A Classics Prize Where the Set Texts Have Never Been Translated
Antigone's new annual Classical philology prize, in its first year, set six texts composed in Victorian Oxford—three in Latin verse, three in Greek prose—that had never received scholarly commentary or been translated out of those languages. Contestants had to prepare an edition of one text, with an introduction in English or Latin, an English translation and an English commentary, in the manner of professional philological publications.
Twenty-seven complete entries arrived, spanning all six texts relatively evenly.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
Antigone claims that even cutting-edge AI tools will quickly prove themselves unfit for the prize. That is a striking assertion, and the design—no earlier scholarship to lean on—makes it at least a clever stress test. Whether it is a fair test of AI or simply a hard test of philology is another question.
The human numbers are just as brutal: 27 of 110 registered contestants submitted complete entries. That makes the contest at least as much a test of finishing as of machine-proofing.