The history of the department dates back to the founding of St. Volodymyr’s University. It is the successor of the Department of Greek and Roman Literature, which has existed as part of the Faculty of History and Philology since the establishment of the educational institution. At the opening ceremony.
On July 15, 1834, M. Jakubowicz, an ordinary professor of Roman literature, delivered a speech “De pulchro Platonico” (“On the idea of Beauty in Plato”). In 1955, the Department of Classical Philology and the Department of General Linguistics were merged into one under the leadership of a world-renowned Ukrainian scholar, Professor A. Biletsky, who headed it until 1978.During this period, the department was staffed by teachers I. Suntsova, S. Semchynskyi, O. Burkat, L. Skalozub, F. Nikitina, L. Churakova, and Y. Shanin,
Mironova, T. Chernysheva, V. Yanish, H. Nikulin, L. Skoryna, Z. Filipovych, and N. Yakovenko. Despite the absence of a specialty in classical philology, dissertations in classical languages were defended at this time: A. Biletskyi’s doctoral dissertation (1948) and the PhD theses of his students F. Nikitina (1957) and Y. Shanin (1968).
In 2016, the Department of General Linguistics, Classical Philology and Neo-Hellenic Studies was established, headed by Doctor of Philology, Professor I. Holubovska.
In 2021, the department has 4 professors, 12 associate professors and 1 assistant professor who speak three or four Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages.
The Department is a powerful scientific and educational center that provides not only reading of the classical cycle for bachelor’s and master’s students majoring in Classical Languages and Literatures (Translation inclusive), but also normative and special courses in Latin and general linguistics (including in English) at the Institute of Philology, Ancient Greek and Latin at the Faculties of History and Philosophy, the Institute of Biology and Medicine (for foreign students, a course in medical Latin in English), the Institute of International Relations, etc.
Main directions of scientific activity: theoretical and practical research in the field of anthropological linguistics; functioning of the Ukrainian language abroad, problems of interlingual interference, linguistic and ethnic identification of a person in the multilingual environment of the relevant regions of Ukraine; linguistic and historiographical direction; comparative historical and nostratic studies; research of morphology, syntax and concept of the ancient Greek language; study of the Ukrainian variety of medieval and early modern Latin of the XV-XVIІ centuries. Studies of Greek-language Christian literature; creation of reference and multilingual thematic lexicographical works; Neo-Hellenistic studies.