to writing historical novels set in Ancient Greece, eventually publishing eight, the first being The Last of the Wine in 1956 and the last Funeral Games in 1981.
Although her portrayals of homosexuality provoked outrage in British society at the time, MGM presented her an award for her 4th novel, Return to Night, and she was able to afford to emigrate with Julie to South Africa in 1948, never to return to England. They both became South African citizens and were involved in the early anti-apartheid movement.’
