The tradition of classical studies in Poland goes back to the Middle Ages. The first historical chronicle, written in Latin, appeared in this country in the twelfth century. At present Latin is taught in about 30 per cent, of our grammar schools. The course covers four years of instruction, and the texts studied are those of Nepos, Caesar, Sallust, Livy, Lucretius, Cicero, Ovid, Virgil, and Horace. Greek is studied at the universities, mainly by students of classical philology, although its knowledge is also required in some other fields of the humanities.

So much has already been written about Plato's myth of Atlantis that one hesitates long before adding anything more. But it can equally be argued that to make just one more suggestion can at least do no harm now.

Looking back, as we do, from the films and television of the twentieth century, we are inclined to think of Greek theatregoers as very serious-minded people, who suffered hard stone seats for days on end to watch a succession of tragedies, each with a solid intellectual content, performed against an austere stage setting by actors who could achieve only a distant approach to realism. We are constantly reminded of the very severe treatment meted out to Euripides for his experimental innovations. He tried out the use of blasphemous expressions—the equivalent, in his dramatic setting, of the four-letter words in modern ‘realistic’ drama: but Hippolytus' cry, ⋯ γλ⋯σσ' ⋯μώμοχ', ⋯ δ⋯ φρ⋯ν ⋯νώμοτος, was parodied mercilessly by the comic poets for years afterwards. Another of his ‘gimmicks’ was the tragic hero in rags, a device which anticipates in some respects the recent trend of ‘kitchensink drama’.