Information concerning test, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2002

The Nov. 14 test (one hour and 15 minutes) will comprise four essay topics. You will be expected to discuss each topic briefly but comprehensively, along the lines of the material presented in class lectures. Most of the topics will be from the following list, to be discussed (and/or reviewed) in class, Nov. 7 and 12. There may also be an additional, more or less comparable topic on the test; in fact, the most probable format for the test is three of the following eight, plus one other topic.

1. To what extent (if any) is it valid to use Aeschylus, Agamemnon as evidence in discussing / understanding Iliad 1.29-31 and 1.112-115?

2. What do the references to Hector at Iliad 1.242, 24.510, 24.724, and 24.804 ("man-slaughtering Hektor" or "Hektor, breaker of horses") tell us about the use of formulaic epithets in Homer?

3. How is "ring-composition" illustrated in Iliad, Books 1 and 24?

4. How serious as an argument for Prometheus Bound being spurious (i.e., not by Aeschylus) is the attitude toward Zeus which one finds in the play?

5. Is it reasonable to say that the chorus in Greek tragedy regularly represents a different "class" from the characters who speak in the dialogue sections of a play?

6. How do the shepherds in Oedipus the King contribute to elucidating the "riddles" of the play?

7. In Antigone, how appropriate is the Sentry's use of the word "friends" (translated by Roche as a singular "friend"), near the bottom of p. 357?

8. How typical of Greek tragedy as a whole is the combination in Antigone of (a) Eurydice's brief speech (p. 381), followed by (b) a fairly long silence on her part (pp. 381-383) before she finally leaves the stage?